Evening star., 1947-12-29
Criticizes Educational Committee

Irlt1c1ZeS educational COMMITTEE
To the Editor Of TIL; Star:
The South evidently is subject Of study by
rigged commissions. President Truman's Com
mittee on Civil Rights contained only two men,
bers from the South, and his Committee on
Higher Education has only four, though the
committee consists of % members. The South
erners on the latter committee D. Pat
terson, president of Tuskegee Institute; Good
rich c. White, president of Emory University:
Lewis D. Jones, president of Arkansas Univer-
sity, and Douglas s. Freeman, editor Of the
News-Leader, Richmond, va.-three educators
and one editor.
The report on education inveighs against un-
equaled opportunities, yet its composition does
equal violence to an equally vital principle
equal representation of those concerned. The
South contains one-third Of the school popula-
tion of the Nation, but it gets only one-seventh
representation, and one-fourth of the one
seventh is representative Of a colored institu-
ton. And this is Just one of the many logical
lapses and incongruities incident to the COM
mission and its report.
One Of the pet aversions of the Educational
Committee, as with the Civil Rights Committee
Is segregation in the schools of the South. The
following is an illustration of the havoc preju-
dice plays with logic and straight thinking:
segregation lessons the quality Of education.
To maintain two school systems side by side
duplicating even inadequately the buildings,
equipment and teaching personnel-means that
neither can be Of the quality that would be pos
sble II all OF the available resources were de-
voted to one system. Especially not when the
States least able financially to support an ade-
quate program for their youth are the very
ones that are trying to carry double load"
Analyze the foregoing quotation and see for
yourself Just how little sense the same contains.
Is the committee prepared to double the teach
er load? To cut the expense in half would
require just that. Is the committee prepared
to place children in tiers in the classroom? To
cut the expense in half would require that to
be done. OF course, the South is trying to carry
no double load, except in the sense that the
white man is carrying many times the tax load
Of the colored man, which is his duty, and to
my way Of thinking, great privilege.
Certainly segregation does not lessen the
quality Of education. The colored man has his
schools manned by teachers Of his race. Initia
tive and self-reliance are the resultants.
Abolish segregation and the white teachers
will take over, to the injury Of the colored man
himself. believe the colored man wants some
institutions of his own. He should, If he doesn't.
And what could give him more satisfaction than
the knowledge that his civilization is largely
the product of his own schools?
Furthermore, I find the logic Of the COM
mittee exceedingly bad in other respects. The
stability of democratic institutions depends upon
diffusion of power and diversity of views, not
upon unified and standardized educational
system directed and controlled from Wash
ington. Think of it: One hundred and forty
millions of people over continental area all
under one and the same educational system,
fed the same thought MATERIAL ready made
and an ideal opportunity for a Hitlerized
society!
Federal aid is hypnotic term, and many
crimes are committed under it's spell; but let's
not jeopardize what democratic institutions We
have left by adopting a master system OF
uniform and standardized education of the
Washington variety. This country deserves a
better fate than that. JOHN M HESTER.