Following the Color Line Part 40

"The South is growing weary of extremists and of sensational problem-solvers.... Our coming leaders.h.i.+p will have a sense of proportion which will involve a steady refusal to be stampeded by antique nightmares and ethnological melodrama. It will possess an increasing pa.s.sion for getting hold of the real things in a real world. And it will ... deal with one task at a time. It will subordinate paper schemes of distant amelioration to duties that will help right now."

Emphasis here is laid upon "real things in a real world" and "duties that will help right now"; and that is the voice everywhere of the new statesmans.h.i.+p.

But let us be clear upon one point at the start. The platforms of these parties are matters of emphasis. One emphasises rights; the other emphasises duties. I have no doubt that Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton believes as firmly in the rights of the Negro as any leader of his race; he has merely ceased to emphasise these rights by agitation until his people have gained more education and more property, until by honest achievement they are prepared to exercise their rights with intelligence.

In the same way, the views of many of the new Southern white leaders of whom I shall speak in this article have not radically changed, so far as the Negro is concerned; some of them, I have found, do not differ from Tillman upon essential points; but, like Was.h.i.+ngton, they have decided not to emphasise controversial matters, and go to work and develop the South, and the people of the South, for the good of the whole country. If the test has to come in the long run between white men and coloured men, as it will have to come and is coming all the time, they want it to be an honest test of efficiency. The fittest here, too, will survive (there is no escaping the great law!), but these new thinkers wish the test of fitness to be, not mere physical force, not mere brute power, whether expressed in lynching or politics, but the higher test of real capacity. They have supreme confidence that the white man is superior on his merits in any contest; and Was.h.i.+ngton, on his side, is willing to (indeed, he must) take up the gauntlet thus thrown down.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JAMES H. DILLARD of New Orleans, President Jeanes Fund Board.

Photograph by Hitchler]

[Ill.u.s.tration: EDWIN A. ALDERMAN President of the University of Virginia.

Photograph by Pach Bros.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A. M. SOULE President Georgia State College of Agriculture.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: D. F. HOUSTON President of the University of Texas.

Photograph by The Elliotts]

[Ill.u.s.tration: GEORGE FOSTER PEABODY of New York, member of the Southern Education and Jeanes Fund Boards.

Photograph by Pach Bros.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: P. P. CLAXTON of the University of Tennessee, leader of the educational campaign in Tennessee.

Photograph by Knafft & Bro.]

The condition in the South may be likened to a battle in which the contestants, weary of profitless and wordy warfare, are turning homeward to gather up new ammunition. Each side is pa.s.sionately getting education, acquiring land, developing wealth and industry, preparing for the struggles of the future. And it is a fine and wholesome tendency. In a large sense, indeed, this movement typifies the progressive thought of the entire country for it means a sincere attempt to change the plane of battle (for battle there must be) from one of crude, primitive force, whether physical, political, or, indeed, industrial, to one of intellectual efficiency or usefulness to society.

And these working idealists of both races understand one another better than most people think. Dr. Mitch.e.l.l and President Alderman understand Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton, and he understands them. This is not saying that they agree. But agreement upon every abstract principle is not necessary where both parties are hard at work at practical, definite, and immediate tasks.

_Self-Criticism in the South_

The new Southern statesmans.h.i.+p began (as all new movements begin) with self-criticism. Henry W. Grady, a real statesman, by criticising the old order of things, announced the beginning of the "New South"--an active, working, hopeful South.

He saw the faults of the old exclusive agricultural life and the danger of low-cla.s.s, uneducated labour, and he urged industrial development and a better school system. R. H. Edmonds of Baltimore, through the _Manufacturers' Record_, and many other able business leaders have done much to bring about the new industrial order: the day of new railroads, cotton-mills, and coal-mines; the day of cities.

But it is in the educational field that the development of the new statesmans.h.i.+p has been most remarkable. Although it was unfortunate in one way that so much of the political leaders.h.i.+p of the South should have fallen to men of the type of Vardaman, Jeff Davis, and Heflin, it is highly fortunate in another way. For it has driven the broadest and ablest minds in the South to seek expression in other lines of activity, in industry and in the church, but particularly in educational leaders.h.i.+p. It is not without profound significance that the great American, General Lee, turned his attention and gave his highest energies after Appomattox, not to politics, but to education. The South to-day has a group of schoolmen who are leaders of extraordinary force and courage. The ministry has also attained an influence in the South which it does not possess in most parts of the North. The influence of Bishop Galloway of Mississippi, Dr. John E. White and Dr. C. B. Wilmer of Atlanta, and many others has been notable.

For many years after the war the South was pa.s.sive with exhaustion. Young men, who were not afraid, had to grow up to the task of reconstruction.

