First, That the negro is capable of development to a point whose limit I have not yet discovered.

Second, That the vast majority are still children intellectual ly and little short of savage morally

Third, That the relation between the races at present, however theoretically estranged, is yet practically and very largely kindly, cordial, and often affectionate - only really disturbed by the astonishingly small class of brutes whose diabolical conduct acts as fire to combustibles.

Fourth, That whatever the future may have in store, the present has the grave duty of making better the generation with which it has to deal, and the certain result of aiding the future solution through the training of more enlightened and moral and responsible characters who will grapple with the problem. No one will be hardy enough to maintain that ignorance is as wise as enlightenment, or that the one is as safe as the other.

Fifth, That no solution of difficulties growing out of the relations of two races is going to be permanent and satisfactory unless both races have made contributions to it. For no arbitrary solution, imposed from without, is either apt to be right, or likely to be tolerated for long.

This brings me to the final consideration for which all that I have said has been preparing - the education of the negro. The only right way to help a race, or an individual (unless he be an invalid or an imbecile), is to help him help himself, and this, in its wide sense, is education. Education does not mean Latin and Greek and mathematics and literature; it does not mean one or all of these things necessarily; it means one or all of these in the measure in which they are found useful or necessary to the edification of him who is being fitted for his life's work. It is conceivable that it may mean none of these things in the education of some exceptional being. But to train the mind to right uses of its powers, that it may do its duty in discriminating absorption of what life and experience offer to it, rejecting the meretricious and assimilating and incorporating the meritorious into its life, and thus to edify the character — this is the business of education. The success, of course, depends largely

upon the discriminating ability of the teacher, who studies his pupil as closely as he does the subjects to be imparted.

I say of this education, of this helping the negro to help himself, that it is the duty of the Christian South (which she has been fulfilling right nobly, too), that it is necessary to the welfare of our land, to the better development of both races, and to their more peaceful relations. Do not misunderstand me; I do not propose education as the solution, and the only solution, of the great problem. I propose it as an auxiliary force in its solution incalculably strong. I propose it as the divine power which is instinct with the religion which God gave to his people in the olden time, and which He immeasurably enlarged in Jesus Christ our Lord, by which He would lead His people out of darkness into light. Religion is in a real sense education, in my thought of it; it presupposes it and requires it as a necessary corollary. And the religion of the Christ, Who is the light of men, is unthinkable without the divine illumination of all God's mysteries, natural and spiritual, human and divine, earthly and heavenly.

Of all the races with whom we come in contact, the negro certainly does not need less than others this education which is to take account of all his faculties, and both of his natures, the natural and the spiritual. The fact that he lives in the midst of enlightenment dooms him the more surely to deterioration unless his faculties be trained. And who can doubt but that his deterioration must drag down the great body of those who are in closest relation to him?

I have entered into such detail as time will permit in my thought about education, because the further question is in mind: if this be the education needed to meet conditions, who is to provide it? It is easily conceivable that the time will come when the development of the choicest spirits among the negroes will provide the prophets of both religion and enlightenment to their race. But I do not believe that any one who knows the race in its present stage of development would venture to say that it is wise to leave it entirely to its own leadership in any department of life. I would not detract one iota from the distinction (which I rejoice in) which any of the great negro lead

ers have achieved, but, in my judgment, the negroes are not yet ready to emancipate themselves wholly from white guidance and white leadership. The ideal educational work among the race is being done more largely by schools which are under white management and instruction than by those under the control of negroes alone. I am not prepared to say whether or not the work at Tuskegee, for example, is to be compared with that of Hampton, for I do not know enough about it. But there is another and perhaps a deeper reason for my contention for white supervision of negro education. The negro's life must be lived among the whites. The adjustments of life are not always easy to be made. The estrangements would be intolerable if they became extreme to the point of hatred. And, however the better and more cultured class of negroes would express it to themselves, some similar thought is in their minds when they, too, many of them, are anxious that the separation of the races shall not extend to the point of all loss of contact with white teacher or preacher.

