if all should become teachers, could not supply the needed number. Poor teachers, where tolerated, drive out good teachers." An appropriation of $5,000 from the surplus dispensary profits was used for the support of 40 white and 8 negro teachers.

The superintendent urges the claims of industrial training for the benefit especially of the negro population, also for the white race, showing that outside of Clemson College and perhaps one graded school there are now no industrial schools for white boys in the Commonwealth. The chief duty of the State superintendent of education is with the country schools. The one need of these schools is efficient teachers; back of this lies the need of sufficient money and of wise management and supervision. The vital points are thus stated: (1) Want of local taxable values, as the corporations and the rich men for the most part make their homes in towns. (2) Want of sufficient enrollment in a given area to insure a good school. (3) Want of efficient business management, and skilled, close supervision of teachers and schools. The backbone of the school fund is the constitutional county 3-mill tax, which is distributed to rich and to poor districts alike in proportion to the number of children enrolled in the schools of the respective districts during the preceding year. Among other provisions, the new constitution declares that besides the poll tax and the 3-mill tax the general assembly shall cause to be levied annually on all the taxable property of the State such a tax in addition as may be necessary to keep the schools open throughout the State for such length of time in each scholastic year as the general assembly may prescribe; it also dedicates to the cause of education all the net income to be derived by the State from the sale or the license for the sale of all spirituous liquors, and only when this fund is sufficient to meet and equalize the deficiencies does the constitution relieve the general assembly of the duty of levying supplementary taxes. But the legislature has never levied these taxes, and schools are supported within county limits only to the extent of the dis-. pensary profits that have been distributed, and there is a tendency to divert the liquor profits from the school to ordinary county expenses.

The criticism of the superintendent on supervision is even more thorough and searching than in other respects. The salaries of county superintendents, outside of one county, range from $600 to nothing, the usual salary being $300 or $400. Of course, the superintendent must give most of his time to his own private business. A table is presented showing the results of this arrangement in different counties. The superintendent says, "It is a penny-wise and pound-foolish policy if the best management is not provided for such large and extensive operations as are involved in the expenditure of public school funds. It is not by this policy that railroads, cotton mills, and other enterprises are operated successfully. The other county officers are paid more than twice the salary of the superintendent of education, who alone is treated as of little or of no value to the county. The county supervisor, who has general care of the poorhouse and the chain gang, is usually paid twice as much as the superintendent of education, who has charge of the children and who handles more money than the supervisor. Besides his executive duties, the county superintendent has a boundless field for work as an expert teacher and trainer of teachers, and by kindly private criticism and suggestion aiding the teachers. Through his efficient work the whole body of teachers will gradually be raised to a higher plane, and every child will receive a better education." He recommends that the salary of each county superintendent be raised to $1,000.

"During the past three years the State has enjoyed a phenomenal industrial development. The increased taxable values in newly built railroads, cotton mills, lumber mills, and other corporate enterprises will divide with the former property of the State the so-called burden of taxation for higher education, and will take up

cheerfully the burden of the 3-mil tax for lower education." He complains that the State superintendent of education has no office room, except at the courtesy of the committee on agriculture. The office is not supplied with suitable cases or furniture, even if proper rooms were assigned. The clerical force of the office is entirely inadequate. The State superintendent of education should spend most of his time in work among the schools, the teachers, and the school officials of the different counties.

In his second report for the year 1900 the superintendent returns to his work of criticism on the defects of the public school system. He “is gratified at the evidences of awakening and improvement in educational matters. The teachers have continued to show keen appreciation of the opportunities afforded them by the summer schools. The National Education Association met in Charleston from July 7 to 13, and exerted a quickening influence upon the educational thought and aspirations of the State. The summer school has become one of the fixed institutions of the State, appreciated and cherished. The South Carolina Kindergarten Association, originating in Charleston, is directing attention to this method of instruction, and a department has been established in Winthrop College." The various colleges and collegiate institutes in the State have begun the work of the present scholastic year with unprecedented attendance. The capacity of each is taxed to the utmost. But with all these evidences of increasing interest, the superintendent puts his finger on the radical defect of the system. He says, "It is a misnomer to say that we have a system of public schools. In the actual working of the great majority of the schools in this State there is no system, no orderly organization. Each county supports its own schools with practically no help from the State as a whole. Each district has as poor schools as its people will tolerate, and in some districts anything will be tolerated. Each teacher works along in her own way, whatever that may be, almost uninfluenced by the existence of any other school or school authority. Isolation reigns. This is not inspiring or stimulating." Although he deprecates any sudden attempt at the concentration of a school system so hostile to the training and political and civil traditions of the State, yet he says: "I am convinced that our educational system has certain fatal defects, and that all efforts at improvement must fail of substantial results until by the necessary legislation these defects are removed and the system is put on a sound and safe basis for growth and development." In detail he takes up the different departments of the system. "The State superintendent," he says, "is compelled to confine himself to clerical duties, when he should be abroad and dealing with the public schools, as the law demands visiting every county in the State for the purpose of inspecting the schools, awakening interest, and diffusing by public addresses and personal communication any knowledge of existing defects. The county superintendent of education should be a skilled professional superintendent or inspector. But this can not be while the salary is so inadequate, the tenure short or uncertain, and the choice by popular election. The average salary is $423.75; the usual salary $300 or $400. There is a change in the official every two or four years, and his holding the office is dependent upon the political ring of the county. The law prescribes no qualification for the office of county superintendent, and only in a few counties is there a sentiment that he must have been a teacher. In many counties it is not expected that he shall be an educated man. In a few he is utterly incompetent. The important duties that belong to the office are rendered almost impossible of performance by his dependence on political influence for holding and retaining the position." "The county superintendent of education should be employed by a county board of education, which should have ample power over the schools of the county and should be selected in such a way as to guard against sudden changes in its

