Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 97

13. A Bill to Promote Mendicancy: Facts and Figures Showing that the South Does Not Need Federal Aid for Her Schools (New York: Evening Post Publishing Co., 1888; reprint of editorials published in the New York Evening Post, 1886-1887). (27 p.)

Compilation of editorials opposing a bill that would provide federal funds for education, 75% of them in the South. One of the arguments against the bill in the pamphlet is that illiterate persons who have reached adulthood can not be taught to read or write. Therefore, illiteracy will persist until the cohort of illiterate adults dies. (The bill, introduced by Henry W. Blair of New Hampshire, allowed for segregated schools but adhered to the doctrine of separate but equal. Passage of the bill would have resulted in the use of federal money to fund black schools in the South.)