MR. HERBERT MYRICK, FOUNDER OF PRODUCERS' LEAGUE AGAINST FOREIGN SUGAR, ETC.

thing needful is full and clear knowledge of the changed conditions, and of the probable results of a given line of action. More and more we shall accept the idea that the vast undertakings of a government like ours must be based upon scientific knowledge. And far from grudging what it costs to make investigations and collate facts as preliminary to important decisions, we shall realize that such outlays are the best and most economical of all public investments.

A case in point is the gathering and Importance of the Census collection of statistical facts, such as Work. has been performed through the Census Bureau. Such work is simply indispensable; its results are in demand at every turn. We should insist upon its constant improvement in scope, method, and accuracy. To that end the Census Bureau should not be reëstablished for each decennial period, but should have a continuous existence. A great army of subordinate employees is, of course, needed for a comparatively short period; but the nucleus of the organization should not be allowed to disappear. There is work of first-class importance for the census office to do through every working day of every year of the decade, as well as in the tenth year, in which there must be a counting of heads. This idea of a permanent census bureau has been under discussion for ten or twelve years. Congress ought now to adopt it in principle, leaving details. to be worked out in the light of experience. The creation of a permanent bureau is the necessary starting point. It need not be very elaborate

or expensive. A permanent census office would actually save money, while securing better results than are possible by the present method.

The work of the census of 1900 is Some New exceptionally well advanced, and its Census Data. principal tabulations will be completed

next summer,-two years after the enumeration was made. In previous census-takings, from four to six years has been required for collating and finally publishing the immense mass of data collected concerning population, agriculture, and other matters of chief inquiry. Few people have paused to consider how vast are the computations necessary to arrive at what would appear to be simple and summary conclusions. Two or three thousand people are still at work in the census office at Washington tabulating the reports sent in by the local enumerators and agents. From time to time the Census Bureau completes and sends out bulletins covering some particular inquiry. Up to the beginning of November, there

population. In 1900, only 13.7 per cent. of the total population was foreign-born The native population had increased 22.5 per cent. in the decade, as against 12.4 per cent. for the foreignborn. The school-age tables reveal the interesting fact that for the entire country 95.4 per cent. of the population between the ages of five and twenty years is native-born, and only 4.6 is foreign-born. In the Southern States, as a rule, the foreign-born population of school age is only a small fraction of 1 per cent. In the State of New York it is 12 per cent., in Massachusetts 15.9, and in Connecticut 12.7. In New York, it is chiefly to be found in the metropolis, where the problems of education are on that account of a peculiar nature.

Taking the country at large, it is obEvidences vious that with sufficient energy and of Progress. intelligence applied to the work of ele mentary education it would be entirely possible to take the children of foreign-born parents and train them into thoroughgoing Americans, with a good use of the English language and a proper sense of the meaning and value of our citizenship. A careful examination of these population statistics in detail must greatly assist in the comprehension of the educational work that constitutes the principal task of our generation in this country. The race statistics show that the white population continues to grow appreciably faster than the colored. The mortality statistics, though confessedly far from accurate, for reasons beyond the power of the census office to control, show at least beyond a reasonable doubt that the general conditions of health improve from decade to decade, and that the average duration of life in this country is steadily increasing. Such data lend encouragement to further efforts in the direction of medical investigation and intelligent sanitary rules and regulations. Gradually improved methods as respects sewers, water-supply, control of infectious diseases, inspection of milk and food supplies, and improved knowledge of private as well as public hygiene, are working a profound revolution. The careful application of statistical tests proves such progress, and enables one community to profit by the experience of another.

count of the two classes. The man who can merely write his name and read a few words may, for all practical purposes, be as uneducated as the man who happens not to have learned to sign his name. According to this report, of the entire body of negro men above the age of twenty-one in the United States, 52.7 per cent. are literate and 47.3 are illiterate. As showing the results of American schools in the Northern States where the foreign-born population chiefly exists, it is well worth while to note the fact that, whereas 11.5 per cent. of the foreign-born white male population above the age of twenty-one is illiterate, only 2 per cent. of the men of voting age who were born in the United States of foreign parents are classed as illiterates; while of all the white men of voting age in the country born of native Amer ican parents, 5.8 per cent. are illiterate. Taking the negro males in the Southern States of voting age, the illiterates are 61.3 per cent. in Louisiana, 59.5 in Alabama, 56.4 in Georgia, 54.7 in South Carolina, 53.2 in Mississippi, 53.1 in North Carolina, 52.5 in Virginia, 49.5 in Kentucky, 47.6 in Tennessee, 45.1 in Texas, 44.8 in Arkansas, 42.7 in Delaware, 40.5 in Maryland, 39.4 in Florida, 37.8 in West Virginia, and 31.9 in Missouri. In New York, on the other hand, where there are a good many negro men of voting age, the percentage of illiteracy among them is only 11.3; while in Pennsylvania it is 17.5. In Kansas, whither a good many negroes have gone, the percentage among them of adult male illiteracy is 28.1. In the District of Columbia, which has a large negro population in fairly good economic circumstances, the percentage of male illiteracy is 26.1. The negro colony of Massachusetts numbers 40,000 souls, and only about 10 per cent. of the adult males are unable to read and write.

