intendent gives the statistics of illiteracy, saying that "the per cent of white illiteracy in North Carolina is more than three times as great as the average for the United States." The average value of the schoolhouses in the State was, for white $231.43, colored $136; 830 districts were without schoolhouses; 829 had log houses. In different counties of the State schools were closed during the winter on account of the buildings not being habitable in cold weather. A woman's association for the betterment of public schoolhouses was organized. During the year 1902, 332 new schoolhouses were erected. The superintendent suggests that the funds arising from the sale of lands belonging to the State board of education, amounting to $194,159.18, be used for schoolhouses.

A great hindrance to effective education in a State so large and sparsely populated is the multiplication of district schools to satisfy special families. Nearly one-half the white school districts of the State, and 44 per cent of the colored districts, contain less than 65 children of school age. The process of consolidating school districts has been well begun, 318 having been consolidated since June 30, 1901, and several counties having made commendable efforts in this direction. The average annual salary of white public-school teachers is about $100, "less than is received for the most menial service in almost any other business." The superintendent had addressed letters to the different leading institutions of learning in the State, suggesting normal departments in each. He reads a vigorous lecture on the subject of school supervision. The average salary of a county superintendent is $355. He urges the necessity of a competent man as county superintendent in every county in North Carolina. He also demands an increase in the supervisory power of the State board of education by the addition of five deputy State superintendents or State supervisors of education, to serve for two or four years, at a salary of $1,250 a year, and expenses not to exceed $500 a year. Since 1874 the general State and county tax for school purposes has been raised from 83 cents to 18 cents on $100. Threefourths of all the State and county poll tax is devoted to public schools. The school fund has been increased from $297,090.85 in 1875 to $1,269,714.30 in 1902. He urges the great importance of local taxation. Since 1900 there has been an increase of 7.8 per cent in enrollment and 6.5 per cent in daily attendance in the white and 8.1 per cent in enrollment and 3.5 per cent in daily attendance in the colored schools. He urges the importance of laws for the protection of children in manufacturing communities. Several important educational meetings had been held during the year. Eighty-two per cent of the population of North Carolina is rural and agricultural. Among "signs of hope and evidences of progress” he notes the steady increase in taxes and appropriations for public schools; the increase in amount raised for schools by local taxation; a growth in sentiment and demand for consolidation; the increase in the number of schoolhouses built and improvement in their character; the increase in amount raised by private subscription for public schools; the increase in the attendance of the colleges and high schools of the State; the increase in the attendance of public schools; a reduction of white illiteracy during the decade ending in 1900 from 23.1 to 19.5 per cent, and of colored illiteracy from 60.1 to 47.6; an increased attendance at educational gatherings; strong declarations in platforms of political parties in favor of education, and, finally, the adoption of the constitutional amendment by an overwhelming majority, making intelligence an absolute qualification for suffrage after 1908 and recognizing it as one essential of citizenship.

SOUTH CAROLINA.

The very interesting history of the persistent attempts of the white people of South Carolina, led by a zealous educational public among the leading classes, to establish a system of common schools for themselves, is told in Chapter VII of the Report of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1899-1900. Several of these schemes were well devised, and only failed of effect by the radical weakness of the majority of the Southern attempts at the educating of the masses previous to the civil war. They all were constructed on the plan of “local option," and depended for their adoption on the disposition of the different counties of the State. A good deal of money, first and last, was distributed through South Carolina for this purpose, which was probably used to subsidize the different private and denominational schools for the training of a number of children of the poorer classes. The South Carolina College had among its professors and presidents men like Cooper, Lieber, Preston, and Thornwell, who made it a broader and probably more influential representative of the higher culture in its adaptation to all classes and conditions of the people than any of the Southern universities of the period, up to the breaking out of the civil war. Previous to 1868 there was no provision in the constitution of South Carolina for universal education. The city of Charleston by special charter had established a creditable system of public schools for white pupils in 1860, largely taught by Northern instructors, under the leadership of Hon. C. G. Memminger. At the close of the war he returned to his native city and gave the remainder of his life to the reestablishment of its public schools. It was not until 1868 that, under the new régime of the State, South Carolina acknowledged its obligation to educate all the classes of its citizens. The constitutional provision governing the matter, the first of the kind that ever was made in the State, is as follows:

CONSTITUTION OF SOUTH CAROLINA, APRIL 14-16, 1868.

ARTICLE X.-Education.

SEC. 1. The supervision of public instruction shall be vested in a State superintendent of education, who shall be elected by the qualified electors of the State in such manner and at such time as the other State officers are elected; his powers, duties, term of office, and compensation shall be defined by the general assembly.

SEC. 2. There shall be elected biennially in each county, by the qualified electors thereof, one school commissioner, said commisssioners to constitute a State board of education, of which the State superintendent shall. by virtue of his office, be chairman; the powers, duties, and compensation of the members of said board shall be determined by law.`

SEC. 3. The general assembly shall, as soon as practicable after the adoption of this constitution, provide for a liberal and uniform system of free public schools throughout the State, and shall also make provision for the division of the State into suitable school districts. There shall be kept open at least six months each year one or more schools in each school district.

SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of the general assembly to provide for the compulsory attendance, at either public or private schools, of all children between the ages of 6 and 16 years, not physically or mentally disabled, for a term equivalent to twenty-four months at least: Provided, That no law to that effect shall be passed until a system of public schools has been thoroughly and completely organized and facilities afforded to all the inhabitants of the State for the free education of their children.

SEC. 5. The general assembly shall levy at each regular session, after the adoption of this constitution, an annual tax on all taxable property throughout the State for the support of public schools, which tax shall be collected at the same time and by the same agents as the general State levy, and shall be paid into the treasury of the State. There shall be assessed on all taxable polls in

the State an annual tax of one dollar on each poll, the proceeds of which tax shall be applied solely to educational purposes: Provided, That no person shall ever be deprived of the right of suffrage for the nonpayment of said tax. No other poll or capitation tax shall be levied in the State, nor shall the amount assessed on each poll exceed the limit given in this section. The school tax shall be distributed among the several school districts of the State in proportion to the respective number of pupils attending the public schools. No religious sect or sects shall have exclusive right to or control of any part of the school funds of the State, nor shall sectarian principles be taught in the public schools. SEC. 6. Within five years after the first regular session of the general assembly, following the adoption of this constitution, it shall be the duty of the general assembly to provide for the establishment and support of a State normal school, which shall be open to all persons who may wish to become teachers.

SEC. 7. Educational institutions for the benefit of all the blind, deaf and dumb, and such other benevolent institutions as the public good may require, shall be established and supported by the State, subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by law.

SEC. 8. Provision shall be made by law, as soon as practicable, for the establishment and maintenance of a State reform school for juvenile offenders.

SEC. 9. The general assembly shall provide for the maintenance of the State University, and, as soon as practicable, provide for the establishment of an agricultural college, and shall appropriate the land given to this State for the support of such a college by the act of Congress, passed July second, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, or the money or scrip, as the case may be, arising from the sale of such lands, or any land which may hereafter be given or appropriated for such purpose, for the support and maintenance of such college, and may make the same a branch of the State University, for instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts, and the natural sciences connected therewith.

SEC. 10. All the public schools, colleges, and universities of this State, supported in whole or in part by the public funds, shall be free and open to all the children and youths of the State, without regard to race or color.

SEC. 11. The proceeds of all lands that have been or hereafter may be given by the United States to this State for educational purposes, and not otherwise appropriated by this State or the United States, and of all lands or other property given by individuals, or appropriated by the State for like purposes, and of all estates of deceased persons who have died without leaving a will or heir, shall be securely invested and sacredly preserved as a State school fund, and the annual interest and income of said fund, together with such other means as the general asembly may provide, shall be faithfully appropriated for the purpose of establishing and maintaining free public schools, and for no other purposes or uses whatever.

ORDINANCE X.-AN ORDNANCE instructing the general assembly to provide for appropriating the citadel for educational purposes. Passed March 16, 1868.

We, the people of South Carolina, in convention met, do ordain: That the general assembly is hereby instructed to provide, by suitable laws, for the appropriation of the citadel grounds, in the city of Charleston, for educational purposes, said building and grounds to be devoted to the establishment of an institution of learning, which shall be a body politic and corporate, and shall be managed by a board of trustees, and their successors, who shall be chosen by the general assembly, and shall be subject to visitation by and under its authority. Said institution of learning shall have power to establish schools of law and medicine and to issue diplomas that shall entitle the holders to practice said professions, as shall be prescribed by law.

At the election held in the same month (April, 1868) Mr. Justus K. Jillson was chosen State superintendent and the several counties elected school commissioners. "An act to provide for the temporary organization of the educational department of the State" was passed and ratified September 15, 1868. On September 28 Superintendent Jillson sent a copy of it to the new school commissioners. This act of nine sections provided that the State superintendent of education should hold office through four years, give bonds for $5,000, and receive a salary of $2,500 annually, with the expense of traveling and the use of an office. His official residence was to be at the State capital. He was directed to immediately provide for taking a census of the youth of school age

(5 to 18 years) by the county school commissioners. The school population of the city of Charleston was to be returned by wards. The school commissioners of each county were also directed to report the number of public schools and their attendance, also their condition and methods of support, and these reports were to be consolidated and forwarded to the general assembly by the State superintendent. The county commissioners were to receive $4 for each day actually employed in the foregoing duties, with cost of necessary transportation, and the governor of the State might employ assistants for the commissioners in taking the school census at the rate of $2.50 a day for a limited time. On January 24, 1870, Superintendent Jillson made his first report to Governor Scott and the general assembly. Several of the county commissioners had failed to qualify and others had failed to report. Beside this, "the failure of the general assembly to pass a school bill at its last regular session has been the means of keeping this department in a state of comparative inactivity for nearly a year. The children and youth of this Commonwealth are daily growing up in a state of ignorance, a state which leads to poverty and crime." The work contemplated in the act for temporary organization to be done by the county commissioners had been greatly delayed, owing to causes entirely beyond my control, and which in some instances have not been satisfactorily explained." From such reports as could be obtained through them it appeared that there were in 26 of the 31 counties 168,819 children between the ages of 5 and 18, 68,108 white and 100,711 colored, 88,413 male and 80,406 female. From returns from 20 counties it appeared that there were 381 public schools, with 528 teachers, 73 being northern white, 405 southern white, and 50 colored; 16,418 children were "attending school," evidently enrolled, as Superintendent Jillson during his entire administration of eight years never gives the average attendance; the number of white and colored and the sexes were nearly equal. The city of Charleston reported 9,260 of school age, nearly equally divided between the races.

