46 4 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



thousands of years. Still, the education of the masses has ever in- 

 creased and the world thereby has gradually become more enlightened. 



But with respect to the education of the colored people the great 

 objection expressed by those who oppose this education is to be found 

 in the " increasing peril resulting from the higher education of the 

 negro." 



It may be said that along the higher paths of education but few 

 of those who have been civilized for centuries ever tread, and the 

 higher the paths the fewer those who tread them. As would be ex- 

 pected, this is preeminently the case among the negro population. 



The Eeport of the TJ. S. Commissioner of Education for 1899-1900, 

 Vol. I., pp. lviii and lix of the preface, shows that 2,061 colored per- 

 sons out of each 1,000,000 were enrolled in secondary and higher 

 education for the year 1890; for the year 1907 it was 2,517 for each 

 1,000,000, while the general average for the whole United States had 

 increased from 4,362 to 10,743 per 1,000,000. Thus while the attend- 

 ance at the colored high school or college had increased somewhat 

 faster than the population, it had not kept pace with the general 

 average of the whole country, for it had fallen from 30 per cent, to 

 24 per cent, of the average quota. 13 



This report also shows that of all the colored pupils only one in 

 one hundred was engaged in secondary and higher work. These figures 

 correspond almost exactly with those given above that were compiled 

 by Dr. Dabney from different data. 



As one teacher can not handle successfully more than from forty 

 to fifty pupils, and as all preachers and doctors should have at least 

 some training in a high school, it is seen how entirely without founda- 

 tion are the above objections regarding the higher education of the 

 negro. 



It is further to be noted that the above averages are for the whole 

 colored population of the United States. The percentage of negro 

 children that attend the high schools in cities, especially northern 

 cities, is much larger than it is for the rural districts in the south. 

 In 1900 the number of negroes in Washington, D. C, was 86,702; in 

 Baltimore, 79,258 ; in Philadelphia, 62,613 ; in New York, 60,666, etc. 



From the Eeport of the U. S. Commissioner of Education (1905) 

 Vol, 2, p. 1295, it is seen that 3,349 colored students attended high 

 schools in the territory considered in the present paper. As there are 

 approximately seven million colored people living within this area, 

 there is not one colored person out of every two thousand population 

 that ever enters the high school. 



18 See Murphy, " The Present South," p. 61. 



