Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-04-27


reverses they met during the desolating
years of the period of reconstruction
have put our institutions of learning rel
atively far behind those of other sections
in the matter of financial strength. The
South has, therefore, many of the small
er Institutions of the country which are
hampered by narrow means. and for this
cause our colleges and universities
can be more easily dominated by the
methods and gifts of THE General Edu-
cation Board" Such universities as Har-
ward and Yale can not be so easily tempt
ed with promised gifts because they are
already very rich.
But while such is the case with our
institutions of learning, their condition is
not so nearly hopeless as to JUSTIFY
despair concerning them, or to excuse
mendicant attitude towards this Gen
eral Education Board" to save them.
They are quite able to maintain them
selves in an attitude of serene independ-
ence of 1.-The General Education Board.
1.-THE Carnegie Foundation" and all their
allies.
In the South the colleges and universe
ties for white students, not to mention
our secondary schools and the colleges
for negroes, is worth above $S6,O0OOoO.
This large sum has been accumulated
in the main since the war, and II has
come from the contributions made by
our own people while struggling with
their poverty, and from the gifts Of such
noble men. as Geo. I. Seney and others
of like mind, who came to our help with
out attaching humiliating conditions TO
their generous donations, or seeking to
dominate our institutions by the methods
of their giving We can not hope to re-
he stCannrnN EnnRAf10n
Board" any amount comparable with
what we now have in our own right, and
which we administer without impertinent
direction from without. Why shuld we
allow the smaller investment of The
General Education Board" to determine
the direction of the larger amount which
we already have? Shall minority stock
holder assume airs of superiority and IN
dertake to tell us what course shall be
followed in the administration OF our ed
ucational funds? Shall we not say to one
who approaches us with little wad OF
money and a big amount OF authority
''Your money perish with you. we are
abundantly able to take care OF our own
affairs?''
THE whole attitude of 1.-THE General
Education Board" towards the authorities
Of our colleges and universities is one OF
d,strust. Trustees and faculties are not
70 he trusted Ito insure the best appllca-
ton of money" and hence the Board
compIex conditions and complicated re-
ouirements affixed to its gifts. They can
NOT he trusted so much as to determine
the final locations upon which colleges are
to stand; the Board is to look over the
whole territory Of the nation ana settle
where institutions shall live ana Where
others shall die. These fifteen sages VINO
are its managers, running over the hhes
described by 'the little coloured pins IN
the Roard's Office in New York, 1t is as
summed will know better what should De
done in this matter than all the boards OF
trustees and other college authorities IN
the land. They have also made up their
unerring minds to the effect that the I'M
parting of theological instruction In col
leges Is to be discouraged, discounted, ana
dfscredited. and that no money furnished
nv the Board, or raised under the stimu-
lation Of its conditional gifts, SHAH De
used for any such unworthy purpose
Such an assumption of superior wisdom is
positively sublime If it were not ridlcu-
lous.
That representatives of Southern coll
leges are looked upon as a mendicant lot
has been hut thinly concealed by the lead
ing spirits In this movement. Perhaps
some of our college men have justified by
their posture the depreciatory view enter
tanned concerning them by their Northern
patrons. One of the ardent supporters OF
this educational movement thus descrio-
ed some who fiocked to the meeting OF
"The Conference for Education in the
South" which met at Athens, Ca, few
years ago:
Unfortunately for Southern reputation
for good breeding, there was at the Attn
ems Conference, for example, swarm OF
educational and institutional mendicants
who seemed to imagine that every North
ern man was a millionaire philanthropist
waiting to be informed about the pressing
needs of the South. They disgraced them
selves at the time"
If there were at Athens any consider
able number of men who thus disgraced
our section, the fact is a symptom Of a
disease among our educational authorities
which can not be cauterized too deeply
nor cured too quickly. What must be
the degrading influence upon the students
of our colleges If teachers and trustees
thus PROSTATE themselves at the feet Of
supercilious wealth and arrogant opu-
lence? No degree of poverty can excuse
such mendicancy. We do not need money
for our colleges SO badly that we can
descend to such methods to obtain It,
In truth we do not need to beg any
body to pay for the education OF our sons
and daughters. We are quite able to at
tend to that matter ourselves. We have
not as many rich men and women among
US as other sections have; but we have
some people of means and they owe 1t to
themselves and to their section to take
the lead in endowing and equipping our
colleges so as to enable them to do their
work we'll without coming under obliga-
tions to strangers. / would not have our
people OF wealth to do all that Is need
ed; II is not best for the freedom and
Independence of a college to come under
too heavy obligations to any one man
or woman. If the late Jay Gould had
founded or endowed a college it would
have been next to impossible to have
warned successfully the students Of such
an institution against the evils Of stock
gambling, just as the institutions which
draw their support from the funds OF
General Education Board" will be I'm
potent TO condemn effectively the iniqui-
ties of the Standard Oil Company or the
enormities of the protective tariff from
which the Steel Trust has drawn its
countless millions. In the case Of Prof.
Bemis at the University of Chicago a
few years ago the country had a sample
Illustration of what becomes Of a profess
sor of political economy whose teaching
fails to agree with the views and inter-
est of the man who Pounds and maintains
a college all by himself. We want no
such institution in the South. We want
o,Yr roI1auau IN ,,po~ 3A1