The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-01-12

ed as TO require an enumeration to be
made of the cOLored children of the
State, and such portion of the School
Fund as may bein proportion to their
number, be set apart and applied to
their education, by the establishment
of separate schools, under such suita-
BILE provisions and regulations as may
be proper. / would not recommend that
white and colored children be placed
together in the same schools, believing
as | do, in the present state of public
opinion, that to do so would create
dissatisfaction and conflict, and impair
the usefulness of the schools.
/ am informed that system can be
devised by which separate schools for
the education of colored children can
be successfully maintained in various
parts of the State, and believe that
justice, humanity, and sound policy
require that it should be done.
By the school law of 1865, negroes
and mulattoes are not taxed for the
support of common schools; but if
colored schools should be established
this law should be so amended as to
subject them to like taxation with
white persons for educational pur-
poses.
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. p9
By an act of Congress, thirty thou
sand acres of land were donated to
each State, for each Senator and Re-
preventative in Congress, for the pur-
pose of erecting and maintaining an
Agricultural College. This entitled
Indiana to (390,000) three hundred
and ninety thousand acres The act
provided that where there were public
lands in the State subject to entry at
81 Is per acre, the quantity to which
the State was entitled should be select
ed from such lands; but, if there were
no such lands in the State, or not
enough, the Secretary of the Inte-
rior was to issue to such State land
scrip for the requisite number of
acres. This scrip can not be located
by the State to which it was issued,
but must be sold; but the purchasers
of such scrip may locate it upon any
of the unappropriated land of the
United States, subject to sale at pri-
vate entry at 81 % or less per acre.
There being no public lands in this
State for sale at private entry held by
the Government at 81 % per acre, In
diana received her donation in scrip.
The original purpose entertained by
Congress of establishing Agricultu-
raj Colleges in the several
States to be maintained by sub
stantial and sufficient endow-
ments was most enlightened and pa
triotic, but we may well doubt the
wisdom OF the means by which it was
to be accomplished. The most of the
States having no lands within their
borders upon which this grant could
be located, were compelled to receive
it in script, which they were not at
liberty to locate In other States and
Territories, but were required to sell.
Large quantities of the scrip were
put upon the market at the same
time, and the price suddenly went down
until it could not be sold for much
over one-third1 of its par value.
There has been no time since the
State of Indiana received her scrip at
which itscould have been sold for
more than 80, or at most 55 cents per
acre. AT fifty-fve cents an acre it
would only realize ($204,500), two
hundred and four thousand five hum
bred dollars, sum wholly inadequate
to successfully establish and maintain
a College upon the broad and compre-
hensive plan contemplated by Con-
gress. The States became rival ven
ders in the market, and all of them
competing directly with the Govern
ment, which cannot sell land in the
regular way at less than 81 % per
| acre. @
The scrip already sold by the sever
al States, has, with few exceptions,
been purchased in quantities by spec
ulators, some of whom will enter and
hold large bodies of land to be made
valuable by the settlement and i'm
provement of other lands around
them, and others will retail the scrip
in small quantities at price greatly
advanced over what they gave for it,
but still underselling the Government.
The reason why the States were
not allowed to locate the scrip,
was because it would create
monopoly, and enable them to
hold lands in perpetuity, but no
provision was made against permit
ting the spectators who purchase
the. scrip at less than half its value
from doing the same thing. While it
was not so intended, yet it has turned
out that no better arrangements for
spectators could have been devised.
If the States had been allowed to To-
cate the scrip, the land, as soon as
entered, would have been worth to
them 81 % per acre, and they might
have been required, upon pain of for
fixture to the Governments, to sell the
same within four or six years, thus
avoiding the danger of monopo-
ly and perpetuity, and enabling