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COMPARE THE WORK
OF THIC BUREAU OF EDUCA
TION IX ALASKA WITH LOCAL
CONDITIONSOUTSIDE BEFORI
KHNDKKINC. YO.JRNKXr KICK
H it, strange asit may seem, sparse
ly settled rural communities offer
fight against the things which are foi
their own good. A striking statment
of this phase of the rural problem is
found in Kxtension Iiuieuu Circular,
Xo. 2,of the University ot Noith
Carolina,July, 1916. In this issue Pro
fessor K. C. Branson declares:
''Everywhere in thinly settled
country regions we find people here
and there who are suspicions, sec
retive, apathetic, and unapproach
able; who live in the eighteenth cen
tury and preserve the language, man
ners, and eustomsof a past long dead
elsewhere, who prefer their primitive
ancient ways, who are ghettoed inthe
midst of present day civili/u.t on,tc
borrow a phrase from president most.
They are the crablike sot is des
cribed bv Victor Hugo in I.es Miser
aides, who before advancing ligl t
steadily retreat into the fringe oi
darkness. People like these abound
in Clinton and Franklin counties
(New York)where an eighth of the
native white voters are illiterate, in
Aroostook county (Maine) where
nearly a fifth of the native white
voters can not read their ballots oi
write tliier names;
lit Windham county (Connecticut)
where a seventh of the voters are
illiterate. Windham, by the way,lies
The above extrets from J. 1, Mcltrien.Schoi
im.hvay between the academic eftnl
genre of Yale on the one hand and
of Harvard on the other, you can find
within the sound of college !>e!ls any
where what we found the other day
in a field survey that took us into ev
ery home in a mid-state county in
North Carolina—a family of whites,
all illiterates, half the children dead
in infancy, and never a doctor in the
house in the whole history of the
family.
“All the ages of race history and
every level of civilization can be
found in any county or community,
even in our crowded centers of wealth
and culture. We need not hunt for the
eighteenth century survivals »:»
mountain coves alone. ’ ’
Ann yet the only remedy for such
conditions is the education of these
peoples. Let there he light! ******
In support of this declaration the
following is quoted from the Annual
Report of the State Superintendent
of Schools of Georgia for the school
year ended December 31, 1915.
“ There are some men who are so
mean by nature that they must he
forced before they will give their
children eudcational oppo tunties fof
school training. The figures si o\v
that 169, 630 children of school ages
in this State did not attend school a
day last year. Many of these have
never been enrolled during any pre
vious year; without the strong arm
of the law they will grow up in ig
uorance just as thousands before
them have done.”
>1 Extension A^ent, US. It of K. -Talk Sixth