The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1914-04-13
MONDAY, APRIL IS. 1914.
Compulsory Education
In the Southern States.

A vigorous plea for compulsory
school attendance laws in the South
ern states is made by William H.
Hand. state high school inspector for
South Carolina, in a bulletin just is
sued by the United States Bureau OF
Education. After pointing out that
the six states still without compulsory
Iaws-South Carolina, Georgia, Flori-
da, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas,
and the four states with compulsory
laws that apply only partially-Mary-
land. Virginia, Arkansas, and Louis
iana-are all Southern states. Mr..
Hand presents statistics showing that
although illiteracy has been reduced
rapidly in these states within the last
two decades, they still have the high
est percentage of ilIiteracy among the
white population
.aThe figures can have but one
meaning" declares Mr. Hand. They
show that compulsory education re-
duces illiteracy.
"The opponents of compulsory edu-
cation insist that the people will send
their children to school without being
obliged to do so, il only they are
shown their duty and their obligation
70 their children. These opponents
declare that the younger generation
OF white children are already in school.
Neither contention is true. In 1910 the
ID Southern states had 753.6s9 native
white children between the ages of s
and II not in school.
'-who are these illiterate white
children, and why are they not in
school? Some of them are the sons
and daughters OF parents themselves
ignorant and unable to appreciate or
to understand what an education
means to their children and to the
state Some are the children of sor-
did fathers and mothers who are more
than willing to make wage earners
and breadwinners OF their untaught
offspring at the expense of their fu-
ture manhood and womanhood. Many
are at work on the farms. sacrificed
to the monotonous round of planting
crops, are at work in stores and shops
or engaged as messenger boys, all
sapping environment Of the mills, re-
ceiving good wages as children in ex-
change for vigor Of body and training
OF mind as men and women: while
thousands of others are roaming the
streets and country lanes, the train
ing ground for Idlers, Migrants, and
enemies to law, order and decency.
when the state has provided
schools for all its children, 1t has per-
formed only a portion of its duty. II
a universal school tax is 1ustifiabie
on the ground that popular education
is a necessity, compulsory attendance
he at "a t. aIS
state has no right to levy and collect
taxes for a specific purpose and then
permit that purpose to be defeated at
the hand of indifferent or selfish pa
rents
objection is often made that com
Dlf1sory attendance would work hard
ships in the homes of the poor. Is it
not a fact that the poor child is the
very one who most needs the aid OF
the state to bring him into posses
sion of his own2 He II is who must
soon face the complexities of modern
life and the 1nsistent demands of cit
izenshfp with none OF the advantages
common to birth or wealth. The poor
child is the very one whom the state
ought to help, because he himself is
helpless.
"The argument against compulsory
attendance on account of the negro
has been worn threadbare; surely the
time has come to drop 1t. Some phases
of It are pathetic. Is 1t wise or ex-
pedIent to permit thousands of white
BOYS and girls to grow up in ignorance
lest in forcing them into school the
aspirations of the negro child should
be awakened? Shall the white man
remain ignorant in order to encourage
or to compel the negro to remain ig-
norant? Is IL better for white and
black to remain ignorant than for both
to become intelligent?
'I yield to no one in the matter OF
pride over what has been accomplish
ed edsncationally in the past 40 years.
We have planned better schools, in
spired the taxpayers to vote taxes for
schools. encouraged the people to
build model school houses, to lengthen
their school terms. to employ better
teachers and to pay them better sal
aries, and 10 make their schools their
pride. But what has been accom-
plished in the way of a substantial
decrease in the illiteracy Of the citi-
xenship? OF what value are all our
school taxes. our elegant schoolhouses,
our improved schools to the thousands
of boys and girls who never enter
the door of a schoolhouse?"
Client Belgium. furnishes pracui