It was reserved to Doctor Curry, as to few of our great American educational workers, to live until he could behold with his own eyes the results of his work, especially as connected with the educational funds of which he for more than twenty years was the general agent. His final promotion as consulting member of the two associations recently established, practically introducing a new revival of the people's common school, especially through the great open country of the South, though not the least of his many distinctions, came too late for any considerable effect upon their management. But as in the case of the prophet of the old time, it may be said of him, his words and his life "did not fall to the ground." The best of what he said and the wisest of all he has accomplished are now the gospel of that remarkable body of men and women who during the past thirty years have been trained in the most valuable normal university in the country. The establishment of the common school in 12 Southern States, for its 5,000,000 school population, having been effected, and its adjustment to the previous southern system of the secondary and higher type in the good time that, God willing and all men and women of good will helping, is sure to come, the original distinction of the South in the building of the nation will be renewed in the achievement of its present generation, which will bring its entire population at last on the "foundation that can not be moved "-the American system of universal education, the only reliable basis for a republican civilization.

In the last interview of the author of this essay with Doctor Curry, he declared, with his usual inspiring emphasis, that in a recent interview with Mr. Booker T. Washington they agreed in the conviction that the present system of common schools in all these States for all people was so firmly established that there was no reasonable prospect that it could be moved and every reasonable prospect of its steady improvement. Well might this man, at the end of more than half a century of his great service for his people and his country, declare: "Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people.”

To obtain a more complete impression of what was accomplished in southern education from the beginning of the Peabody education fund in 1871 to 1895, we reproduce several tables originally appearing in the reports of the Peabody and Slater funds.

Public school statistics in several Southern States.

[Figures in parentheses and across the line indicate that separate returns for white and colored were not made.]

$50,000 appropriated by legislature in addition to amcunt raised by poll tax.

ED 1903-35

Public school statistics in several Southern States.

[Figures in parentheses and across the line indicate that separate returns for white and colored were not made.]

Percentage of total illiteracy in 1890: Alabama, 41; Arkansas, 26.6; Florida, 27.8; Georgia, 39.8; Louisiana, 45.8; Mississippi, 40; North Carolina, 35.7; South Carolina, 45; Tennessee, 26.5; Texas, 19.7; Virginia, 30.2; West Virginia, 14.4.

Percentage of white and colored illiteracy according to the census of 1900: Alabama, white 14.7, colored 57.4; Arkansas, white 11.5, colored 43.0; Florida, white 8.9, colored 38.5; Georgia, white 11.9, colored 52.3; Louisiana, white 18.4, colored 61.1; Mississippi, white 8.0, colored 49.1: North Carolina, white 19.4, colored 47.5; South Carolina, white 13.5, colored 52.8; Tennessee, white 14.1, colored 41.6: Texas, white 8.5, colored 38.2; Virginia, white 11.1, colored 41.6; West Virginia, white 10.3, colored 32.3.

PEABODY EDUCATION FUND.

Tabular statement of the distribution of the income from the year 1868 to September 30, 1897.

The original gift of John F. Slater to the cause of negro education ($1,000,000 in 1882) by wise investment had reached in 1900 the sum of $1,500,000. The expenditure for schools meanwhile had amounted to $650,000.

IV.-EDUCATION IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.

BY THE HON. J. L. M. CURRY.

[An address before the educational conference at Capon Springs, W. Va., June 22, 1899.] I have been requested to present a survey of the educational field of the South. This must necessarily be rapid and imperfect. The starting point is the war between the States, which resulted in the most gigantic revolution of modern time-the emancipation of slaves, the disorganization of the entire labor system of the South, the reversal of traditions, habits, and institutions, the impoverishment of the South, and the addition to the voting population of a large mass of people who, recently in bondage, were suddenly transformed by act of the United States into a body of citizens having the highest privileges and prerogatives. Few people can realize—no one outside the limits of the Confederate States-how utterly transformed everything was, what an upheaval, overthrow of cherished convictions, of habits of life, of social and political environments, and destruction of property. When the surrender of the armies under Lee and Johnston occurred there came the necessary duty of rehabilitation, of setting houses, churches, schools, and government in order for the new and the strange life. During the war, through the Freedmen's Bureau and a few religious organizations, efforts, partial and local, were begun toward giving some education to those who were within the Union lines. This noble and proper effort was often in the hands of fanatical men and women ignorant of negro peculiarities, inexperienced as to methods of teaching, full of self-conceit, and possessed of a fatal facility of rubbing the fur the wrong way.

