The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-28

selves with the high few and the few average, just so long shall we fail to measure up with other states in any edu- caUonal statistics.
 When will tine average white child from the masses all over the state be ed- ucated? Only when the state declares that he must attend the school she has prepared for him.
 'Of course we all realize that one tremendous obstacle in the way of our getting compulsory attendance laws is the negro. This is not the only progressive movement in which We still make this defense. Some other states are realizing the fatality of such attitude and are making a determined effort to find some sort of adjustment. In spite of their ne- gro population Missouri, West Virginia and Kentucky have statewide compul- sory education laws; but in some other states this question of the negro has broug2 forth a second type of compul- sory attendance laws, that of local op- ton. By this, the counties or cities that so desire may regulate the attendance of their children. This would mean, of course, practical elimination of the ques- ton in the counties where the negro popu- ation is very large or is in the majority. One must have serious doubts as to the wisdom of this plan. Whatever may be ones personal belief as to the merits of industrial grammar school education for negroes, we cannot overlook the real weaknesses, the subtle psychological flaw in the plan to leave compulsory attend ance laws to local option; namely that those counties which need 1t most. whether they be black or white, would be the very last to vote in such a matter.
 On an Economic Basis
 But after all is said as to what other states are doing in developing their com pulsory attendance laws, there will come the query again and again, Does Ala bama really need such laws, and why?' To put it on the lowest basis, the finan- cial, should say that at present she is not getting the value of her money.
 What business man would put up $6,500, 000-building and keep it open for tenants only 132 days in the year? Yet that is the value of Alabama's school plant and that is the length of her school term.
 Again, what business man would invest nearly S4,000.000 as running ex- penses for those 132 days and accept in slothful content the fact that his building was actually filled with ten ants only so days out of the 132? Yet that is the cost of maintaining Ala bama's schools and that is the number of days attended by the children ac- tually enrolled For the 52 days which those children who are pretending to go to school absolutely throw away, the state wastes practically million and half dollars This does not take into account the loss by those children who are not enrolled at all
 Ignorance of Conditions
 "An obstacle to compulsory attend ance laws even greater than the pres ence of the negro is the average white mans ignorance as to conditions exist ing in his own state among the peo- pie of his own white race. If we sug- gest to the average Alabamian that education is an advantage, he will agree with us most heartily; but oh so superficially, for he will proudly point to the annual appropriation for schools without once stopping to find out exactly what the state is getting in return for that appropriation. If we warn him of the dangers of ig- norance he will point to the number of our white schools, without once i'm vestigating the number of children en- rolled and the number attending hose schools. This impulsive. superficial citizen to deal with than Is he who pulsory attendance laws will mean only negro education, and therefore ne- gro domination. When we quote 10 him that in total illiteracy only South Carolina and Louisiana are lower in the scale than Is Alabama, he insists that it is due only and entirely to