Milford chronicle., 1923-04-06
Organization and Progress


This conservative, self-content, pros
porous, and proud rural population
Mr.. du Pont seeks to mOdernize, to
rouse from it's conservation and self
content, and set it upon the path of
progress. Being at once wise and mod
est, he rallied to his moral support
progressive men and women of nearly
all occupations the whole state over,
had them incorporated as "The Ser
vice Citizens of Delaware" and set
aside ninety thousand dollars year
to promote their activities. He also
created, as an adjunct to the Service
Citizens, the Delaware School Auxili-
ary; and to carry out the work of this
body, he created a fund of nearly four
million dollars. Incidentally, he has
given considerably more than one mil
lion dollars to the University of Del
aware, and his brother-in-law, Mr.. H.
Rodney Sharp, has given to the uni
Versity, of which he is a graduate,
large sums of money and much of his
time and energy. The organization of
the Service Citizens has been spending
for the past three years most of its
annual appropriation in promoting
Americanization, public safety, public
health, and in providing employment
for unemployed soldiers of the World
War, and others without the means Of
earning their bread.
When the Delaware School Auxiliary
began its work, there was hardly
modern public school building in all
rural Delaware for black or white.
Most of the twenty thousand white
children were attending school in
buildings from fifty to one hundred
and fifty years old; those for colOred
children were unspeakably squalid. In
many rural districts" as the school
short, in nearly all attendance was ir-
regular, and in most the pay of teach
ers was beggarly.
For the work of the Service Citizens
and the School Auxiliary, a corps Of
paid experts was formed, and at the
head of this body DR.. Joseph H. Odell
was placed as director Suspicion, Bit
ter local opposition, and adverse legis-
lation met Mr.. du POnt and Director
Odell; but that phase happily seems to
be almost thing of the past.
mOu6IuAAAuS bllo CCuOOlS
In order that rural communities
should not be pauperized, Mr.. du POnt
offered to pay half the cost of modern
izing the schools for whites, if the 10
cal areas would raise the rest by tax
alton or self-bonding. Some accepted
and did their full part, others could do
only fraction of what he asked, still
OfI,oYc T1yO,7d1xy dooIinod T1is old and
many are still debating the matter. Up
to the end of May, 1922 the Delaware
School Auxiliary had spent nearly one
five hundred thousand dollars
for school premises, buildings, and
equipment. In Sussex county, where
the need was greatest, modern school
houses were provided in some of the
larger villages at a cost of two hun
dred and fifty thousand dollars, of
which about one-fifth was locally rails
ed.
When it came to the schools for col
ored children, Mr.. du Pont asked no
from the local districts;
he gave outright. Thus far, the School
Auxiliary has spent upon grounds,
buildings, and thoroughly up-to-date
equipment for rather less than fifty
five hundred rural colored children
about six hundred thousand dollars. 1t
is believed that no such experiment in
negro education has been tried upon
so large a scale anywhere else on
earth.
In this great undertaking, Pierre du
Pont has not been angered or discOur-
aged by criticism or suspicious. He
has acquiesced to suggestions for
of his plans, and kept on
terms with the official school
even when they were in
clined to hostility. He is willing to
wait patiently, ready to lend a hand
when local areas now Indifferent, hos
tile, or dilatory shall wake to the
needs of their schools. When Delaware !
shall have taken the place that he
would like to see her take and keep
in the ranks of her sister states, Della
ware will not be Pierre du Points DO
main of Arnheim" alone, but that OF
all his fellow-Delawareans to share
and enjoy.