Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-01-05
IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION.
Clear Exposition of Senator TIlIman's
Amazing Falacy.

The opposition of Senator Tillman to
compulsory education on account Ot
the negro" must, necessarily, be based
on one Of two postulates. The hrst OF
these, that the whites will avail them
selves of the free schools more than
the negroes in the absence of compul-
sorry attendance laws is eliminated by
the ascertained facts. For number
Of wears the reports Of school superin-
tendents, state and county, have reveal
ed that the negroes are not only snow
ing a constantly increasing disposition
to send their children to school, but
that the negro attendance is now larger
than that of the whites in South Car
olina.
The alternative poStulate is that with
all the children, black and white, en-
rolled in and attending the common
schools under q compulsory attendance
law, the superiority of the white race
in which the senator pretends to believe
would not be maintained or, at least,
that common school education would
diminish the advantage of the white
race. In other words, reduced TO It's
plain English, the senator holds that
the difference between an unlettered
white man and an unlettered negro Is
greater than the difference between an
educated white and an educated ne
gro.
This is an astonishing position for a
man of Senator Tillman's intelligence
to assume. History, experience and
scientific investigation unite in point
ing that as the lowest degrees of ignor-
ance ana intelligence are approached,
the fainter grow the differences of type.
The senator would probably contend
that the Caucasian is superior 10 the
Japanese, but he would scarcely hold
that an Anglo Saxon race no better
trained than were the English at the
battle Of Hastings would meet the ia
panese of 1908 on equal terms. If Sen
ator Tillman has been correctly report
ed. he deliberately proposes that the
white people Of the south should be
held in comparative ignorance rather
than that the danger of allowing the
negroes to escape from it be incurred.
If the enlightenment OF the Whlte
people of the south is To be delayed
that negro enlightenment be prevented,
the sooner southern white men, eSpe-
ciallv those who are poor, get out OF
the south and into land where no ar
tificial limitation is set upon their ad-
Nancement the better il Will be fOr
themselves and their children.
In practice. we doubt if compulsory
laws would increase the school attend
ance of negro children. The negro ma
ture is initiative, not Obedient the
enforcement Of the law would be eNclu-
sively in the hands Of the whites, and
/: is not unlikely that the negroes would
so generally resent coercion on the part
of white school officers that falling off
In attendance of their children would
result.
With the senator's declaration that
education or schooling are not in all
cases essential to civilization, we en-
tirely sympathize. Scattered throughout
South Carolina are hundreds of really
noble men and women who have never
learned to read and write, and they are
In every way superior to some men ana
women who have been graduated from
the public schools. and even from the
colleges. But from these exceptional
persons Senator Tillman would receive
little encouragement for his implied
argument that the complete elimination
Of illiteIacy would be unwiSe. There
are men diseased. men with weak hear
ing or CyeSight. and men on crutchcS.
who are doing more than the part or
sound men in the worlds work. but
surely that is not a reason that they
should be denied cure for their de-
fectS if il be in reach The argument
for compulsory education is that all
children. until they are given common
school education. are defective. ANA
| that on account of the ignorance or VI
ciuuSnpSS Of their parents. the handicap
| will not be removed as to some of them
unless the state interfere in their be-
half News and Courier.