The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-04-06
CAMPAIGN OF EDUCATION.
Professor T. c. Erwin Reports Success
Of Organized Work In Virginia.

Professor T. c. Erwin Reports Success
Of Organized Work In Virginia.
What the Negro Organization Society
Of Virginia accomplished during 1916
for better schools, homes, community
uplift and better health Is Interestingly
told In the report Of Professor Temple
G. Erwin. field agent for the society.
Major Allen Washington, commandant
Of cadets at the Hampton (va.) insti-
tute, is president Of the organization.
He expresses much qualification over
the good results obtained, yet Major
Washington believes that q greater
work may yet be done for the people
Of the rural districts.
Professor Erwin in his report says:
More and more the necessity for de-
termined action against the forces Of
destruction and the wisdom Of con-
certed effort grow upon the Negroes Of
Virginia. During the year just closed
we have seen them rallying with in
creased vigor to the cause Of upuft
and battling In ways to them more or
less new to improve school conditions,
to withstand the inroads Of communi-
cable diseases and to remedy untoward
conditions surrounding life on the farm.
The influence of this movement Is be-
ing felt throughout the state where
colored people live In any considerable
numbers, and organizations Of almost
every conceivable kind are to be count
ed among the numbers Of those that
make up this society.
I'm a number Of communities into
which we have gone It has been neces-
sary to initiate tho idea OF school i'm
provement through cooperation and to
point out the essential nature Of such
work to substantial growth. In such
places school development is in the
primitive stage. In many Of these in
stances leagues were organized, and In
some movements looking to the erec-
tion Of new school buildings were be-
gun and the people thus sent on to
their important work Of developing
better school facilities.
In other communities we have found
the people laboring as best they could
in accordance with the light they had
to remedy conditions for the educa-
ton of their children. We have some
times found them working with COM
mendable zeal, but with poor advice,
raising money to repair an inadequate
and dilapidated building when only
the erection Of a new one would con-
stituts q wise Investment or endeavor-
lr,. <<> uoo,,v<~ <t,udo for 4 Ior nor ochOnI
term and yet had permitted the school
attendance to dwindle almost to the
vanishing point during the last month
or two OF the regular term.
Reports from twenty Of the coun-
ties Of the state will serve to indicate
the breadth and effectiveness Of the
clean up movement. These twenty
counties were selected because the re-
ports coming from them are more or
less accurate and complete, as we have
better means Of getting reports from
these than from some other counties.
They report IS dwellings painted,
311 dwellings whitewashed, ,0O6 homes
cleaned, 121 fences repaired and built.
37O outbuildings whitewashed, 81 homes
screened, 1,O29 yards cleaned, 81 sani-
tary closets built, 21 closets repaired,
1873 barns and outbuildings cleaned,
100 wells and springs improved, At
schools and school yards cleaned and
20 churches better ventilated.
"The reports also show that on AZ
farms the tools and implements were
repaired and put in order, and on IL
farms untitled land was cleaned. 1t Is
impossible to estimate the moral and
practical good accomplished through
the work done in these twenty coun-
ties and in a similar way In most Of
the other counties Of the state"