Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-31
18TH every reform movement for the uplt of
" the people is discovered somewhere in

~7ITH every reform movement for the uplt OF
" the people man is discovered somewhere in
the ranks with Unborn genius ready and
equipped for leadership. James B. Aswell the
found in Louisiana to lift noribund school system out
of the re of local politics, to revivfy it, and establish
it on rational and enduring foundation. The reform
deep-rooted and Statewide and the result liter
ally new educational system.
Mr.. Aswell is Representative in Congress,
wearing political honors bestowed by grateful COM
monwealth; but he Superintendent of Schools in
Louisiana from 1904 to 1908. During that period he
gave shape to public sentiment the inspiring
of special legislation and the organizer of the
system of public instruction. which in few years
will naturally work out the broader enlightenment
of the most literate State in the Union.
1t the humiliatng facts presented in the census
of 1900 that aroused the people of Louisiana to action
The State shown to be at the bottom OF the list IN
the of teracy Out of population of 99O, 1864,
years old and over 3S1 AS could neither read
write. Louisiana could not plead alone the presence
of large and ignorant negro population as reason for
trailing behind in the means for public enlightenment.
The figures showed alarming condition with refer
to the white population which cut the pride of
LouisiananS to the quick.
Taking advantage of aroused public sentiment, Gov
N. c. Blanchard made the reorganization Of the
public schools the chief issue of his prediction
paign in 1908 When elected and throughout his term
of office, the educational issue kept prominently
before the people and the Legislature, and judging by
the results Governor Blanchards public in his
State seems to have accomplished little besides the
revolution of public education.
ANYHOW, it was between 1904 and 1909 that the
most important school problems were worked out
and the machinery set in motion, through legislation
enacted and through competent organization for prac
teal and efficient training of the young How well the
work was done was reflected in the returns of
1910, when of population of 1885, ten years
old and over the number of iliterates reduced to
352 49, and the percentage decreased from 1876 in
1900 90 in 1910 The rghtful incubus of ignorance
that stained the fame of the State in 1900 could be
a beginning made which will ultimately put Louisiana
in much better light before the world.
The first step was the selection of able educator
for the position of State Superintendent of Schools
The right had been in training twenty years the
educational institutions of the commonwealth. He
the time president of the Louisiana Industrial Ins
tute, position to which he had worked up through
lower grades practical teacher He had conducted
State institutes since 1897, and had the extensive
quaintance with teachers and the people necessary to
do the best work in the new field. He had educated
himself in earlier years, beginning as farmers boy,
and paying his way at the Peabody Normal College,
graduating in 1892. He had received degrees at
Nashville University and Arkansas University and
had taken at the University of Chicago where
he specialized in literature, pedagogy and political
science.
He the only thought of as the choice of the
electors who carried the Blanchard administration into
power in 1904. He reelected without opposition in
1906 and shortly afterward in recognition of his ab
ties chosen chancellor of the University of Misss
spp At the solicitation of the teachers of Lou
isiana he declined this position they made it plain