Show illiteracy AND INJUSTICE it t f we aro are frequently told by utah and by persons returning curnin from trips of business or pe asire that great numbers of people in the eastern and even ii in a the southern states actually believe the people of utah arc aro very ignorant scarcely able to read or write they receive these impressions from the pious frauds who go from this territory apy to the states to bear false ag witness s against their neighbors for the pious purpose of working on the sympathies of the simple to induce them to contribute money for the ostensible purpose of con converting vertin cormons mormons Mor mons to christianity to assist them to work f S jeri cerious us mischief against them in these matters they have been aided by a venal press never hesitates to propagate the darkest falsehoods against utah and her best citizens whom it cannot rule but is trying to ruin it has been repeatedly demonstrated that the educational status of utah compares favorably with that of any other part of the union mft ct and h I is S higher than in some of the states notably in the south in the presidents message of last jear year we read the following remarks the census returns disclose an alarming state of illiteracy in in certain portions of the country where the provisions for schools is grossly neglected in the message of the previous year the president said many who now exercise the suffrage rage are unable to read the ballot which they cast now the question naturally arises in what part pirt at of the country does so much illiteracy exist A few quotations taken at random from the biffi official cial r census of 1880 will at least partly answer the query and show the relative educational status of utah to other r P parts artion arti of the union heob we observe no special order in our references total per cent un A population able to read newl york california alabama 2933 F florida lorida 2606 west va georgia 2396 nebraska utah s the people of utah will compare as favorably with thou their near or remote e neighbors in in many m ciny other branches a of education as they do in HUU U aaa reading we have been lead to these remarks by reading a communication in the wasl washington agton republican from john ina M gregory who has recently returned from a tour through the sou thern states in the interest of education we make the following in extracts from the article believing they well be perused with much interest by the readers of the HERALD having returned from a tour 01 observation lin in the southern k State in the interests of edu cation I wish to add my testimony to the urgent need of this national aid advised by the president the census gives ua us the alarming extent of illiteracy as counted in numbers but personal observation can reveal its serious I and ind deplorable darkness I illiteracy when confined to email small m minorities inoel is mitigated by its surroundings one illiterate among ten or twenty persons who read and whose conver Ration gives him as with a stron strong reflected light the ideas and the ian language of the worlds current through is 13 simply unlettered but not necessarily ignorant but when the great majority in any community are billit crate when the one who can read is surrounded by the ten who cannot the case changes illiteracy in thia this case means ignorance the deepest and darkest of all facts in abundance facts as ead aad as they are grotesque might bo be given to show the dense ignorance of the poor whites and negroes of many sections of the south but they would occupy needless general facts open to every i travelers observation even from fr in the car windows better tell ell t the story except that the car windows do not come near some of the darkest the poverty and degradation of language langua ae among these people the gibberish and jargon which serve them for speech tell only too clearly their utter arck if ck of clear ideas the commonest political facts and truths guide good citizens in the their ir political duties are incommunicable in such language and are utterly beyond comprehension of tens of thousands of these voters voter a their ignorance norance is is even wider than than the illiteracy if illiteracy literacy since this poverty of speech makes it impossible for many who can read to understand what they read curlit our literature is a sealed book and the newspapers are to them buta chinese puzzle the low and degrading su superstitions which prevail bunone them are al another iother odthe of the evidences of their cx ex ignorance iff norance the tito fetishism feti chism of africa and the dark magic of the tile middle apes ages have their counterparts in beliefs prevalent in many of tho the cabins of the south the wretched hovels almost without furniture or decency BO so coin com mouly seen scattered through the slovenly and ill kept fields afford still more conspicuous conspicuous evidence of the tile character of the ignorance which prevails it is the absence of all intelligence in their work that keens keeps them so poor good schools would double the tile wealth and taxpaying tax paying payin I power of the south in ten years by s simply in ay enlightening the present labor tarco force in its fields it would seem invidious to tb enumerate more of these signs of the I lar ignorance prevailing in sections of our common cauntay cau my aim is not to stigmatize some but to stir up all to the dangers that surround us tito best men south as well as north deplore the condition of things and ask its removal by bv the only power competent tto to the tho giant task the national government and that alone can adequately meet this great problem of our national life not an hour should be lost before tho the forces are put yut to work to remedy the growing danger dan ger should congress adjourn without making some provision for this crisis in the nations history it would disappoint the hopes of many thousands thousand of the best men of the country no other of the great measures which ask its attention contain so dark a menace to the public lafety and prosperity as looms up in this dark mass of billiter ate ato citizenship and in no other measure is there hidden such a store of public nood as in the spread of popular education now possible to make in the next few years there may be and doubtless are other places in the union whose educational status is not much rauth better that of the south ing they have enjoyed much better faili facilities ties for acquiring knowle knowledge ge in the various branches of kearnin le learning arnin if ignorance is the parent of vice it t is is demonstrated that abundance of it can be found outside of utah end furnish fine fields and excellent opportunities for missionary labor for those who go from hence to traduce the people of thia this territory but is it not remarkable that while BO so many thousands of ignorant p persons dersons persona persons who cannot read the ballot which they cast at the polls and hence do not know whether they vote for friends or foes for good measures or bad one ones should have the right of suffrage thrust upon them while thousands of intelligent loyal citizens of utah are chased simply for consciences sake besides the ignorant classes above spoken of are called upon by designing leaders to exercise their voting powers for the enactment of laws to deprive the people of this territory of many inalienable rights which are guaranteed to them by tho the constitution in common with all others in every part of thia this great nation this is a radical wrong a cliame and disgrace to the country and it is I 13 time t that hat the national legislature removed the stigma by remedying the evils and metio meting out justice to utah redressing her wrongs and placing her on at least equal footing with her sister territories or by admitting her into the union as ft a sovereign state |