North Carolina is a prime example. And all Reconstructionnstate constitutions had s clause creating public, taxsupportedneducation for all children, regardless of race.nThe Reverend A.D. Mayo was a Radical Republican andnan executive in the quasi-private Peabody Fund. This was angigantic multimillion dollar school endowment, matchingnlocal Southern tax monies. Mayo was considered one of thentop education experts in the country. He hated the Southnand dreamed of reforming it in the image of New England,nbut even he had to admit that the Southern states focusednmore effort on schooling than the North. “In many of thenSouthern states the school tax is higher than in the Northernnstates that maintain a splendid school system.”nDr. Mayo’s views were sacrosanct in Congress. He had anhuge impact on legislative efforts and national policy. Henpointed out, using census data and his own personalnexperience, that the rural South was mired in extremenilliteracy. But it was the policies of the Peabody Fund andnthe Freedmen’s Bureau that created this. Both agenciesnfocused their efforts and money on high-density urban areasnto more easily control the student population. Rural familiesnwere pushed into the cities to get “better” federal schoolingnfor their children. This denuded the countryside of mostnschool-age children. Then the consequences were hurlednback into the South’s face as proof of its incompetence.nThe census data of 1870 through 1890 projected thensame dismal story for the South. Stagnating illiteracy. Slightngains here and there, a hopeful state here and there, butnoverall, failure. No one seemed to notice that the CensusnBureau was mixing apples and oranges, presenting longtermntrends based on unrelated statistics.nTo accurately project a trend the same questions must benasked each time. But the census questions kept subtlynchanging.nIn 1870, one question read: “Attended school within thenyear?” In 1880 that became, “Attended school within thencensus year, June 1-May 30?” This is significant. Thennational average number of days of school attendance in anynyear was about one hundred. The “when” of those hundredndays fluctuated widely by region, depending on cropnplanting and harvesting seasons and weather. The change innthe question helped keep the literacy numbers bunchednhigher in the North, decade after decade.nIn 1870 and 1880 the questions “cannot read/cannotnwrite?” were asked. 1890: “Able to read/able to write?”nreplaced it. These are very different questions. Again, thisnresulted in Northern numbers remaining higher. Majornschool legislation was proposed based on those statistics.nThe Hoar and Blair BillsnGeorge Hoar, Republican representative from Massachusetts,nintroduced the first civil peacetime bill for directnfederal aid to common schools in 1870. It was pure tyranny.nVia direct federal tax, funds would be distributed to thenstates based on census illiteracy data.nHoar said: “It will compel the states to do what they willnnot do and to do for them what they cannot do.” Hoarnrationalized his bill in terms of “intelligent voting.” He saidnthe Democrats opposed it because “that party knows thatnthe greater the ignorance of the masses the greater itsnpolitical power, hence it denounces the light of education.”nAnother side effect of the Hoar Bill was “extinguishingnCatholic or religious education and to form one homogeneousnAmerican people after the New England evangelicalntype.” The bill passed the House but was narrowly beatennback in the Senate.nBy the late 1870’s direct military rule over the South wasnwaning. The new Republican President, Rutherford B.nHayes—who won his election only because of massivenmilitary intervention at the Southern polls—was committednto the same kind of federal extortion in the classroom. Henrequested funds from Congress for that purpose. “Tonperpetuate the Union and abolish slavery was the work ofnthe war. To educate the uneducated is the appropriate worknof the peace.” Behind the noble words emerged a plan tonpermanently enslave the South. Senator Henry Blair putnHayes’ plan into legislative form.nThe Blair Bill, “for the temporary support of commonnschools,” provoked a decade-long struggle in Congress, asnthe danger of national aid became clearer to the public. Likenits predecessors, Blair linked federal aid to illiteracy, makingnthe South the greatest recipient. Blair went further than anynlegislator had dared before. He confessed that his plannGreat Topics, Great Issues!nCatch up on the CHRONICLES you’venmissed by ordering from the followingncollection of recent back issues.nTiUenD The American West February 1989 – This issue features formerngovernor of Colorado, Dick Lamm, giving the Western view ofnthreats to American civilization. Willam Mills writes on buffalo,nsilver mines, and water rights along the Arkansas River Valley.nOdie B. Faulk on the tenacity of the Western myth in Tombstone,nArizona. William Murchison writes on the tenacity of Texas-n$2.50 .nD AH Booked Up January 1989 – This issue looks at the businessnof ideas and literature in America. The Perspective makes anstrong suggestion that we are dealing with an intellectual cartelncontrolled by an old-boy network in New York. Other piecesninclude the pluses and minuses of writers’ unions (MomcilonSelic), an anecdotal piece about the bad text editing done onneditions of the classic writer Joyce (E. Christian KopfQ, and thenethics of book reviewing (KatherineDalton). $2.50 .nn Utopia Unlimited December 1988 – Robert Nisbet in “OurnStumbling Giant” talks about the ideahstic moralism of thenReagan administration – how the tradition of Woodrow Wilsonnand his misguided foreign policy is alive and well and living innthe Reagan White House. . .Paul Gottfried looks at the Utopiannassumptions underlying much of modern academic history. . .nClyde Wilson asks, reluctantly, if legalization is the answer to thenAmerican drug problem. . . Negovan Rajic considers the masknand reality of the Communist Utopia. . .Curtis Cafe writes fromnParis on the 20th anniversary of the Soviet invasion ofnCzechoslovakia .. . R, E. Lieb writes from Nova Scotia about anlast invasion of “flower children.” $2.50 .nD America: As Others See Us November 1988 -Erik von Kuehnelt-nLeddihn investigates the peculiar brand of American liberaUsm.nJohn Lukacs looks at 150 years’ worth of American manners.nLeon Steinmetz tries to read between the lines of “Pravda.”nArnold Beichman reviews Richard Nixon’s latest treatise onndiplomacy. John Chalberg takes issue with the new biographynof WiUiam E Buckley, Jr. Andrei Navrozov revives the reputationnof artist Leonid Pasternak. K. L, Billingsley reviews an”performance” by Vladinur Posner $2.50n•Postage and handling included in issue price. Total amount duenName AddressnCity. -State- -Zip_nnnQty. Amt.nChronicles • 934 North Main Street • Rockford, IL • 61103 CB1588nMARCH 1989/23n