The Washington herald., 1909-08-30
The Southern Mountaineer

E3itor The Washington Herald:
In The Washington Herald OF Augus
q Francis B. Livesey says OF the South.
ern mountaineer; HE needs 10 be Iet
/ severely alone with liberty 70 live oui
any kind Of life that suits him." and he
attributed to Prof. Bruce R. Payne. Of
the University Of Virginia the statement
that settlement work amoEg the noun.
taineers is waste Of religious, educa-
honal, and economic energy.
IL is difficult To comprehend the point
or view OF one who thus sweepingly con-
demns any attempt 70 better the condi-
tons OF these sturdy people as futile
and needless. or who intirnates that thev
! have remained without educational adj.
vantagcs purely from choice. deliberately
choosing not 20 keep pace rtish advancine
civilization, but voluntarily rernaininp IN
the ignorance and the primitive conditions
Of their pioneer ancestors OF the Revolu-
| tionary period.
| IL the mountaineer has OF his own free
viii preferred TO remain in ignorance
why q Is that. when the opportunity Tor
simple educational and Industrial train
] ing has sought him out in his remote and
inaccessible mountain home. We see par
ents walking with their children thirty
and forty miles OF roughest mountain
travel 10 bring them TO the place where
they heern that their chilluns kin Kit
larnen." and why they are so bitterly
disappointed when told that the school
| Is full to overflowing. and no more chill
dren can be taken? Why is Il that
there are waiting lists OF 600 names oi
children who are eagerly waiting a
chance to get even one year OF schooling:
and why should one disappointed father
say. Pears like hits easier to Git our
ohllluns into the penitentiary than into
schcel?"
No better proof Of the longing Of the
mountaineers for the education Of their
children can be shown than by the phe-
nomenal growth OF such schools as Miss
Martha Berry's. at Rome, Ca. or the
settlement school at Hindman. KY, under
Miss Stone and Miss Petit. and other
smaller schools hidden away In the
mountain Businesses, bringing hope and
courage 10 those whose only reason for
ignorance has been their complete isola-
ton fIom the outside world.
While the mountaineer remained un-
touched and uncontaminated by outside
influence. his ignorance was perhaps
a lack OF good fortune; but since the
mountains nave Deen opened up IOr Inelr
resources Of minerals. OIL and timber,
with the consequent incoming of foreign
and unwholes0me conditions. his igno-
rance has become menace and a dan
ser.
John Fox. jr.. who can be relied upon
as a trustworthy commentator upon his
mountain neighbors and acquaintances,
says:
''The vanguards OF civilization-rail-
roads-unless quickly followed by schools
and churches, at the ratio Of four schools
to one church. have a bad effect upon the
Southern mountaineer. He catches UP the
vices OF the incoming current only too
readily. These people are more tractable,
more easily nodded, more easily uplifted
than the people Of a similar grade of
intelligence in the cities. Americans to
the core, they make the Southern noun
tains storehouse OF patriotism; IN them
selves they are an important Offset to
the Old Worle Outcasts whom we have
welcomed 10 our shores: and they surely
deserve as much consideration from the
nation as the negroes, for whom we have
done, and are doing. so much, or as the
heathen. TO whom we give millions"
William Goodell Frost. president OF
BereG College, writes thus: ''The condi-