Eaton, and in certain special tables in my Beports for 1885-86 and 1886-87. These studies are continued in the following tables and context. The first six tabies relate, as will be seen, to the social conditions directly affecting the force and growth of the school system; the remaining five relate to industrial ecnditions whese effects, though less obvious, are not less positive. In the series of Reports published under my supervision. I have employed a fivefold division of the Union. A medication of this division seen.s desirable for the consideration before us. This modification is shown in the acnexed Map. No. 1. of the eastern and central parts of the country. By the North I mean all the States north of the line BD; and by the South, all the States lying south of that line; the line AC indicates the division of the East" from "the Centre: all States and Territories west of Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas are omitted from the present discussion. Thus, the East" represents the ante-Revolutionary" part of the country: the North" shows the part which was opposed to slavery before the late civil war; "the South meludes those States in which slavery existed as a recognized factor in social, political, and industrial conditions. MAP NO. 1-A Fourfall Division of the Eastern Part of the Union. AB: North-Eastern BC: South-Eastern CD: South Central. DA: North Central. ADULTS AND MINORS IN 1880, NORTH AND SOUTH. The two tables first presented show the number of adults and of minors in eighteen "Northern" and sixteen "Southern" States in 1880, the proportion of adults and minors in one thousand of the population, and the number of minors to one thousand adults. The Adult and Minor Population of the Northern States in 1880. a a Computed in the Bureau of Education. The Adult and Minor Population of the Southern States in 1880.a From these tables Map No. 2 is constructed. It shows for 1880 the number of persons under twenty-one years of age to each thousand of persons twenty-one or more years old. MAP No. 2.-Number of Minors to 1,000 Adults, 1880. The duty of sheltering, feeding, clothing, and teaching the young of a community devolves, both by nature and by law, on the mature members. Other things being equal, this duty will be more or less difficult in proportion to the relative numbers of adults and minors. When we use the tables with Map No. 2, we arrive at some striking views. Compare Vermont and Mississippi: Vermont had 578 adults to 422 minors, or 1,000 to 730; Mississippi had 421 adults to 579 minors, or 1,000 to 1,375. Hence the burden on the adults of Vermont was little more than half as heavy as that on the adults of Mississippi. Here, then, is the first problem in Southern education-how to overcome the difficulties arising from a very large proportion of minor population. WEALTH AND MINOR POPULATION IN 1880, NORTH AND SOUTH. I next present two tables, giving, for North and South, the aggre gate of State, county, and local debts of each State in round millions of dollars; the true valuation of all real and personal property in each State, also in round millions; the difference between debt and valua. tion, or the "net" value of property in each State, also in round mill ions; and, lastly, the amount of "net" property, in dollars, per capita of the minor population of each State. This per capita amount is, in other words, the net fund that is capable of being taxed for the support and education of each minor citizen. The larger this amount per capita the lower will be the rate of taxation necessary to produce any specified amount of money, or the more money will be collected upon the same rate of taxation. MAP No. 3.-Amount of Property per capita of Minor Population in dollars. Map No. 3 shows at a glance how much more favorably situated the North is in this respect; two of the Northern States had more than three thousand dollars per capita of minors; ten others had more than two thousand dollars per capita of minors; and the other six had more than one thousand dollars per capita of minors. Southern States had more than one thousand dollars per capita of minors, the other twelve ranging from $538 to $980. Massachusetts had six and one-half times as much as Mississippi per capita of minors. This is the second problem in Southern education-how to overcome the difficulties arising from the lack of taxable property. |