The hydraulic press., 1860-02-11
An Important Subject for Legislation.

| We are indebted to A. j. Moulder, ESQ.,,
State Superintendent of Public instruction,
for copy of his annual report. We have
heretofore noticed this able document, not
as it deserved but as our limited space would
allow, and have expressed our sense of the
value of Mr.. Moulders services to the cause
of public education. 1t is not too much to
say, that his persistent and earnest efforts
have quickened and informed the whole pub
lie sentiment of the State with regard to this
most Important subject, He is particularly
entitled to the thanks of the mining coun-
| ties for his impartial endeavors to secure the
consolidation of the proceeds of the sale of
the township school lands into a common
| fund, for the equal benefit of all the chill
dren in the State
| Our readers know that Congress donated
to this State, as to others, the sixteenth and
| thirty-sxth sections of public land in every
township of six miles square, for school pur-
poses; and that this donation would amount
In the aggregate to nearly six million acres
constituting fund amply sufficient, with
other resources for the same purpose, to
maintain our free schools forever. With a
total lack of appreciation the consequences
of its own action, the Legislature of 1853
provided for the sale Of the sections named,
at rate not lower than two dollars per acre,
the proceeds of such sale to be employed for
the support of schools in the particular towa-
ship in aohich The lands are located. Now as the
policy and practice of the General Govern
ment has invariably been to reserve from
sale or pre-emption all mineral lands, and
as the Commissioner of the General Land
Office and the Secretary of the Interior have
decided in accordance with this practice, as
have also some of our own Courts, it is ev-
| ident that no school land sections can be To-
Gated in most of the mining counties of CAL
ifornia, and that under the law of 1853 one
great portion of the State, to which the ex-
traordinarily rapid development of the en-
tire commonwealth is due, must be prevented
from sharing the muni6cent bequest of Con-
gress, and left to provide by special taxation
for the support of its public schools The
injustice and impol;cy of this are apparent
on the slightest impartial reflection, and the
present Legislature should hasten to inau-
gurate the wise and equitable system urged
repeatedly by the State Superintendent
We do not sympathlse with that feeling of
antagonism between the agricultural and
mining interests which has so often affected
or prevented legislation, and which every
year appears to be growing stronger and
more troublesome. We consider them in
terdependent, as equally conducive to the
welfare of the State, and as deserving equal
protection. Precisely for this reason we
wish to see the public schools of the whole
State put upon an equal footing, thus re-
moving what must else become with the
plant. These communities have shown as
much appreciation of the Importance of ed
ucation as their agricultural brethren. In
proportion to the aggregate number of their
children old enough to attend school, they
have built as many school houses and sent
to them as many pupils, doing this under
more discouragements and with less public
assistance The State needs to have all her
children educated, and the agricultural and
commercial counties will find it to their adj
vantage not to aid in perpetuating the al
legged social inferiority of those hardy noun
tain communities to which is largely owing
their own prosperity.
This is question above all local and Sec
tional rivalry, and in this spirit we hope to
see the Legislature treat it. First do justice
to the children of the whole State, into
whose hands the destiny of California must
soon be given, and then endeavour to Sc
cure justice from Congress by appealing to
it to permit US to select elsewhere within our
borders those sections of land, estimated to
reach three millions of acres, which we are
deprived of by its policy in regard to the
mineral lands.
49,