Summary of statistics of institutions for the instruction of the colored race, &c.— Cont'd.

Table showing the number of schools for the colored race and enrolment in them by institu

a There should be added the 655 schools in free States, having an enrolment of 54,322, making total number of colored public schools 18,258 and total enrolment in them 1,056, 635. This makes the total number of schools, as far as reported, 18,422, and total number of colored race under instruction in them 1,080,441. In free States in which no separate report of colored schools is made, the figures of the United States Census of 1880 have been used.

The education of the colored youth of the South continues to be a matter of grave interest. Of the many questions to which its consideration gives rise three may be regarded as of chief importance: Are the funds devoted to this purpose sufficient as compared with the amounts allowed elsewhere? Is the instruction adequate? Are the results more and more encouraging, whether we regard the number brought under instruction or the effects of the instruction? With reference to the first inquiry information is furnished in the foregoing table of comparative statistics of education in the South and in Table I, Part 2, Summary B, of per capita expenditure. It will be well to look a little more closely at the effort put forth by the States under consideration as compared with other States, remembering that, with the exception of Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, both races share alike in the distribution of the school moneys. What a State really pays for education in any year is shown by the amount of the fund distributed and the average attendance of the pupils, where this is fully and correctly given. That serious errors and omissions are made by local authorities with reference to this estimate, especially where no efficient

supervision exists, is well known. However, upon such showing as we have, I call attention to a few comparative statements:

Florida, with a population1 of 269,493, school age being 6 to 21, reports an expenditure of $4.80 per capita on average attendance; Rhode Island, population being 276,531, school age 5 to 16, reports $16.89 on average attendance.

Georgia, with a population of 1,542,180, school age being 6 to 18, reports $3.25 per capita on average attendance; Iowa, population being 1,624,615, school age 5 to 21, reports $19.50 per capita on average school attendance.

Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia, combined population being 4,454,674, the longest school age 6 to 21, report an average of $5.22 per capita on average attendance; Pennsylvania, with a population of 4,282,891, school age 6 to 21, reports $12.52 per capita on average attendance.

West Virginia, with a population of 618,457, school age being 6 to 21, reports $7.56 per capita ou average attendance; Connecticut, with a population of 622,700, school age being 4 to 16, reports $19.64 per capita on average attendance.

Louisiana, Maryland, and South Carolina, combined population being 2,870,466, the longest school age being from 5 to 20, give $10.21 as the per capita on average attendance; Illinois, population being 3,077,871, school age 6 to 21, reports $19.99 per capita on average attendance.

Mississippi, with a population of 1,131,597, school age being 5 to 21, reports $3.65 per capita on average attendance; New Jersey, population being 1,131,116, school age 5 to 18, reports $15.14 per capita on average attendance.

It is unnecessary to pursue these comparisons further, as in every case the advantage is so clearly on the side of the Northern States.

In England and Wales, for 1883, the cost of maintenance per child in average attendance upon public schools was 27. 18. 34d., or $10.40; in Scotland, 21. 28. 14d., or $10.25; cost for providing new accommodation not being included. In Malta and Gozo, colonies of Great Britain, for the same year, the corresponding expense was 11. 58. 24d., or $6.13; in Victoria, 47. 08. 34d., or $19.53; in South Australia, 27. 168. 7‡d., or $13.77; in New Zealand, 41. 38. 74d., or $20.34.

But (to return to our own country) I have not brought into this consideration the ability of the States to provide for the education of the youth of school age, as shown by their property valuation. This would hardly make the case stronger than the general statements which come to us from different quarters.

Almost without exception, the State and school officers of the Southern States are agreed that their States can do no more at present. They admit their increasing prosperity; they point, as they may well do, to the rapid increase in their school funds, amounting, as our tables show, to something over $2,000,000 since 1882; but over against these facts they call to mind the continued depression of all valuations in their midst, the long prostration of business, their want of school accommodations and of trained teachers, and, above all, the burden of illiteracy which rests upon them, and they declare that this illiteracy cannot be overcome by means of the State and local funds as rapidly as the interests of the particular States involved and of the entire nation demand. We have even more impartial testimony upon this point.