It must be borne in mind that under the ancient régime no public school system providing universal education existed at the South. There was no system adequate even to the education at public expense of the white youth. Our peculiar social system forbade the education of the negroes. That obviously would have been impossible and dangerous. In the course of a few years systems for both races were established. The difficulties were very great. Population was sparse, roads were bad, schoolhouses did not exist, there was an absolute want of acquaintance with the machinery of public schools, no sufficient supply of competent teachers was to be had, and weighing down all spirit of hopeful progress was the dreary poverty of the taxpayer. It is impossible for those living north of Mason and Dixon's line to realize how universal and crushing was the bankruptcy of the South after Appomattox. In 1861 the real and personal property of Georgia was valued at $661,000,000. At the close of the war $121,000,000 were left. Ex uno disce omnes. Superadd the horrors of reconstruction, its robberies, insults, corruptions, incompetency of officials, and the deliberate attempt to put the white people in subjection to the negroes.

Despite the environments and the hopelessness of the outlook, there were a few who felt that the salvation of the South, the recovery of its lost prestige, depended on universal education. They felt that no better service could be rendered to the country and the great problem which embarrassed or darkened action than a scheme of applying systems, tried and known elsewhere, to the renaissance of the South. Therefore, with hope and courage amid the gloom of disappointment and poverty and despair, the pressure of adverse circumstances, and the struggle for subsistence, they advocated and secured the incorporation into organic law of general education as the only measure which promised to lift up the lately servile race and restore the white people to their former prosperity They persevered in their efforts, until now, in view of the magnificent results achieved, we can set up our Ebenezers. Every State in the South has State-established, State-controlled, State-supported schools for both races, without legal discrimination as to benefits conferred. About $100,000,000, drawn very largely from the taxation of the white

people, have been given for negro education, and 1,250,000 negro children are enrolled in the schools. Nothing in the history of civilization is comparable to this sublime self-denial and this work of enlarged patriotism.

When the Government emancipated the negroes there was an imperative resulting obligation to prepare them for citizenship and freedom, but the Government has persistently and cruelly refused to give one cent of aid to this indispensable work. Along with what the States have done, northern religious societies and some benevolent men and women have given liberally for the education of the negroes, and such institutions as Hampton, Tuskegee, Spelman, Tougaloo, Claflin, Shaw, St. Augustine, and others have done most valuable service in preparing the negrces for their changed condition. These schools, however valuable the work done by them, reach not more than 30,000 pupils, and if all these turned out well, what are they among so many? Every southern man or woman is profoundly grateful for what northern people have done for the education of the negroes-for making coequal citizenship of the two races in the same territory an endurable possibility. The public free schools are the colleges of the people; they are the nurseries of freedom; their establishment and efficiency are the paramount duty of a republic. The education of children is the most legitimate object of taxation. Eighty-five or 90 per cent of the children will never know any education as given by schools except what they obtain in free State schools. It is not, therefore, a question of relative worth of different methods, but of education at all.

It must not be supposed that because prior to the war the Southern States had no systems of public schools for universal education they were negligent of the duty of supplying a large number of the white population with instruction of the highest order. It may surprise some of the audience to learn that, by the census of 1860, when the North had a population of 19,000,000 and the South had 8,000,000, the North had 205 colleges, 1,407 professors, and 29,044 students; the South had 262 colleges, 1,488 professors, and 27,055 students; the North expended for colleges per annum $1,514,688 and for academies $4,663,749, while the South expended for colleges $1,662,419 and for academies $4,328,127. Besides these, in nearly every State were denominational colleges, and I make bold to say that the education furnished, according to the then existing courses of study, was in all respects equal to that furnished elsewhere. Webster once exclaimed of Massachusetts: "There she is—she speaks for herself!" With equal boastfulness the South may say of the results of the education furnished: "There are her men-they speak for themselves!" What portion of the world can surpass our Marshall and Taney, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Henry, Rutledge, Pinckneys, Calhoun, Clay, and scores of others? Obliterate from our history what those men have achieved, and how barren it would be!

It need hardly be said that our institutions of learning shared in the universal poverty which swept over our land. The colleges in some cases were used as barracks and hospitals for the soldiers. Libraries and apparatus were removed or destroyed, and in some instances there has been a weary waiting for compensation after proof, clear and full, leaving no loop to hang a doubt upon. Buildings for dormitories and science halls, very much needed to meet pressing demands, are not finished for want of funds. Professors, faithful and scholarly, are poorly paid. Most pathetic calls from young men and young women hungry for education are heard, and yet they must be turned away in the absence of scholarships and endowments. Some single colored schools have a larger annual income and expend more for running expenses than any university except Johns Hopkins, and as much as the combined outlay of four or five white colleges. The white institutions at the South have had no help from the generosity of the North except what one family has given to the Vanderbilt and the University of Virginia has received from the estate of Fayerweather. Is there any wonder that southern