The sentiment and practice upon this point differ widely in different States of the South, and in different communities of the same State. In my native State, South Carolina, there are not a few South Carolina women and men teaching the negroes in parochial schools and preaching to them as their beloved teachers and pastors. In my adopted State, which I love more and more as the days go by, I do not know a single case of a native white woman teaching negro children, though there are not a few of our men who preach to them.

In this great Mississippi valley, teeming with negroes, we need the help of our white people. If I were able to establish what I consider the ideal school to meet our conditions in the valley of this great river, this is what I would have. A rural industrial plant, with perhaps a clergyman of practical abilities, or certainly a devoutly religious layman, at its head; with the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, as necessary parts of the curriculum, just as necessary as spelling or plowing; with morality as the foundation of everything; an institution segregated from town temptation, where discipline could be firmly, rigidly and kindly enforced; where the arts of nature could be taught and God in His

nature studied, known and loved; where the race would be taught that race integrity is obedience to God's own creation and appointment, and race intercourse, kindly and cordial, is not race equality; that indeed "race equality," the very expression, is an anachronism belonging to a mediæval period of Reconstruction history, which is gone long ago to its reckoning; that there is no use of such expressions as race equality as between white and black any more than between white and yellow. They are simply two races living in the same territory and trying to be as helpful to one another as possible and trying to work out God's great problem as best they can. The races of men are equally the great God's children, and their destiny is in His hands. The purpose of race distinction is known only to Him. Much, no doubt, can be learned of His purpose through the research of consecrated Christian men of scientific mind working in union, and above all, working in true scientific spirit to discover God's purpose for His creation. No other spirit will reveal the truth concerning this great question.

You have, of course, recognized that I have not attempted a scientific discussion, but have rather avoided it. I have had but one purpose in mind. I am speaking for the most part to teachers who have a ministry in life as clearly defined as my own, and shall I not add a most sacred ministry: as preacher, teacher, minister, I solemnly call you, my brothers, to attention to a great problem, to its vital interest to the world, to your part in its solution. Its deeper study can only be made by the specialist. Generalizations about it are generally erroneous and often harmful. I venture to hope that year by year the popular discussion of the subject may not be abandoned, but that special and scientific study may be made of the race issue in all its bearings.

Jackson, Mississippi.

THEODORE DUBOSE BRATTON.

COMPULSORY EDUCATION AND THE

SOUTHERN STATES*

I.

In any form of monarchy the primary object of education has been to make good, intelligent, loyal subjects. In a democracy, such as ours, the primary object of education is to make good, intelligent, loyal sovereigns. We are admittedly making "the most stupendous experiment in government" that the world has ever seen. We are making of every man a citizen, clothing him with the power to make and to administer the laws of a great nation, and to direct and control all the forces and resources of our institutional life. To cope successfully with so gigantic a problem requires intelligence and training of the highest order known to men. If our government is to endure, if it is to achieve that eminence among the powers of the earth to which we pledge our faith, it must secure to itself an intelligent, prosperous, and orderly citizenship. Intelligence and virtue lie at the very foundation of any people's greatness; intelligent and virtuous citizens are a State's fundamental asset, and the State which has the largest percentage of illiteracy has relatively the smallest percentage of effective citizens.

It would be exceedingly difficult to reduce the virtues of any two peoples to a common denominator, and no less difficult to do so with the native intelligence of any two peoples, but it is not difficult to measure the illiteracy of any people, to discover if it can be reduced or removed, and to realize the results of its removal. Let us look at our illiteracy and analyze it. Coming from the South, I ask the attention of the South, where we have

The increased interest in this subject leads us to add two further papers to its discussion already offered in the January SEWANEE REVIEW by Mr. George F. Milton, editor of the Knoxville, Tenn., Sentinel. These papers are respectively by the Professor of Secondary Education in the University of South Carolina, read before the National Conference for Charities and Corrections May 10, in Richmond, Va., and by the editor of the Mobile, Ala., Register, read before the Conference for Education in the South April 24, in Memphis, Tenn, These problems are not confined to any locality, but apply to all the States.-THE Editor.