And no one who has not traced the history of the South since the war can form any conception of the magnitude of that task. It was essentially the building of a new civilisation. The leaders were compelled not only to face abject poverty, but they have had to deal constantly with the problem of a labouring cla.s.s just released from slavery. At every turn, in politics, in industry, in education, they were confronted with the Negro and the problem of what to do with him. Where one school-house would do in the North, they were compelled to build two school-houses, one for white children, one for black. It took from twenty-five to forty years of hard work after the war before the valuation of wealth in the South had again reached the figures of 1860. The valuations in the year 1890 for several of the states were less than in 1860. South Carolina in 1900--forty years after the beginning of the war--had only just caught up with the record of 1860. Since 1890, however, the increase everywhere has been swift and sure.

_Courage and Vision of New Leaders_

Well, it required courage and vision in the earlier days to go before a poverty-stricken people, who had not yet enough means for living comfortably, and to demand of them that they build up and support two systems of education in the South. And yet that was exactly the task of the educational pioneers. Statesmans.h.i.+p, as I have said, begins with self-criticism. While the mere politician is flattering his followers and confirming them in their errors, the true statesman is criticising them and spurring them to new beliefs and stronger activities. While the politician is pleading rights, the statesman also dares to emphasise duties. While the politicians in the South (not all, but many of them) have been harping on race prejudice and getting themselves elected to office by reviving ancient hatred, these new statesmen have been facing courageously forward, telling the people boldly of the conditions of illiteracy which surround them, and demanding that schools be built and every child, white and black, be educated. In many cases they have had to overcome a settled prejudice against education, especially education of Negroes; and after that was overcome they have had to build up a sense of social responsibility for universal education before they could count on getting the money they needed for their work.

After the war the North, in one form or another, poured much money into the South for teaching the Negroes; lesser sums, like those coming from the Peabody fund, were contributed toward white schools. But in the long run there can be no real education which is not self-education; outside influences may help (or indeed hurt), but until a state--like a man--is inspired with a desire for education and a willingness to make sacrifices to get it, the people will not become enlightened.

In the middle eighties the fire of this inspiration began to blaze up in many parts of the South. Various combustible elements were present: a sense of the appalling condition of illiteracy existing in the South; a pride and independence of character which was hurt by the gifts of money from the North; a feeling that the Negroes in some instances were getting better educational opportunities than the white children; and, finally, the splendid idealism of young men who saw clearly that the only sure foundation for democracy is universal education.

_Inspiration of Democracy in North Carolina_

Not unnaturally the movement found its earliest expression in North Carolina, which has been the most instinctively democratic of Southern states. From the beginning of the country North Carolina, with its population of Scotch-Presbyterians and Quakers, has been inspired with a peculiar spirit of independence. When I was in Charlotte I went to see the monument which commemorates the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence: the work of a group of stout-hearted citizens who decided, before the country at large was ready for it, to declare their independence of British rule. North Carolina was among the last of the Southern states to secede from the Union, and its treatment of its Negroes all along has been singularly liberal. For example, in several Southern states little or no provision is made for the Negro defective cla.s.ses, but at Raleigh I visited a large asylum for Negro deaf, dumb, and blind which is conducted according to the most improved methods. And to-day North Carolina is freer politically, the state is nearer a new and healthy party alignment, than any other Southern state except Tennessee and possibly Kentucky.

Such a soil was fertile for new ideas and new movements. In 1885 two young men, Charles D. McIver and Edwin A. Alderman, now president of the University of Virginia, began a series of educational campaigns under the supervision of the state. They spoke in every county, rousing the people to build better school-houses and to send legislators to Raleigh who should be more liberal in educational appropriations. In many cases their rallies were comparable with the most enthusiastic political meetings--only no one was asking to be elected to office, and the only object was public service. As Alderman has said:

"It was an effort to move the centre of gravity from the court-house to the school-house."

And it really moved; the state took fire and has been afire ever since.

Governor Ayc.o.c.k made the educational movement a part of his campaign; Governor Glenn has been hardly less enthusiastic; and the development of the school system has been little short of amazing. When I was in Raleigh last spring J. Y. Joyner, State Superintendent of Schools, who was also one of the pioneer campaigners, told me that a new school-house was being built for every day in the year, and new school libraries established at the same rate. Between 1900 and 1906 the total amount of money expended for schools in North Carolina more than doubled, and while the school population in the same years had increased only 6 per cent., the daily attendance had increased 28 per cent.

