Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1902 — CRUSADE AGAINST ILLITERACY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CRUSADE AGAINST ILLITERACY

Northern Men Who Are Promoting Education in the South.' The fifth annual meeting of the Conference for Education in the South, of which Robert C. Ogden of New York is

president, wm recently held at Athens, Ga. It was not a large assem blage, but most of those present were men of note and wealth, who appreciate the need for more general educa tipn in the South ern States and who are endeavoring to provide means for a widei

diffusion of knowledge. Mr. Ogden accompanied a party of rich and intellectual men there in a special train of palace cars, among them being Rev. Dr. David H. Greer, rector of St. Bartholomew’s Church, New York; Dr. Albert Shaw, editor of the Review of Reviews; Dr. Felix Adler, the great Hebrew educator; St. Clair McKelway, the editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, and a small host of others. That there is need for educational work in the South census statistics make plain. In 1900 the ten Southern States, south of the Potomac and the Ohio, and east of the Mississippi, including Louisiana, had 22 per cent of the total population of the United States and 25 per cent of the school population, and yet only o*4 per cent of the total expenditures for public schools were made in these States. In Alabama the expenditures for public schools amounted to 50 cent* per capita ai il in North Carolina to 51 cents. In the latter State the average number of days of school attendance foi each child of school age was 22. In its crusade ng-iinst illiteracy the Conference for Education in the South is pledged to raise $40,000 a year.

R. C. OGDEN.