Hon. J. L. M. Curry says in his latest report to the trustees of the Peabody fund: The States which comprise the field of the operations of the fund gradually increase in their material resources. With advancing prosperity come corresponding ability and inclination to foster general education. With increased taxable property school revenues increase.

But, while this admission was fully confirmed by the knowledge of the trustees themselves, the facts as known both to them and to their agent were still such as to lead them to renew their appeal to Congress for Federal aid.

Whether the instruction given in the colored schools meets the requirements de

'Population in each case is taken from census of 1880. The population is employed as indicating that the States compared have as nearly as possible equal school populations.

pends largely upon the money appropriated, inasmuch as the amount determines the length of the school year and in a measure the quality of the teachers. The average length of the school year in the most favored States of the Union is from 7 to 9 months of 20 days each. All reports and personal observation show that this is a limit seldom reached in the States under consideration, the funds oftentimes allowing. no more than 2 or 3 months to the school year. As to teachers, those employed in the southern cities compare favorably with those in the cities of other sections. In the rural districts there is much to depress the service, more, apparently, than in the rest of the country. These drawbacks are not, however, more unfavorable to the progress of the colored than of the white schools, excepting so far as white teachers have the advantage in inherited aptitudes and domestic and social surroundings. Even here it must not be forgotten that many of the colored schools have had the service of northern teachers, who gave themselves to the work in the true missionary spirit; as a rule they were trained teachers, so that their instruction not only has taken hold of the moral nature of their pupils, but at the same time has been characterized by excellent methods.

The table indicates what the various religious denominations are still doing in this direction. It must, however, be borne in mind that nearly all of the teachers trained in the various institutions there presented have been and will be drawn to the cities and to schools above the lower grades; hence the rural schools must look to other sources for qualified teachers. At the present time their wants, in this respect, are only too apparent; but the future prospect is cheering, provided the necessary funds for supporting the work begun are forthcoming. The recent policy of the trustees of the Peabody fund has done much to create throughout the South a full appreciation of the importance of this matter. The fund is now applied chiefly in two directions, namely, to teachers' institutes and to normal schools. The former are State institutes, conducted in a superior manner and intended to furnish a model for local institutes; and it is only as they are supplemented by the latter that the large body of rural teachers can be reached. The number of these institutes is increasing and there seems to be a growing disposition to provide for them out of local or State funds. A high standard of training cannot, however, be maintained without the influence of normal schools; so that we look to the condition of these rather than to that of subordinate agencies when endeavoring to determine what are the prospects of improvement in the teaching force of any section. Normal schools, including the Normal College at Nashville, Tenn., and the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, received from the Peabody fund for the year ending October 1, 1884, $19,068. Of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, no truer words could be spoken than those employed by Hon. J. L. M. Curry in his report for 1884:

Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, under the administration of its accomplished president, is almost an anomaly in educational work. Its success has been extraordinary. The sixteenth annual report shows an enrolment of 654 students of the average age of 18 years, representing 10 States and 4 Territories. "The record of Hampton's graduates is the test of Hampton's success." They largely engage in teaching, and do such satisfactory work that the applications for teachers exceed the supply. An important change in the course of study is to be tried. Hereafter each class will be sent out for one year of teaching or other practical work. It is thought that, after a year of real life work, the student will come back with valuable experience and a new purpose. Hampton has three industrial departments-the household, the agricultural, the mechanical-and the result is "proving that industrial training tends, on the whole and in the long run, not against, but to favor, mental progress.' The view here expressed is abundantly confirmed by my personal knowledge of the operations of this institution. The industrial element so successfully developed at Hampton has been introduced in a number of the normal schools for colored teachers. The various complications that have affected the Nashville Normal College for the past few years seem to be happily adjusted. It is now supported by the liberal appropriation from the State treasury of $10,000 per annum and by a contribution of $9,000 per annum from the Peabody fund. The year has witnessed substantial additions to

its resources, the chief being the Ewing Gymnasium and the improvements in Lindsley Hall, "by means of which," to quote Eben S. Stearns, chancellor of the University of Nashville and president of the Normal College, "the college will be put in possession of one of the largest and best appointed working chemical laboratories in 'the South."

