Here then, with the fact staring us in the face, that the one potential vote of every five votes that decides all the great political questions of the day—questions involving the most complex and far-reaching principles of government—questions of finance, of diplomacy, of commerce, of trade, of the tariff, of the relations of capital and labor, and others whose solution perplexes the minds of our very ablest statesmen—is an utterly ignorant vote, can the American people hesitate to demand of Congress not only immediate but adequate remedial legislation in the shape of ample national aid to elementary education for all of school age, and obligatory attendance within reasonable limits?
But this is not the only fact bearing heavily upon the question of the necessity of national aid to our public school system. If we examine the details of these census tabulations we shall find that much the larger portion of this illiteracy is found in some thirteen or fourteen states. Taking these states and territories in which the proportion of “illiterates” (those unable to write) to the total state or territorial population of ten years of age and upward exceeds 25 per cent., we find that ratio to be: In Alabama, 50.9 per cent.; Arkansas, 38; Florida, 43.4; Georgia, 49.9; Kentucky, 29.9; Louisiana, 49.1; Mississippi, 49.5; New Mexico, 65; North Carolina, 48.3; South Carolina, 55.4; Tennessee, 38.7; Texas, 29.7; and Virginia, 40.6. Massing these twelve states and one territory together, we find they include a population of 10,079,130 of ten years of age and upward, of which number no less than 4,324,513, or over two fifths, are unable to write—forty-three out of every one hundred unable to sign their own names—while of the 26,682,477 persons of like age in the remaining states and territories, the number of such illiterates is but 1,915,445, or a little over seven in every one hundred.
We are all of course aware that this large proportion of illiteracy in the states named is largely owing to the presence of the colored population. Nevertheless the fact remains that these people, to whom all the rights of citizenship have been accorded, and who will hereafter form a very important and possibly predominating factor in the administration of the affairs of many of these states, as well as an important factor in national affairs, must remain for a long time in ignorance unless some other means of educating them be adopted than that which now obtains.
But let no one deceive himself with the idea that this undue and lamentable ratio of illiteracy in these particular states is due wholly to the presence of the colored population. Unfortunately illiteracy prevails to a very considerable and almost an alarming extent among their native white population also. Thus the census tabulations show that the proportion of “illiterates” (those unable to write), in the total native white population, ten years of age and upward, is: In Alabama, 25 percent.; Arkansas, 25.5; Florida, 20.7; Georgia, 23.2; Kentucky, 22.8; Louisiana, 19.8; Mississippi, 16.6; New Mexico, 64.2; North Carolina, 31.7; South Carolina, 22.4; Tennessee, 27.8; Texas, 13.9; and Virginia, 18.5. Massing them we find that of the 6,010,714 native whites, ten years of age and upward, within the territorial limits mentioned, there are as many as 1,395,441—being 23.2 per cent., or nearly one in every four of the whites—unable to write. It is evident, therefore, that the surprising illiteracy in these states is not wholly attributable to the presence therein of the colored race.
It is somewhat humiliating to have to confess to the world by our own official figures that one out of every four of the native whites over ten years of age in twelve states and one territory of our Republic is unable to write his own name, especially when we compare it with the additional fact, derived from the same tabulation, that the illiteracy of the foreign born of these same localities does not rise in any instance above 10.9 per cent.
Turning to the other side of the picture we may find some grains of comparative consolation in observing the fact that of the remaining 19,775,075 native whites, ten years of age and upward, in the United States only 860,019—or 4.3 per cent., being one in twenty-three—are unable to write. This favorable condition of one part of the country, however, only serves to bring out in sharper contrast the sad condition of the other part, and should spur the philanthropist and statesman to renewed and more strenuous effort to obliterate, or at least ameliorate, this alarming sectional inequality in the degree of illiteracy.
Were it not for the hope of ultimately removing this inequality by attaining an educational homogeneity or equality on the higher level as between the sections, one might almost be tempted to wish for an educational equalization on the lower grade; for as long as that inequality continues to exist, so long must it prove a source of irritation and danger in a thousand forms.
As to the situation in the old slave states, where the colored population is proportionately large, it is not difficult to understand it. We can appreciate the dread on the part of the whites of an “uprising,” as it is termed, of the colored people. But the words of Jefferson[E]—possibly prophetic unless averted by the exercise of wisdom and fairness—have in them a depth of meaning that none but those whites can fully realize when, speaking of the slaves, he says: “And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice can not sleep forever; that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among the possible events; that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take sides with us in such a contest.”
Aside from the overawing influence of a large standing army there is but one thing that can prevent a race-conflict, the very possibility of which we dread to contemplate, and that is the benign and liberalizing influence of education, resulting in a free and untrammeled exercise of the elective franchise. Give the former and you will unquestionably secure the latter.
That the local as well as sectional inequality in education can be overcome by no other means than by national aid, will be further demonstrated. Nor is it just that we should expect or ask it to be otherwise. No matter now what may have caused this inequality, the fact that it exists is that which now momentously concerns us. We know it can not be removed by recurring to the cause; and it will become more and more evident as we examine the subject that only by speedy and efficient congressional action can we now insure that future educational equilibrium, not only between the races and between the sections, but also between the people in each state, which will have so important a bearing upon the destinies of this nation, and is so essential to the continued peace, prosperity and contentment of its people.