The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1909-05-22
The Pieagune on Education and Poll-

Il bAeSa
Our esteemed contemporary, the
New Orleans Plcagnne, grows hysteri-
cal over the comments OF The Chief on
its attitude towards experimentation
Mysteries do no good. It is idle for
the Picaynne to go into commissions
or to seek escape from the logic of its
deplorable position behind the thread,
bare cloak Of race prejudice and the
discredited spook Of negro domino
lion.
The Chief refuses to believe that il
is or can be made to be good for any
substantial element of the population
10 grow up or be kept in ignorance.
| If the Pieayune will consult its OWE
files it will find a warning from the
factory inspector that the white chill
dren Of New Orleans are more likely to
grow up in ignorance than the black.
The compulsory education law is
needed for the protection of the whites.
As far as The Chief is concerned
there is and has been no tpolitics in
its attitude on this question. It is and
has been moved solely by its convic-
tions as to the vantages-na the
absolute necessities of the situation
for the general good of the community
at large. This means the cultivation
of the best that is in every individual,
white or black, to make him most effici-
ent and useful in his work, as being
best for him and SO for the commu-
nifty. The general good can never be
anything else than the average of the
good of all the individuals.
The Picayune had as we'll dismiss
| from its mind the idea that it is the
right of the white man to exploit the
negro for gain. The Chief has as little
desire or intention of doing so polite
ally as it has of quietly acceding to
the propriety of others doing so pecu-
niarily. The Chief would gladly see
half or more than half the negroes of
the south vote the Democratic ticket
regularly, SO only that they did so
from an honest conviction that it was
for their own and the general good.
We are convinced that no one thing
we can now imagine would be so adj
vantageous to the Republican party
of the south. Nothing else would so
completely take race prejudice out of
politics, where it does not belong, and
relegate it purely to social relations,
where it does belong and can be and
will be handled with perfect adequacy.
In the meantime frothing at the
mouth and ignoring the teachings of
experience and our most eminent
authorities on education is an idle
waste of vital energy.
Why does not our esteemed New
Orleans contemporary, instead of lay
ing emphasis on Tie Chiefs politics,
accord some attention to the declara-
tion of DR.. Alderman, formerly presi-
dent Of Tulane University, and now
president the University of Virginia,
upon which our comments concerning
the Picayune's stand for compulsory
ignorance were based? DR.. Alder
mao, DR.. Beverley Warner, Miss Jean
Gordon and other eminent seutherners
and Louisianians are aeither Republic
cans nor politicians, but they favor
compulsory education and subscribe
to the truism SO forcibly presented by
DIR. Alderman to the Mississippi and
Louisiana Press Associations, 'Ig-
norance is a remedy for nothing"
We invite the esteemed Pieayune to
lay aside disingennousness and petty
politics for while and take issue
with these distinguished persons on
the merits OF the question it has raised.