At this point I should like to introduce specific statements from the current reports of State superintendents showing the efforts that are being made in the Southern States to establish normal schools and to equip them for their work, statements which are confirmed by my personal knowledge of the facts; but space forbids that I should longer dwell upon this subject.

The increase of enrolment and of average attendance in the public schools for colored children must be regarded as one of the surest evidences of progress. So far as this can be exactly shown, it is brought out in the tables of my successive reports and in the abstracts of the appendix. Since 1882 it will be seen that the total increase of enrolment in the colored schools of the Southern States and the District of Columbia is 199,331. As a rule, average attendance increases with the increase of enrolment. Under this head Hon. G. J. Orr, State school commissioner of Georgia, having presented a carefully prepared table showing the enrolment and average attendance in the common schools of his State since 1871, says:

This table shows continuous progress, without any backward movement; a thing which, as far as I am informed, has not occurred in any other Southern State.

South Carolina has been working against peculiar difficulties; nevertheless, progress has there been maintained. In Mississippi and Florida the outlook is more hopeful than formerly. In Louisiana the school system has much to contend with, and more especially in the city of New Orleans, but prominent citizens have been roused to thoughtful concern in the matter and have organized a society to promote public education in the city and State. In Kentucky, Superintendent Pickett, after the most persistent effort, has succeeded in securing the passage in the legislature of a school bill, by a majority of 21 votes, which "increases the school fund more than $200,000; gives counties power to levy a local tax for the whole county; abolishes the district idea and makes the county the unit; provides for county superintendents instead of commissioners; makes trustees finable for failure to provide suitable schoolhouses; makes the school month 20 days; forbids a change in text books more than once in 5 years; and provides for model teachers' institutes." In the remaining States there is a continuation of the progress reported for several successive years.

While the condition of school attendance and support is so gratifying, evidences are not wanting that work carried on in the past has effected a great improvement in the morals, industrial habits, and general intelligence of the colored people. This is more and more apparent to me as official duty calls me year after year to renew my personal observation of different sections of the South, and my opinion is confirmed by the statements of so many eminent men, thoroughly familiar with the field, that I am sure it cannot be refuted.

PEABODY FUND.

Table showing the amount and disposition of the sums disbursed from the Peabody fund from 1868 to 1884, inclusive.

1868.

1869. 1870. 1871. 1872. 1873. 1874. 1875. 1876.

Virginia......

North Carolina..

South Carolina.

$4,750 $12,700 $10, 300 $15, 950 $29, 700 $36, 700 $31,750 $23, 350 $17,800 2,700 6,350 7,650 8,750 8,250 9,750 14, 300

16,900

8,050

The disbursements from the Peabody fund from 1868 to 1884, inclusive, amount to $1,476,579. In 1882 they showed increase over several preceding years, since which they have again declined a little. Four States, Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Louisiana, received larger appropriations than in 1883, while Texas shows a smaller appropriation than for several years. Properly managed, the magnificent school fund of the last named State will eventually render it quite independent of any outside aid and, so far as school money goes, will place it among the leading States of the Union.

The stimulating influence of the Peabody fund has extended far beyond the limits of the pecuniary aid afforded. The present agent, Hon. J. L. M. Curry, has continued the policy of his predecessors in giving his personal inspection and counsel to every part of the States aided. He has, moreover, accomplished great and lasting results by his eloquent and pointed addresses before the legislatures of most of the States participating in the fund. His adaptation to efforts of this kind is so marked that