Changes in

Where the negro element is relativeRelative Race ly small, as in the Northern States, its Population. educational progress would seem to be very considerable. It is to be noted incidentally that in some of the Northern States the negro element is growing by migration from the South. Thus, there are now just about as many negroes in Pennsylvania as in Missouri, although twenty years ago there were almost twice as many in Missouri as in Pennsylvania. The negroes of New Jersey, whose adult males show an illiteracy of only 18.3 per cent., have almost doubled in numbers in the past twenty years. There are now more negroes in Massachusetts than in Dela ware, although twenty years ago there were 50 per cent. more in Delaware. In the past twenty years the white population of Maryland has increased nearly 230,000, while the negro

population has increased less than 15,000. Virginia in twenty years has gained 312,000 white people, and has gained only 29,000 negroes. North Carolina in the same period has gained, in round figures, 400,000 white people and only 93,000 negroes. Tennessee has gained 400,000 white people and only 77,000 negroes. Missouri has gained 922,000 white people and less than 16,000 negroes. Kentucky has gained almost 500,000 white people and only 13,000 negroes.

Negro Density in the Far

These figures show well enough that the race problem is not destined to be South. a very formidable one, -whether from the political, the social, or the industrial point of view, in the former slave States of Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri. The negro element in those States remains relatively stationary, while the white population is growing rapidly. If the negro communities in the Northern States like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio are tending to increase by a considerable percentage, they are still very inconsiderable in comparison with the immense general growth of these prosperous States. It is in the States farther South that the negroes are making their principal gains. The State of largest negro preponderance ten years ago was South Carolina, where there were 149,117 negroes to every 100,000 white people. This relative proportion has fallen in ten years to 140,249. It is altogether likely that within twenty-five years the whites will outnumber the blacks in South Carolina. But in Mississippi, where ten years ago there were 136,287 blacks for every 100,000 whites, the proportion has increased to 141,552. These are the only two States now in which the negroes outnumber the whites, although in Alabama and Florida the relative proportion of negroes has increased. Louisiana, on the other hand, the relative decrease of negroes has been very marked. Thus, ten years ago there were 100, 143 negroes to each 100,000 whites, whereas the new census shows only 89,199 negroes to 100,000 whites. In Geor gia, the proportions of the races have remained almost stationary, there being now 87,600 for every 100,000 whites, whereas ten years ago there were 87,781. In Alabama, there are now 82, 636, and in Florida 77,600, blacks for every 100,000 whites. All this points toward the concentration of the colored population in the relatively low and warm regions of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. There has also been a greater proportionate increase of blacks than of whites in Arkansas; but the whites are almost three-quarters of the population, and the negro gain is unimportant.

In

Alabama's

In Alabama,-where a little more Constitution than 14 per cent. of the adult male

Adopted. whites of American parentage are reported as illiterate, while 59.5 per cent. of the male negroes of voting age are illiterate, it is declared that the new constitution was adopted by popular vote on November 11; and under the operation of the clauses relating to the franchise this entire mass of negro illiteracy will be at once excluded from the voting privilege. Most of the white illiterates will probably be able, under exceptional clauses, to place their names on the registration books. But after a limited period the system will work with practical equality, and every man of whatever race who knows enough to be morally entitled to exercise political privi. leges will be allowed to register and vote. These Southern franchise systems,-viewed broadly in their main features rather than narrowly in their minor details, bid fair to be of advantage to both races. They supply the most powerful incentive to education and personal improvement. They create at once a bold and sweeping division between the enfranchised and the disfranchised, but they do not erect an arbitrary or difficult barrier. An object-lesson in the disadvantages of illiteracy will be constantly before the eyes of the rising generation of both races. The children of native-born Americans will be impelled to follow the example of the American-born children of foreign parents and acquire the rudiments of an ordinary education.

Fresh Zeal for

cation.

