It is further argued that a child forced to attend school will derive but little benefit from the school. Those who argue thus forget that the compulsion is not in bringing to school the unwilling child, but in forcing an indifferent, selfish, heartless parent to let his child go to school.

Another contention is that compulsory laws could not be enforced without truant officers, and that such officers must be paid out of the school funds. I at once admit the necessity of the truant officer, and that he must be paid. The city of Richmond would no doubt save thousands of dollars every year in the way of salaries, if it would dismiss its policemen, its constables, and its detectives. But these officers are necessary to perform for the people services more valuable than the amount of their salaries. So it is with the truant officer.

In some sections of the South serious objection is made to compulsory attendance by sincere but shortsighted people on the ground that a compulsory law would enforce an increased attendance of the negro children as well as the white children. Such objection has in it several elements of weakness. Those who offer the negro as an objection overlook the fact that the negro parent needs such a law less than the white parent needs it. Be it said to our shame that the negro is sending his child to school with an eagerness than challenges our admiration. Considering the negro's opportunity he is sending his child to school well, and throughout the South the percentage of illiteracy among the negroes is decreasing more rapidly than among the whites.

The weakness of the main argument against compulsory attendance on account of the negro is truly pathetic. Is it wise or expedient to permit thousands of our white boys and girls to grow up in ignorance, lest in forcing them to school we should awaken the aspirations of the negro child? Shall we remain ignorant in order to encourage him to remain ignorant? Is it better for white and black to remain ignorant than to have white and black made intelligent? The only logical conclusion to such argument is that an ignorant white man can compete successfully with an ignorant negro, but that an educated white man can not compete with an educated negro. Then what becomes of our boasted superiority of the white man? Has the white man

so nearly reached the zenith of his possibilities that further education will not keep him well in advance of the ambitious negro? But we are reminded that the increased attendance of the negro means additional weight to the present white man's burden. I freely admit this; but it must be remembered that ignorance is the heaviest burden which the whites of the South have borne during the past forty years. I know only too well what that burden is to-day; but our very existence is wrapped up in this question. No matter how great was the blunder, to him and to us, in making the negro a citizen without one day's preparation, no matter how inferior a citizen he has been in the past, no matter how unsatisfactory have been the results of his schooling, wisdom and prudence bid us look resolutely toward the future, and to improve upon the past.

Not only is it the duty of the State to maintain schools for the children, and to require them to attend the schools, but it is the imperative duty of the State to provide the right kind of schools, and the right kind of education. Ideal schools and bonuses offered for good attendance will never, in my opinion, make a school system so alluring as to bring into the schools the children of grasping, heartless parents. The children of such parents are in bondage- the bondage of ignorance, and indifference, and greed, and stifling cupidity. Yet it is perfectly reasonable to say that our schools would be better attended if they were more efficient. By efficiency I mean adaptation to the actual needs of the pupils. The schools of the people, especially above the primary grades, are the schools of the middle ages, and need reconstruction, readjustment, and rearticulation, to meet the demands of the twentieth century conditions and ideals.

Perhaps the greatest defect in our schools is their failure to inculcate a taste and appreciation for work. To me it is no wonder that the ignorant laboring man who refuses to send his child to school claims that he prefers to teach his child to work, because his child must work when he leaves school. That man feels that his child would not have instilled into him any love for toil.

Men of the South, it is high time to end our specious arguments, to quit our scholastic quibbling, and throw aside our

Education is the surest remedy for those conditions existing in the South that are obstacles to our social and material prog

ress.

If ignorance stands in the way of the creation of a sound public sentiment and moral and industrial progress, it is our duty to banish it. Yet it is a fact that a considerable proportion of the children of school age do not go to school. This is our problem: Ignorance on the one hand and inadequate effort on the other. If a considerable proportion of the young of our country do not go to school, and reach man's estate without knowing how to read and write, we have a continuing basis of illiteracy; and this problem that now confronts us will merely be pushed along to the next generation, unsolved.

We must have compulsory education — the only means whereby the South can be saved from illiteracy.

