Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-02-19
Achievement Costs Money.

ITO one who has any experience in
running government. it is money that
is important. You can run a government
economically if you don't accomplish any
thing with the government: and some of
our critics in the Philippines. some of the
critics of the present government in Gu
ba, or wherever America has left her
hand, can point to much more economi-
cal government that preceded the Amer
lean government than the one that now
exists. But the reason is that our pred
ecessors did not do anything with the
government.
.They did not expend any money for
health. and they did not expend any
money for education. Education is eX
pensive The south has had until the
last decade dreadfully hard time to sup
port their state governments and to have
any sort Of education at all. After the
war they were left in a condition which
prevented a thorough general system of
education. and SO ignorance prevailed,
which nothing but the result of taxes
and productive taxes could remove"
Has the Money Now.
Now. in the last two decades the
south has had her innings in prosperity.
She is getting richer and richer, and
am delighted to have ffteen-cent cotton
because it means the prosperity of the
South, and the prosperity Of the south
means its development-the development
Of it's educational systems. and with the
development of the educational systems
the working out of the most difficult ra-
cial problem that has ever been presented
to a people.
II wish Dr. billiard had gone little
more into detail regarding the result of
his visits to various parts of the south
and the difficulties that he has met with
respect to the character and defects of
the education which many OF the youth
of the south, white and black, are now
receiving. There is room for great i'm
provement, both in the white and the
colored education, but after all that can
not come from the charity or the benef-
icence of men who do not live in the
south.
ultimately the burden must fall on
those who pay the taxes in the south; ii
must come. therefore, from the prosperity
of the south itself, and the information
that the statistics show with reference TO
the increase of the wealth in the south
is the most encouraging fact in the whole
situation, for we can be reasonably sure,
with the increase in the wealth and with
the increase in that spirit of humanity.
that interest on the part of the leading
whites in the development of the negro,
and with the opportunity that the wealth
presents, that in the course of two or
three decades the problem will be WELL
nigh solved-not entirely solved, for there
will always be difficulty; but with the
education of the poor whites We shall
eliminate an element that feels naturally
hostile to the negro, and shall make them
more useful citizens. and with the indus
trial education of the negro we shall en-
able him to show what he certainly will
become if industriaily educated. one of
the most useful instruments that the
south can have in the development of all
her magnificent resources.
Defense of Negro Colleges.
'Now, occasionally in the discussion of
negro education reference is made with
some contempt, or, at least, with a spirit
education for negroes. Certainly if that
education We're extended to all negroes
and if money were wasted-that is, if
there were millions expended in that-One
might well raise his voice in protest
against the use of money for academic
education that ought to be put i'm indus
trial education. But if you will look into
the foundations of the negro colleges In
this country, as l have had occasion to
do, and the resources of those so-called
negro universities that give general
education and that prepare physicians
and lawyers and clergymen. you will md
that there is not the slightest danger of
any waste. for the amount that is now
expended is not near enough to furnish
all the physicians and all the educated
that are needed to lead the race
When the proportion of the money
expended for that kind of education be-
comes so great as to call for protest we
shall doubtless be able to turn it into
another direction, but for the present
think any money that goes in that direc-
ton goes in the right direction, because
it can only affect a very small proper
ton of the colored race, and not too great
proportion to make leaders and the
necessary professional men that there
ought to be In the segregation of the
races.
Industrial Education Needed.
Mr.. Page said that the question for con-
sideration was the need of industrial ed
ucation lor all of the south. He said that
in the old days every colored man or
woman had some sort of Industrial tduca-
ton. SO that at the close of the civil war
there was not colored person of ma
tnrity who could not support himself or