" 3

The following tables are compiled from the United States Census of 1890,
and represent the condition in our Southern States:

Total Population. Native White.

Alabama 41% 18-4/10%
Florida 27-8/10% 11-3/10%
Georgia 39-8/10% 16-3/10%
Kentucky 21-6/10% 16-1/10%
Mississippi 40% 11-9/10%
South Carolina 45% 18-1/10%
North Carolina 35-7/10% 23-1/10%
Tennessee 26-6/10% 18%
Virginia 30% 14%
Louisiana 45-8/10% 20-1/10%

From this table it will be seen that no foreign country of all the list
given above equals in illiteracy any one of these Southern states with
the exception of Tennessee.

It will be also noted that eliminating the Negro factor from the South
and taking simply our native white population the percentage of
illiteracy in North Carolina of this class is one-tenth of one per cent,
greater than the percentage of illiteracy in Ireland, the most
illiterate of all these given.

This is an amazing fact and ought to startle us all into more earnest
efforts to lift up out of the darkness of ignorance and illiteracy this
great mass of people, black and white, in our Southern states. It
absolutely destroys the weight of the argument so often heard in
presenting the dangers threatening our country on account of the
ignorance of foreign immigrants. This alarm bell is muffled when we
hear the alarm echo from Southern lowlands and mountains.

Another startling fact revealed by careful study of the census tables of
1890 concerning illiteracy is this: In every case the percentage of
illiteracy of the native white population in these states is _greater_
than that of the foreign white population in the same states. To
illustrate: In Alabama the native white population is 18-4/10 per cent.
The foreign white population show an illiteracy of 7-3/10 per cent. In
Louisiana the native white population has 20-3/10 per cent. illiteracy,
the foreign white 18-7/10 per cent. This principle holds good
throughout. It is becoming in those of us who are patriotic not to boast
too much concerning the education of our own people, or to urge the
ignorance of those who come from abroad. The greatest problem before our
Christian p