We all agree in this opinion, and some here to-day will speak with enthusiasm of it, as not only desirable but at command. We must, however, face the difficulties. I think we gain nothing by avoiding them, but rather retard progress. I stand here, therefore, asking you to look the matter in the face and say whether or to what extent we may have compulsory education in the South.

Some who are unacquainted with the conditions think that all that is necessary is to build the schools and pass the laws, and then we will have compulsory education. The little question of paying for the improvements is passed as trivial. Nevertheless, it is a serious question in the South, where a notable portion of the population is not self-supporting in an educational way, and has to be supported by the other portion that has already its own children to look after.

Take the county of Dallas, in my own State of Alabama, as

an example. According to the Census of 1900 there were less. than 10,000 white inhabitants in that county, and 45,000 blacks. This, with compulsory education, means that some 4,000 white adults must not only educate their own children, but the children of some 15,000 adult blacks. The burden would be heavier than those few white citizens could bear, even were they willing to undertake it.

Then as to Alabama. There were in Alabama, as per this 1900 Census, 733,000 children of school age, from five to twenty years; 394,000 white and 338,000 blacks. Now, as seven years is the usual school life of children, the possible enrollment would be 370,000. The number of children who attended school in 1900 is recorded as 161,000 whites and 78,000 colored, total 240,000, or fifty-five per cent, leaving forty-five per cent attending no school and growing up in ignorance.

This was the situation in 1900, and there has been steady progress since that date in increasing educational facilities, and in increasing general interest in the schools. The formation of School Improvement Associations, the holding of elections to vote special taxes in support of the schools, and the Acts of the Legislature appropriating for high schools and for primary and other schools, have caused people to think more about education and this has brought about increased attendance. There has also been an increase of population. It is probable that a larger proportion than fifty-five per cent now attends the schools; and we hazard little in saying that sixty per cent does so attend.

Coming to the practical question, we note that Alabama has in recent years shown much interest in education and has greatly increased her appropriation for public schools. Directly, the State has appropriated $1,500,000 for public schools, and this does not include what is derived from the special tax levied in forty-seven counties, or the aid given by municipalities. The total is in the neighborhood of $2,000,000. Now, if $2,000,000 pays for the schooling of between fifty and sixty per cent of the school population, we see that at least twice that amount, or $4,000,000 will be needed to provide schools and teachers for the whole population. State Superintendent Gunnels recently boasted of what Alabama was doing for education, and it is a

plain inference that, in the opinion of this well-informed public servant, Alabama is doing much and is making a highly creditable effort. May we expect the people of the State to do twice as much? We do not say that they cannot do it, but will they do it? It appears to be largely a question of educating the public to the accomplishment of an ideal, and it is for this sort of work we are here, hoping to create in some measure a public sentiment in favor of increased appropriation, more schools, and better facilities for obtaining education in the South.

There are other difficulties also, such as inadequate road sys-' tem, indisposition of the blacks to put their children in school when the children are needed in the fields a strong sentiment on their part against compulsory education would have to be

overcome.

This subject was given attention and thorough discussion last December in a meeting of State Superintendents and other educators in Atlanta, Ga., under the auspices of the Southern Education Board, but no conclusion was reached other than the adoption of a resolution as to compulsory attendance, reading: "Increased attendance by urging the importance of education, and, also, by conservative legal requirement in such communities as are prepared for this.

num.

In the meantime, what is to be done besides the creation of public sentiment? The most valuable suggestion has come from Florida, where a plan is in force, extending the school term for two months in all schools that show eighty per cent and over of attendance. Some five hundred schools have earned this reward, and the additional expense to the State is but $60,000 per anThis is the nearest approach in a Southern State to compulsory attendance - it is not compulsory at all, of course, but induced attendance. It does not force the children into the schools, it leads them; and that is what we can all do. We have not the money as yet to require all to attend school, but we can lead them more and more, until there will be so many inside that we can afford to provide compulsory attendance for the small remainder. I earnestly hope that this may be accomplished soon. ERWIN CRAIGHEAD.

Mobile, Alabama,