"Savior of South"

The story has been told of a young school teacher who stayed up all night at his class reunion, talking. At dawn he shook hands with his comrade, Charles Mclvor, and they pledged themselves to lead the South out of the "bondage of ignorance." The young school teacher was

Edwin Anderson Alderman of the University of North Carolina.

That was before 1890. The South was more than 36% illiterate. Today the South is less than 5% illiterate. Hookworm is no more. Industry is doing well --booming, if you ask the people of North Carolina. Schools are many and clean and well-manned. Universities are larger and prouder.

Of course, Edwin Anderson Alderman did not do all these things. But he took the stump, and his voice was sonorous. He asked for higher taxes and hence better schools. He got them, hissed though he was at first. Rockefeller and Rosenwald money began to go to work in the South. . . . And now magazine articlists call Dr. Alderman "the savior of the South."

There is little originality in the writings and speeches of Dr. Alderman. It is in fervor and organizing ability that he excels. As president of the University of North Carolina (1896-1900), he not only whipped it up to New England standards but also reorganized around it the public schools of the state. Then he became president of Tulane University (New Orleans) and in 1904 went to the University of Virginia to be president, an office he still holds.

His regime has been successful, partly because he blended efficiency with tradition: it would have been dangerous to apply rigid card-index methods to the University of Virginia, where Southern bloods are wont to loll on the lawn and contemplate the architectural works of Founder Thomas Jefferson.

President Alderman has gained the confidence of the alumni, some of whom regarded him as a suspicious crusader in the early years. One graduate, a potent Manhattan banker, has been in the habit of returning to the Virginia campus several times a year, just to talk with and listen to the sonorous and friendly President Alderman. Perhaps it was this banker who last week gave, anonymously, $5,000,000 to the University of Virginia. Half of the income from this fund will be used for scholarships and fellowships.