Not that I would disparage the beneficent ministries of education for any of these. It is an occasion of joy. I only speak of what we are doing for them to emphasize what we ought to do for those of our own blood. It was the apostle to the gentiles engaged with all his might in efforts for the people of other races, who wrote: "If any provideth not for his own, and especially his own household, he hath denied the faith and is worse than infidel." And so, to-day, our interest in other people should deepen our sense of responsibility for those who are nearest of kin.
Who are these 10,000,000 whites of the south? They are the children of the colonial pioneers, of the soldiers who made the continental army, of the fathers who established the republic. They are many of them descendants from a New England ancestor as well as from settlers of Virginia and the Carolinas. A cursory study of the subject leads me to believe that in some counties of Georgia a larger proportion of the people can trace back through some line to a New England sire than in the city of Boston. The cracker is of the same blood as the merchant prince. This is to be seen in their very names. The people of the north and south are one, in feature and in native force, cherishing common religious beliefs and conserving the immemorial traditions of freedom and independence.
In Alaska the expenditure upon the children of the nation, although sixty per cent. of them are Eskimo, is annually $17.78 per capita of enrolment. Similar provisions are being made for the children of the Filipino, while $4.41 is annually spent[1] upon the student of Alabama, and this too when the people of Alabama are taxed to pay for the education of the Eskimo and Filipino.
We make no criticism regarding the money spent upon the children of our territories. Attention, however, should be called to the fact that our government has already spent more money on the Philippine Islands than would be required to educate our entire negro population for the next fifty years, as is shown by the figures given below. And the United States now considers itself under moral obligation to the civilized world to educate the Filipinos and make them responsible citizens.
The most elementary mathematics applied to the principles of sociology will show that millions of dollars will be required to make of this people a nation comparable to others of the civilized world. Suppose that this result may be achieved, what guaranty is there that the Filipinoes will be our friends and allies in time of trouble, say in the case of a foreign war; or what recompense do we gain from the civilized world for "moral obligations" rendered? Charity begins at home and a nation must consider carefully its own ultimate safety and welfare.
We do not claim that the education of the negro is a charity due him by the nation, nor do we wish to consider it a part of friendship of the people of the north to the white people of the south, nor do we hold it a part of philanthropy or a moral obligation to the outside
- ↑ These figures, of course, vary slightly from year to year.
