The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1909-04-29

'ead' before the Southern education
- 5.
No paper of the conference
had centered in 1t more lively
interest than that Of Charles
l.. Coon, of Wilson. N. C..
: whose address on Public Taxa
ton and the Negro" was re-
-plete with facts, statistics and
. general suggestion that made 1t
invaluable. 49, =,
Briefly summarized, he drew
attention to the fact that the
South is spending $32,O6S.851
on her public schools. OF this
y amount $2S,S56,914 Is paid FOR
teachers white and colored, or
74.4 per cent Of the total. Me-
gro teachers are receiving about
$3,S1S,705, or IL per cent Of the
total expenditures for all pur-
poses while white teachers are
being paid GA per cent. The
amount being spent on Negro
teachers is by far the largest
item Of expense of the Negro
; teachers, the south is paying a.
bout $917,670 each year of the q,
Negro schools near $4,7S5,SY5.
These figures relate to the states
of Virginia. North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia, Flori-A
da, Alabama, Mississippi, Louis
lana, Texas, Arkansas and Ten
nessee, which contained 81.4 per
cent Of the Negro population in
1900. The Negro population of
these states is about 40 percent
OF their total population. Hence
the Negro school teachers who
have charge Of about forty out of
every hundred Of the children
of the South are being paid only
IL per cent of the school expen-
ditures. The total cost of all the
Negro schools is only 14.9 per
cent of the $32,068,851 expend-
ed. In other words, the white
public school in the South which
takes care of only 6 Oper cent of
the population is. between six
and seven times as expensive as
the Negro public school, which
takes care of 40 per cent Of the
population.
1t is not possible to ascertain
accurately what the Negro con-
tributes to his own education
except in some of these states.
In Virginia, North Carolina and
Georgia, it is possible to find out
approximately whether the Ne
gro school is a burden on the
white tax payer. If in these
states we take the amounts the
Negroes actually pay on proper
~ and polls, their part of the
taxes imposed on railroads and
other corporations their part of
the license taxes devoted to
schools, it will be found that the
Negroes part of the school fund
raised by Virginia in 1907 was
oO1,2O5; North Carolina, in
1908 was $429,197. Georgia in
1907 $647,852. These states
spent the following sums on'Ne-
gro schools: Virginia 1907.
$489,228; North Carolina 1908.
$402,65S; Georgia 1907, $685.
40. Thus it will be seen that
when any fair division of the
school funds of these three
states is made, on the race
basis the Negroes will fare as
well as they are now faring in
the absence of such race divis-
ion.
1t has been generally assumed
that the white tax payer is now
bearing nearly all the burden of
the Negro public schools. But
the figures for North Carolina
Virginia and Georgia seem to
indicate clearly that this ia not
the case. If we divided the
present school funds of the South
on the race basis, how would
we divide the funds raised bv
taxes on railroad and other cor
poratlon property which is not
lsted as either white or black?
HOW would we divide the license
taxes and the income from the
permanent school funds? II
seems fair to assume that all
such funds would have to be
divided according to population,
II That is done then it is not
likely that the present cost Of
the Negro public school is a bur-
aen on the white tax payers Of
the south. W