Evening star., 1912-07-16

No fund dedicated to public purpose
by a philanthropist ever was quite SO
timely as the Peabody fund for the insti-
tuition of public education in the south.
While in comparison with some of the
gifts that have followed it seems small.
the desperate need there was for 1t at
the moment when 1t was given served to
multiply its value a hundredfold.
The civil war had ended. 1t had left
the states which had staked their all on
the lost cause in bankruptcy and their
people impoverished. The one hope OF the
future seemed to lie in public education.
The affected states could not provide 1t
and the people were too poor to support
it. At this juncture came George Pea
body, the wealthy American banker, then
resident in London, with letter announc-
ing the creation of a fund for the estab
lishment of education systems in the
southern states. He appointed a board
Of trustees and left them practically free
to handle the fund as they might see fit.
When the income from the Peabody en-
dowment became available not one of the
tenn: not one Of them had a single normal
school for training teachers; even the
cities were without public schools, and the
rural schools We're almost a minus guam
tlty. IOQdy every one Oh IN6Se states mas
q public school system that is f1ourishing
and expanding it's usefulness Some thirty
normal schools flourish where none then
existed; and the new rural school, framed
to meet the needs Of rural communities,
promises to be the main feature Of the
educational progress of America during
the next decade.
When George Peabody made his gift to
the cause Of southern education the south
was experience
of Reconstruction. ing the throes
ml OF reconstruc-
0ousA IL AnAooS tion, and there
was a bitterness between the two
sections that caused even the kind
ly acts Of each to be misunderstood
by the other. But the gift of Pea
body-a man who had been loyal to tho
United States, but who understood that
the issue was political one in which
there was room for an honest difference
of opinion-came in such a generous spirit
that it did more than any one thing to
heal the wounds Of the civil war and
bring the people of the two sections back
into cordial relations.
The trustees Of the fund early deter
mined to use it where it would give the
ma ximum results. The first effort was to
establish public school systems in the
various cities OF the fourteen southern
states While the fund was established
| in 1867, it was not until 1870 that the en-
couragement it lent to the city public
| schools of the south had borne sufHcient
| fruit to warrant it's diversion to broader
work. During the ensuing five years the
| trustees directed the fund to aiding the
Sfafes in establishing statewide public
school systems. By 1875 the agent of the
| fund was able to report to the trustees
| that all Of the states involved had estab-
lished such systems. and that the next
work to which the fund ought to be di-
rected was the furnishing of teachers to
| take charge of the public schools.
| 1t was therefore decided that thereafter
the income from the fund should be used
| in the encouragement Of teacher-training
schools. To that end the Peabody Normal
college was founded at Nashville. Tenn.
and here teachers from every part of the
south were trained on scholarships pro-