66

There were in the State at this time several schools for colored youth established and supported by different educational and ecclesiastical agencies in the North. It was impossible to ascertain from the reports received from the public school officers the effect of the constitution and school law upon the people of the State. But the commissioners from 18 of the 31 counties declare that the "mixed school" is a practical impossibility, the colored as well as the white parents preferring separate schooling for their children. Very few of the "poor whites" could read or write. Whole sections of the country are described as "filled with poverty and ignorance," but everywhere the poorest people are said to greatly desire education for their children, and in many cases contribute from their poverty to keep alive such arrangements as they have.

On February 16, 1870, was approved "An act to establish and maintain a system of free common schools." This act, in connection with the constitutional provision above given, was sufficient to realize the ideal of the most radical schoolman of the State. It, indeed, proposed a scheme in some particulars in advance of the large majority of the Northern States at this period, and in one respect even of the State of Massachusetts, from which the new superintendent had come. But it was practically impossible that the State of South Carolina, in 1870 and during the five following years, could support a free system of public schools six months in the year, with the addition of large city and State universities and a normal school. A fatal weakness also in the system was that the new superintendent of education really had no power to act in any region of his almost boundless office. The county commissioners were elected by popular vote, including the votes of the colored race. The State school funds were in no

ED 1904 M- -65

respect under the control of the State superintendent save in their distribution to an irresponsible class of officials. His required duties were chiefly those of an official clerk and prevented any visitation through the State or any personal acquaintance with the county commissioners. The election and examination of teachers were beyond his control. For the eight years of his service he was called to stand a helpless spectator of the goings on of the legislative and executive departments of the government; to submit to the disposition of the commissioners, and deal with the statistics of the teachers, and the indifference of the commissioners, with their chronic neglect to make proper reports of their doings, added to several years' failure to get a quorum for a meeting of the State board.

It is not strange that this new school law should at once provoke a concentration of all opposition to progress in the face of the harassed and confused superintendent, a young man elevated from the position of schoolmaster of a Massachusetts town of 1,000 people to the first superintendency of education of 200,000 children and youth in a Southern Commonwealth. In his second report, dated November 15, 1870, he predicts that the mixture of politics with school affairs "will be the harbinger of disaster, ruin, and failure to our common school system." The bottom difficulty of the whole matter, of course, was the almost complete incompetency of the teachers employed in such schools as were placed on the ground, especially those for the colored people. The legislature, although composed of the party favoring the then existing dynasty and elected largely by the votes of the colored people, was either ignorant, indifferent, or culpably insincere in its dealings with the public school interest through the entire period of reconstruction. While the provisions of the school law were really, in some respects, in advance of the systems in half the Northern States, the legislature only appropriated $50,000, in addition to the poll tax, for the support of a system requiring a million for its vigorous administration. The poll tax was a very questionable reliance and very difficult of collection.

Only 12 of the 31 counties had made complete returns of the scholastic population, and the superintendent was compelled to rely on the State census of 1869 for information; 30,000 children of the 197,000 of school age had been enrolled during the year 1869-70, probably not more than 50 per cent in average attendance; 630 schools had been either wholly or in part supported by the State during the year 1868–69, with 734 teachers and 23,441 pupils, the State contribution being $57,320.40. Besides this, Charleston reported 4 schools, 66 teachers, 5,252 pupils in attendance, and $20,629 expended. The University of South Carolina had been taken in hand. One free student from each county could be admitted-white or colored, male or female. The superintendent submits an estimate of the sum required to carry on the schools of the State during the ensuing fiscal year, amounting to $550,700.

On March 6, 1871, was approved an act amending the act of February 16, 1870, "to establish and maintain a system of free common schools." In its amended form it was an elaborate statute, framed to cover the entire field of educational experimenting. By this law the State board of education was to consist of the 31 school commissioners, the State superintendent of education being chairman. The State superintendent was to be elected by the people and serve for four years, with a salary of $2,500 and mileage. He must do the impossible by visiting every county to inspire the people, and diffuse himself generally. The county commissioner of each county was to be elected once in two years by popular vote. Each county was to be divided into school districts, and district school trustees were to be appointed for two years by the board of county school examiners. This board was to consist of the county commissioner and two other members appointed by him, 'competent to teach a first-grade school," and was

66