These new franchise laws come at a Southern Edu- time when the most thoughtful and intelligent people of the South are more than ever determined to improve publicschool facilities and promote in every way the cause of education. In pursuance of plans set on foot at the Southern Educational Conference, held last spring at Winston-Salem. N. C., a small gathering, composed principally of the members of the executive board of this movement, was held in New York last month, and was attended by some of the most prominent educators of the South. This meeting was so timed as to coincide with the meeting of the directors and officers of the Peabody Fund and the Slater Fund; and the work proposed to be carried on will be in harmony with these. Unlike the Peabody and Slater boards, this new Southern Education Board will not have funds to apportion in direct aid of schools, but it will gather facts, distribute information, and wage a deliberate and continuous propaganda in favor of educational progress. It will do everything in its power to persuade communities to tax themselves for schools, and it will interest itself in

plans for the provision of competent teachers. It will be prepared to show philanthropists and men of wealth how great is the need of money for educational work in the South, and it will also show how little of the educational beneficences of the rich men of the country have gone to that portion of the United States where the need and the desert are greatest. For the relative poverty of the South, the responsibility belongs, not to that section, but to the entire country; and it is equally true that the peculiar burdens and problems imposed upon the South by the presence there of millions of negroes be long, of right, to the entire country,-since the North as well as the South was concerned in the origin of those burdens and problems.

Leaders and

Dr. J. L. M. Curry, of Richmond Aims of the and Washington, who is the execuNew Movement. tive representative of the Peabody and Slater funds, will be the general supervising director of the work of the new Southern Education Board, Mr. Robert C. Ogden, of New York, being chairman of the board, Mr. George Foster Peabody treasurer, and Dr. Charles D. McIver, of North Carolina, secretary. The work of investigation and of the dissemination of printed matter is to be carried on under direction of President Charles W. Dabney, of the University of Tennessee, at Knoxville. Coöperating as active directors in the field with Dr. Curry are President E. A. Alderman, of Tulane University, at New Orleans; President McIver, of the State Normal and Industrial College, at Greensboro, N. C.. and Dr. H. B. Frissell, principal of the Normal and Agricultural Institute, at Hampton, Va. This movement is in hearty sympathy with all useful and valuable forms of education for both races, but it recognizes especially the necessity for radi cal improvement in the public schools for the children of all the people. It believes that the right kind of education is desirable for everybody, and that the best future of our democratic institutions calls for universal education more than for any other one thing. It believes especially in those kinds of education that fit men and women for practical life,-those that promote progress in agriculture and industry. It believes that the worst thing that can possibly happen to the negro race in the South is to have any large proportion of the white race kept low in the scale of human advancement through ignorance. The South is fortunate in having active and enthusiastic educational leaders of high accomplishments, broad views, and unselfish devotion. The North has contributed a great deal of money and much noble effort to the work of negro education in the South, but it ought also to contribute with like

generosity to the work of Southern white education. It is essential, furthermore, from this time on that Northern men in their educational work in the South for negroes should secure the constant sympathy, coöperation, and advice of the best Southern men in the States or communities where the schools in question are located. It is gratifying to learn from many sources that the institutions for negroes founded in the South by Northern philanthropists are constantly growing in favor, and that the motives and spirit of their work are much better understood among the Southern white people than in former years.

The Modern

More and more such institutions are Trend of Edu- adapting themselves to the real situacation. tion. Many of them have fairly grasped the idea that the purpose of education for the negro is to make him as good and useful a negro as possible rather than to make him an imitation white man. But the main fact is that the whole business of education, North and South, East and West,-whether for white men, black men, or red men,-is becoming transformed by new ideas to mean something much more and better than mere text-book stuffing. The business of education is to make capable citizens, decent and happy homes, good neighbors, and useful and efficient members of a workaday world. According to the new educational ideas, the young negro who knows some Latin and algebra, but who does not know how to plow corn with a mule, is not only an absurd and ridiculous object, but is probably not so well educated in the deep sense of the word as his illiterate brother who actually understands plain farm work and has the moral character to work faithfully. But a certain amount of book learning is not incompatible with practical training and economic efficiency, and these things should all go together.

Republican

the West.

The most important of the November Victories in elections was that of New York City, in which local issues alone were concerned and party politics not involved. The State elections showed no falling off in the prestige and strength of the Republican party. This was to have been expected, for several reasons. One of these was the assassination of President McKinley. The circumstances attending Mr. McKinley's death so impressed the country with the loftiness of the President's character that honor and credit were reflected upon the party of which he was the leader; while all the words and deeds of Mr. Roosevelt, as successor to Mr. McKinley, were so thoroughly approved by the country as in their turn to strengthen the position of the party in power. Another con