_North Carolina Compared with Ma.s.sachusetts_

To give a graphic idea of the progress in education, I can do no better than to show the increase in public expenditures since 1872:

1872 Total school expenditures $ 42,856 1880 Total school expenditures 349,831 1890 Total school expenditures 787,145 1900 Total school expenditures 1,091,610 1906 Total school expenditures 2,291,053

I have looked into the statistics and I find that North Carolina spends more per hundred dollars of taxable property for school purposes than Ma.s.sachusetts, which is perhaps the leading American state in educational expenditures. In 1906 North Carolina raised $.40 on every one hundred dollars, while Ma.s.sachusetts raised $.387. But this does not mean, of course, that North Carolina has reached the standard of Ma.s.sachusetts; it only shows how the people, though not rich, have been willing to tax themselves. And they have only just begun; the rate of illiteracy of the state, as in all the South, is still excessive among both white and coloured people. According to the last census, North Carolina has more illiterate white people than any other state in the Union, a condition due, of course, to its large population of mountaineers. While the progress already made is notable the leaders still have a stupendous task before them. At the present time, although taxing itself more per hundred dollars' worth of property than Ma.s.sachusetts, North Carolina pays only $2.63 each year for the education of each child, whereas Ma.s.sachusetts expends $24.89--nearly ten times as much.

I do not wish to over-emphasise the work in North Carolina; I am merely using conditions there as a convenient ill.u.s.tration of what is going on in greater or less degree all over the South. One of the group of early enthusiasts in North Carolina was P. P. Claxton, who is now in charge of the educational campaign in Tennessee. With President Dabney, formerly of the University of Tennessee and State Superintendent Mynders, Mr. Claxton has conducted a state-wide campaign for education. Every available occasion has been utilised: picnics, court-days, Decoration Days: and often the audiences have been larger and more enthusiastic than political rallies. Indeed, the meetings have been carried on much like a political campaign. At one time over one hundred speakers were in the field. Every county in the state was stumped, and in two years it was estimated that over half of the entire population of the state actually attended the meetings. Labour unions and women's clubs were stirred to activity, resolutions were pa.s.sed, politicians were called upon to declare themselves, and teachers' organisations were formed. The result was most notable. In 1902 the state expended $1,800,000 for educational purposes; in 1908--six years later--the total will exceed $4,000,000.

A similar campaign has been going on in Virginia, under the auspices of the Cooperative Educational a.s.sociation, in which the leaders have been Dr. S. C. Mitch.e.l.l, Professor Bruce Payne, President Alderman, and others.

In this work Ex-Governor Montague has also been a force for good, both while he was governor and since, and Governor Swanson at present is actively interested. Local leagues were formed in every part of the state to the number of 324. Negroes have also organised along the same line and now have ten local a.s.sociations in five counties.

_How the South Is Taxing Itself_

One of the most striking features of the movement has been the development of the system of local taxation for school purposes--which is a long step in the direction of democracy. In the past the people have looked more or less to some outside source for help--to state or national funds, or the private gifts of philanthropists, or they have depended upon private schools--but now they are voting to take the burden themselves. In other words, with the building up of a popular school system, supported by local taxation, education in the South is becoming, for the first time, democratic. It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of this movement in stimulating the local pride and self-reliance of the people, or in inspiring each community with educational enthusiasm.

Another development of profound influence has been going on in the South.

As I have already pointed out, the so-called "Northern philanthropist" has long been interested in Southern education, especially Negro education.

For years his activities awakened, and indeed still awaken, a good deal of hostility in some parts of the South. Many Southerners have felt that the Northerners, however good their intentions, did not understand Southern conditions, and that some of the money was expended in a way that did not help the cause of progress in the South.

_South and North Work Together_

But both the Northerners (whatever their mistakes in method may have been) and the new Southern leaders were intensely and sincerely interested in the same thing: namely, better education and better conditions in the South. It was natural that these two groups of earnest and reasonable men should finally come together in a spirit of cooperation; and this is, indeed, what has happened. Out of a series of quiet conferences held in the South grew what has been called the "Ogden movement" and the Southern Education Board. This organisation was made up of three different cla.s.ses of men: first, a group of the Southern leaders of whom I have spoken--Mitch.e.l.l, Alderman, Dabney, Curry, Houston, Hill, McIver, Claxton, Edgar Gardner Murphy, Sydney J. Bowie, and Henry E. Fries; second, Southern men who, living in the North, were yet deeply interested in the progress of the South--men like Walter H. Page, George Foster Peabody, and Frank R. Chambers; and, finally, the Northerners--Robert C. Ogden, who was president of the board, William H. Baldwin, H. H. Hanna, Dr. Wallace b.u.t.trick, Albert Shaw, and Dr. G. S. d.i.c.kerman.

One of the inspirers of the movement, also a member of the board, was Dr.

H. B. Frissell, who followed General Armstrong as princ.i.p.al of Hampton Inst.i.tute.