Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1889 — A Live Question at the South. Harter's Magazine. [ARTICLE]

A Live Question at the South. Harter's Magazine.

The subject of education, especially the education of the masses, is everywhere a matter of earnest discussion. Teachers, editors, candidates for office, preachers, fanners, mechanics, white and black people, all classes, are discussing the subject. How wide spread this awakening has been is illustrated by the interest shown in the Subject by the country press. When a Southern county town weekly, depending for life chiefly on eounty advertising, takes an abiding interesting in a matter of general concern, it is proof that the people are beginning to be aroused. The South is beginning to awake to the perils that lie but partially concealed in the ignorant classes, both white and biack, that make up so large a part of the population. It is time to awake; there is reason to be alarmed when the tenth census reports in the twelve States under consideration in this paper 332,733 white voters and 886,905 negro voters as "unable to write." Jf in a union of States like onrs, which binds all into one, this alarm should not extend to States more lortunate than these twelve Southern States, it would indicate an indifference to common interests and common dangers more alarming then ignorance itself.