personnel and policy. It should be composed of five representative progressive citizens, with terms of from one to five years and finally five years each. The salary of the county superintendent should be $1,000 in every county, and in several of the counties $1,500. The teachers neglect to make a final report to the trustees or the county superintendent, hence school statistics are only imperfectly presented. Many schoolhouses are built at considerable expense with no regard to ventilation and light. There is need of an expert school man traveling over the county acquainted with all the conditions. Schoolhouses are frequently unnecessarily located. The division of counties into suitable school districts is indefinitely neglected. The certification of teachers in some counties contemplates the qualification to teach, and in others it means nothing. The school trustees, occupied with their private business, without special information on school management and without time or thought to study the question, frequently take but a superficial interest in the work of their schools and fail to lend the teachers needed aid and encouragement simply because they don't know. Very few teachers will follow a course of study prepared by the State board of education without the stimulus of the visits of a capable inspector or superintendent. Many teachers pay no attention whatever to published instructions. We should look to the establishment of county high schools in the near future.” Remarks on instruction, discipline, management, weeding out incompetent teachers, and teacher training, are in the same direction. "The great need of the schools is more money, although without better organization more money will be of little use. The legislature at its last session came near appropriating $100,000 additional for the public schools, but the movement was defeated. In 1899 the liquor dispensary paid to the schools $130,000, only a part of the earnings which by law belonged to the schools. The State's share of the net profits in that year amounted to $193,689.49. In 1899 the dispensary owed the school fund $514,379.95. The tendency of the legislature is to appropriate these earnings to the ordinary purposes of government in the counties." The superintendent urges on the legislature an appropriation of $200,000 to be apportioned to the schools. The taxable property of the State is nearly $179,000,000, so that 13 mills would raise over $200,000. "The legislature have heretofore been against the principle of State aid to common school education. They appropriate to everything but schools for the people. The unequal distribution of wealth renders it impossible that common schools should prevail through the State unless the legislature comes to the aid of weak sections. The wealth of the State should educate. An appropriation of $200,000, when divided, would be an inconsiderable aid to districts with teachers at $75 to $100 a year, no more than the wages of a negro plowboy, with schoolhouses only fit to give pneumonia to teachers and children. If the news should go forth that South Carolina's legislature had made an appropriation insuring to every child at least a six months' school, she would in one month be the best advertised State in the Union. We have reached the point where any further advance of our school system must be of the country schools. The work of colleges and town schools has prepared the way. The masses of the people, who recognize the county schools as the only college for them, begin to feel and assert their rights. No power can much longer postpone the day of better common schools." The superintendent calls for (1) an assistant, and recommends the enactment of a law insuring the employment of an expert superintendent for each county, with a salary of $1,000 to $1,500, and responsibility not to the general electorate, but to a board of five members, of whom only one shall be subject to displacement every year; (2) the levy of an additional tax on all the property of the State sufficient to raise $200,000, this sum to be distributed in accordance with the command of the constitution; (3) the provision by the legislature of a liberal sys

tem of public schools and the bringing up of the schools in weak sections to a general standard; (4) the creation of the position of assistant State superintendent of education at a salary of $1,500.

