Show EDUCATION AT IRE SOUtH roe north and especially tho republican re-publican portion of it baa been in the habit of sharply criticising the eouthein leaders on account of the ignorance of tae masses It has been alleged and not without some truth that many of the political and social evil innhe south are directly traceable trace-able to the lack of educational facilities facili-ties and to the oppoition to popular education that has been something of a characteristic of the batter class of southern people There were three classes in the south the aristocrats who owned the plantations and the negroes the poor white trash tioerdo well people who occupied a Bart of halfway position betnoen be respectable whites and the blacks and trio slaves themselves who though they were human were regarded re-garded by themselves and their owners own-ers as cattle of a little higher order than ibe other domestic animala I about the plantation Tbe first named were highly educated more for the purpose of shoving that they were rich and aristocratic than with an idea to its usefulness But there education practically stopped The theory of education at the public expense ex-pense wai never popular at tbe south one reason being the desire of those who bad the property to mark the contrast between the classes The poor could not educate and being indolent in-dolent and without the ambition that one observes in a more rugged climate and also having only vague ideas of the value learning it ii doubtful if they were anxious to obtain the benefits ben-efits and advantages of education Of course the thought of educating the blocks never entered the hands of the masters It was rather the desire to keep them in ignorance as they could thereby be more easily managed Practically tje south has known nothing of the free school system except ex-cept by observation at the ortb Lately however a change has come over the southrons and the results are highly gratifying It is also pleasing to know that the new departure de-parture may be attributed to the southern people themselves and has been more distinctly marked since those people have acquired control of their government affairs It is i not a carpetbag invention from the north Indeed the schools of tbe south are now suffering from the carpetbag rule and ruin at the country The mayor of Charleston South Carolina has presented a report from which some interesting facts are obtained ob-tained In 1860 the number of children in the public schools ol the city was 4000 These of course were all white as the negroes were not taught in those days In 1SSO Charleston had in her public schools 4140 children 2071 whites and 2069 blacks Tne population in 1880 was 49000 being very little over the number in 1860 and was about equally divided as to race Thus while the number of children to be educated has been doubled the attendance at-tendance has not increased More than onehalf of those of school age are without the means of public instruction in-struction and there ia neither room nor money to provide for more The mayor clearly presents the facts And IIYI Charleston if i doing more than she ever did before and more in comparison than any tate ia the Union This statement seems strange in conneo tion with the comparatively Email school attendance but it is explained in the mayors report The assessed value of property ii 21000000 while in 1860 it was 45000000a reduction of more than onehalf of taxable value in the face of an obligation obli-gation to educate more than double the number of children In 1880 the school tax was 81 mills The mayor shows that this rate is nearly as much again as that of Boston whose schools are models and whose people have he worldwide reputation of giving liberally for education ed-ucation In brief the report is a 4 pretty conclusive argument to prove that the city cannot at present educate 4 edu-cate her children and for Ibis reason i rea-son The burden and evil that is If upon us is i the common ruin of war and the common fate of political anarchy and plunder for a term of years What is true of Charleston I is also true of tbe state end of the south generally The country is impoverished < im-poverished and debt burdened and It must bear the expense of educating a race made citizens by a power applied I I tl ap-plied from without and that race pays but 3 per cent of the taxes 4 Bad as the situation is honerer a tho butlook ia nbt BO gloomy as it might be Ttio people or those of them vho have the money are fast getting over tbeir oldtime ideas about education and are beginning to learn that all educated community is a better and more prosperous community in every respect than one where the masse are ignorant Seventy year ago there were only 123 public schools in i South Carolina and the appropriation for them was but 37000 a year The schools increased very elowlynot much faster than the white population popula-tion until the outbreak of the war when they were virtually discontinued discontin-ued In 1876 the school fund had increased to 9189352 and the number num-ber of schools to 2483 while the white pupils were 46444 and the colored 55952 Last year the schools numbered 2973 the fund had grown to 357415 and tbe pupil increAsed to 61219 whites and 72853 colored These figures indicao that tbe slat is fast becoming Americanized in the matter of free popular education When schools are not provided the failure can be attributed to inabilit rather than want of inclination It the south ran be let alone she will redeem herself It will take time to accomplish as much as has been don In the more prosperous north but the I rapid advance made in late years and the evident awakening of the people to their duty to themselves and coming generations are broad enough promises that the future will be satisfactory |