The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1914-01-01

pie, to journey from one part
of this great country of ours,
to another, with little thought
Of the people we meet and pass;
with little interest in those localities
through which our path may lay, and
with almost no interest in the solv-
ing of the problems which we meet
at every turn in the railway station,
the train OF the point for which we
are headed.
We have become much1y puffed
up over the strides which we declare
we have made in the matter of ease
with which education for all and sun
dry may be obtained, and we have
read, with keen satisfaction to our
selves, statistics which seem to prove
that ignorance is becoming more and
more a thing of the past, while en-
ightenment and development are as
common as cranberries in a New
Jersey bog.
Sometimes one wishes, not for the
tongues of angels, but for the pen
that would be as the sword of one
Of the mighty warriors, and that one
could WELD it with force enough to
break away all the fallacies and alb
surdities which have been permitted
to grow about the ease and freedom
Of education for those who really
need it.
After reading the reports of some
Of our public school boards, one
would like to do two things: sepa-
rate some of the highly paid special
lists from their jobs, and then di-
vorce the graft which the balance
Of the professors" enjoyed, from
the children whose parents are pay
ing for things they don't get.
This advanced" theory of public
school education which aims to
make a public school course as near
ly like the colleges of fifty years
ago as possible, has been in force
long enough to show some results
Of a practical nature, but a trip
through any Of the rural regions of
the South, will prove that the bene-
fits. have been derived by three
classes: the trusts which supply the
books and supplies; the special
teachers who are near-profcient in
only one branch of learning, and the
heads or superintendent, whose jobs
are political Sinecures, and whose
dislOdgemeAt would require a load
of dynamite to accomplish-Or the
thr0ttling of the political boss
who rules that locality.
The same state Of affairs may
hold in the North, but agriculture in
the North is not subject to the vicis-
STUDIES that it is in the poorer Sec
lions Of the South. If the South
would demand, and back up the de-
mand with all that it could back it
up with, plain, cOmmOn-sChOOl edu-
cation for her children, it is safe to
bet that in five years at the most,
there would be fewer mOrtgaged and
deserted farms, fewer children work
ing in the mills, fewer deserted
wives, and fewer drunkards among
the class to whose ancestors the till
ing Of the soil was as honorable q
profession as the banking profession
Of today.
The Northerners are not altogeth-
er to blame for the fool notions
which have been developed in the
negro. We are as much to blame,
because Of the fact that we have
accepted the conditions which have
been thrust on us, and have failed
to realize that We could demand for
our children that for which we are
paying a Gods lavish of taxes
State, County and Municipal.
The average Southern housewife
is put to it to secure help in her
household work; but the negro
''seminaries' and colleges are filed