In his report for 1901, covering the operations of the school system from July, 1900, to July, 1901, the following statistics appear: The average annual salaries for teachers were $188.91 for white and $80.30 for negroes; in Charleston County the annual average salary was $504.78 for white and $196.22 for colored. The average length of school term was, for white, 21.17 weeks; for negroes, 14.12 weeks. The enrollment was 127,230 white and 157,976 colored, with 94,548 average attendance for white and 113,566 for negroes. The total school population of the State in 1900 was 560,773, of whom 50 per cent were enrolled and 37 per cent in average attendance. The superintendent declares : "Allowing for students in colleges and private schools, and for all boys and girls over 16 years of age, we still should be alarmed at the number of children who don't attend school." He urges a compulsory education law which should require every child between the ages of 8 and 12 to attend school at least 12 weeks in the year. Forty-four summer schools for teachers were held, namely, for white, 1 State and 36 county schools; for negroes, 1 State and 6 local schools. The enrollment of whites for 1891 was 1,729. "Nearly every white teacher in the State has attended a summer school for teachers." Manua! training, school physics, drawing, and kindergarten methods were among the subjects treated in these schools. The venerable Doctor Carlisle, formerly president of Wofford College, gave in six lectures personal reminiscences of men and conditions in South Carolina before the war. Dr. William H. B. Burnham, of Clark University, lectured on pedagogics. An effort was made to induce the county superintendents to attend these schools. A fatal weakness in the administrative system is the appointment of local trustees by the county boards of education every two years, with a probability of an entire change of policy. The superintendent returns again to the discussion of the county boards of education and the county superintendency, repeating his recommendations that the county superintendents should be appointed by the county boards. "By the law of 1900 schoolbooks are sold to the children at the lowest price at which the books are sold anywhere outside of the State to dealers at wholesale.” Several important meetings of teachers of different departments of the school system have been held during the year. The recommendations of the superintendent are: (1) the school fund should be increased; (2) immediate provision should be made that teachers' salaries shall in every district be paid, without discount; (3) terms of members of boards of school trustees should expire at different times; (4) county boards of education should be composed of five members elected by the people, the term of only one member to expire in any one year; (5) members of school and college boards should not by reason of such service be disqualified to hold office; (6) the office of county superintendent of education as now established should be abolished. The county boards should be charged with the responsibility of employing a county superintendent as supervisor of schools for the county, and fixing his salary. (7) The salaries of the present county superintendents should be increased. (8) The law in regard to teachers' certificates should be changed. (9) An appropriation of $200 should be made to enable the State superintendent to secure the services of an architect in designing plans for suitable schoolhouses for the country and for small towns. (10) Normal scholarships for teachers, two from each county, of the value of $150 each, should be provided in the normal department of the South Carolina College. (11) School districts should be authorized to vote upon themselves bonds for the erection of suitable schoolED 1904 M-67

houses. (12) A law should be enacted to require, with compulsory penalties, that all children between the ages of 8 and 12 years should attend school each year. (13) The compensation for clerical services and necessary assistants in the office of the State superintendent of education should be $1,200 for the chief clerk and $600 for the stenographer and typewriter.

With this picture of the system of public education supported by the State of South Carolina this essay closes. It is unnecessary to multiply the details of the different departments. It is, however, evident, that at the close of the century the State of South Carolina had encountered the same problem which the State of Massachusetts was called to face during the decade previous to the year 1900. These two States, so different in some respects and so unlike from the beginning in other tendencies, had resembled each other in their stubborn attachment to the idea of local school government. In both these States, in Massachusetts from the beginning and in South Carolina from the beginning of its present system of public instruction, the emphasis of administration and operation has been on the school district. Horace Mann declared that the law incorporating the single school district in the New England town was the most mischievous ever placed on the statute book relating to education. Only within the past twenty years has the State of Massachusetts been thoroughly awakened to the fact that under the policy of supporting public schools chiefly by local taxation, with little help from the State, an increasing number of its 350 towns were being left in a condition really less favorable to educational success than half a century ago. By the great effort of a succession of State superintendents and almost a campaign from town to town, the State is now attempting, without imposing a considerable levy for general distribution, to assist the smaller towns by special appropriations and to place them under a vigorous local supervision. All this is comparatively easy in a State with the great wealth of Massachusetts, whose people for two hundred and seventy-five years have been trained in the policy of universal education. In South Carolina, with its various disadvantages of sparseness of population, preponderance of colored citizens, and only the recent dawn of financial prosperity and progress, the problem is far more difficult. But since the administration of Superintendent Thompson, who organized the system from 1876 to 1880, no superintendent has done more valuable service than Mr. John J. McMahan, by placing before the legislature and people the actual condition resulting from the same policy, and predicting the consequences of persistence in the isolated method of educating the people.

But here, as in every Southern State, the interesting fact has been developed that whatever may be the changes of political policy, through whatever periodical excitements the mass of voting population may be carried, and however unpropitious and discouraging may be occasional phases of legislation, yet the mass of the people has set its heart on the education of its whole population for good American citizenship. With this present determination and the steady growth in this direction the ancient Commonwealth of South Carolina has no reason for despondency, but may look forward to the gradual reform of the weak side of her educational system and to the greatly desired harmony of races and classes in a united American citizenship.

GEORGIA.

The State of Georgia may honestly claim the honor of being the only one among the 15 Southern States that began its life as a colony by the prohibition of negro slavery and the sale of intoxicating liquors, and that signalized the