The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1920-12-01

VI MiSoiSSlppl OH edcn item.
No. No.2 No. 8 No. 4 No. 5
Rank 33 SO Al AZ 3S
Per cent. So 81 SO IL 68
No. 6 No, Z No. 8 No. 9 No. 10
Rank As As 48 4S As
Per cent. II 2 Is 3 81
If the District of Columbia, Hawaii,
the Canal Zone and Porto Rico are
added to the list Mississippi's general
rank is 81, South Carolina alone being
below her. Mississippi's rank in 1890
on the same items was 80, with West
Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louis
lana, Alabama, North Carolina, Geor-
gia, South Carolina, New Mexico be-
low her. Mississippi has steadily
dropped since this period. She stood
46 in 1900, AZ in 1910, and 81 in 1918.
The standing of the states now in
all items taken together follows:
Montana, California, Arizona, New
Jersey, District of Columbia, Washing
ton, Iowa, Utah, Massachusetts,,
Michigan, Connecticut, Ohio, New
York, Colorado, North Dakota, Ne
vada, Indiana, Idaho, Minnesota, Ore
gon, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Hawaii,
Illinois, Wyoming, Rhode Island,
Kansas, Canal Zone, South Dakota,
New Hampshire, New Mexico, Yer
mont, Wisconsin, Missouri, Maine,
Oklahoma, Maryland, Delaware, Tex
as, Florida, West Virginia, Porto
Rico, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina,
Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, South
Carolina.
The Russell Sage Foundation which
collected and published the data on
the state school systems was founded
in 1907 by Mrs. Russell Sage who
gave it an endowment of $10.000,000
for "the Improvement of social and
living conditions in the United States. y
Whatever the Foundation publishes is
as accurate as can be made and the
conditions educational in the various
states as shown by the recent publica-
ton is being generally accepted by
educators and educational magazines
and much comment is being made
about the various rankings.
1t behooves the thinking people of
Mississippi to give more attention to
educational matters and provide for
their children an equal start and fair
race through life. The children of
Mississippi are entitled to as good
preparation for life as are the child
rem of Montana or California and it
is the duty of the citizens of Missis-
sippi to see to it that they get it.
1t does not materially alter the
situation to say that the negroes of
Mississippi are the cause of the low
rank. Other Southern states have the
negro problem; Kentucky and Ten
nessee have their illiterate mountain
GERS; the Northern states and Eastern
States have their ignorant foreigners;
the West has its scarcely settled dis
tricts where the maintenance of a
school is extremely difficult.
Mississippi's position is due to in.
difference more than to any other
cause. People generally get what
they want. Mississippi is at the bot
tom of the list because she does not
will to be higher. She can only climb
by shaking off its coat of indifference
and putting forth greater interest
and greater effort in the education OF
society. 1t is not necessarily a dis,
grace to be outranked, but it is dis
grace to be content to be outranked.
There is every reason why the state
should make an effort to better its
educational advantages. 1t is neces
sary in order that the future citizens
of Mississippi may compete on equa
terms with the future citizens Of
other states. 1t is good bushes,
proposition now to improve the con
ditions. People from other states will
hesitate to bring their family to /;
state whose educational advantage
outside of the larger cities are woe
fully poor.
1t is only fair to the towns and cite
of Mississippi to- say that the condi
tions in them are much better thar
in the rural districts, and that tn
schools in the larger cities compar
favorably with schools in cities o
equal size in most states.
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