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10. New Beginnings and Unhappy Endings
- University of Arkansas Press
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Chapter 10 New Beginnings and Unhappy Endings – I. A Searching Test of Democratic Ideals The first catalog of newly christened Southland Institute described the school as located in “a beautiful and healthful neighborhood of industrious , intelligent people . . . away from noise, temptations and distractions of a city, drinking fully of the wholesome air and pure sunshine.” This message came, perhaps, a year too late for Friend Arthur Stoffensham who in had withdrawn his application for a Southland teaching position “on account of fear of malaria.”1 A more significant and more accurate point of emphasis in the catalog was that since the school’s founding over five hundred teachers had been trained and sent forth as educational and moral leaders among their people for whom nothing was “more desirable . . . than intelligent and enlightened teaching and training.” Above all else, the catalog concluded, was Southland’s Christian influence, since “no amount of intellectual training, without morality, virtue and religion, can fit young people for usefulness in the world.” No less an agency than the U.S. Bureau of Education seconded this assertion in paying homage to “the high moral aspect” of the service rendered by Southland and other Friends’ schools for black people.2 Such high praise coincided with the vision of the newly energized Five Years Meeting on the importance of the Society of Friends role in advancing Negro education. Never was there a more searching test of democratic ideals than the present necessity of a wise adjustment of the hopes and aspirations of ,, black people and the standards and principles of ,, white people in the United States.3 The – school year at Southland began under new management, but retired president Harry Wolford maintained his connection by volunteering to give the missionary board the benefit of his long experience, providing advice on financial and managerial affairs while also aiding with the process of recording the articles of incorporation that would insure Southland’s legal status as a degree-granting institution.4 It seemed an auspicious new beginning, but, too soon, the board discovered that “owing largely to change in management, high cost of food stuffs, incomplete condition of incorporation,” and overdue loans, Southland had been placed in a “peculiar embarrassing condition financially.” Hard, cold figures made that condition clear. With an average of % increase in the cost of living, percent in teachers’ salaries and % decrease in attendance, with % on borrowed funds, and increased insurance rates, it is simply impossible to keep the institution in successful operation. Faced with this daunting prospect, the board was, at least for the moment, relieved to know that until the legal incorporation of Southland Institute was completed, Indiana Yearly Meeting would be responsible “for all needed expenditures made by the Missionary Board Committee.”5 These new complications signaled the need for an emergency conference of the missionary board executive committee and yearly meeting trustees wherein steps were taken to ensure Southland’s continued operation through new loans and measures to consolidate outstanding debts. Because yearly meeting retained responsibility for the Institute’s fiscal condition, the joint meeting determined to delay the recording of Southland’s new articles of incorporation until the entire yearly meeting could be consulted at its annual late-summer gathering. In the meantime , the missionary board decided that a portion of the borrowed funds should be devoted to a long-range plan for making Southland more selfsuf ficient through increased agricultural production, thus offsetting the growing problem of inflationary food costs. Such a policy would, they believed, have the added advantage providing practical agricultural training for male students who would help to work the land. Unfortunately, before this plan could be set in motion Southland was visited by a new New Beginnings and Unhappy Endings [34.229.239.82] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 12:21 GMT) series of vicissitudes, beginning with the onset of what proved to be the coldest Arkansas winter on record. In a series of reports Director John Baldwin “very forcibly portrayed the severe struggle . . . to hold on . . . during the extreme cold which dropped to below zero at one time & for weeks touched degree mark each morning.” As a result of these severe conditions, the heating plant in the chapel building froze solid and a section of the wall in the girls’ dormitory was fractured by freezing water pipes. Amidst these demoralizing setbacks, the wife of the farm supervisor died, causing all outside work on school property to fall to John Baldwin who had, in the...