The broad ax., 1911-03-11
HON. JOHN E. AmHoLLAND, IA
NOUS FEDERAL AID TO
ELEMENTARY EDU-
CATION.


vide for themf We do not want
Charity Schools; we viii not have
them. We want schools for which the
taxpayers Of the country pay, and pay
gladly, no mater what they cost, and
until we have them all over the coun-
tTy-Esst, West, North and South
things viii 60 on from bad to worse.
They are going 50 now very fast-very
fast indeed. Must things become even
worse before they become betterf We
are justified in hoping that they, will
not.
But let Us proceed a little further
In our investigation. am going to
eoufne the inquiry for the moment to
Alabama because that is the State in
which the voluntary school experiment
has been tried 50 thoroughly for a
quarter Of q century. That is the
State Of which it was said twenty
years ago, there was no need of the
Blair Bill to provide National sup
port Of common schools because com
mon school education was going to be
provided for locally by the State and
by the philanthropy Of the North
which had been pouring its golden rain
upon Tuskegee and similar institutions
for the last twenty-five years.
What are the resultsi According
to the Official figures of 1907 and 1908,
there were about 693, 900 school chill
dren in Alabama OF these $4,000
were enrolled, leaving over 100000
without even the experience Of a
school enrolment. It is fair to as
sumo that Of the number enrolled fully
twenty-five per cent did not attend,
thus leaving in the State Of Alabama
about 100000 children deprived Of
even the most rudimentary education,
and of this number the majority are
White. Neglected in the vital matter
of education this multitude is grow
ing up in gross ignorance, doomed to
poverty, frequently to crime, because
Of that ignorance.
Tallapoosa county is a fair example
of the average hill county in Ala
bama. II has only three towns of
more than 1000 population. The re-
mort Of the Alabama Department OF
Education, for 1907, states that the
school population of Whites in ITALIA
poosa TO be 1878 and Blacks 4,ls6, or
total 1l,469. There were enrolled in
the county, during the scholastic year
of 1867, 4, sl9 Whites and 1855 Col
Grad: total enrolment, therefore, 1914.
The average attendance Of the Whites
was $3.50 and Blacks 1,23s, total be-
ing Ass. The average length Of du-
ration Of the White schools was $50
days and Of the COlOred schools 50
days.
A melancholy recital, you say, but
that of "the imperial county of JET
fersOn'' is not more cheerful Birn-
inQhsn is the county seat and the
school popalation Of the county, in
1867, was $3.50 Whites and 1875
colored. The enrolment was 1905
whites and s,Ss2 COlOred. Of the 22,-
900 white children Of school age there
was an average attendance of s,o2l.
The average attendance Of COlOred was
2, $50.
Think Of It'll There are, according
to these Rgures gathered from the
Alabama Educstional Department al
most 1900 whites and more than g.
900 colored children out Of school
throughout the scholastic year Of 1906
2. and this in the county that contains
ths industrial metropolis Of the South,
Birmineham, and in the State where
the voluntary, industrial school ex-
nerimsut has been going on at Tuske-
-. for = ouartsr Of a century under