The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1870-05-18
From the N, Y, Journal of Commerce,l
A NATIONAL. SCHOOL SYSTEM PRO.
POSED.


A NATIONAL. SCHOOL SYSTEM PRO-
POSED
Tax of s5O,OOO,OOO 10 Begin with
Persons who cherish a rosy hope that
the taxes are to be reduced, should ponder
the propositions in Representative Hoar's
bill "to establish system of National
Education" which has been favorably re-
ported by the Committee on Education
and Labor. In the 18th Amendment
message, the other day, President Grant
dropped significant hint for Congress to
''take all the means within their constitu-
tlonal power to promote and encourage
popular education throughout the coun-
try" On the same day that his message
reached the capitol, the extraordinary bill
that we now proceed to notice came back
from the committee to the House, coin
cldence best explained on the supposition
that the President and committee had con-
ferred, and that Congress had been SCUM
ded on the subject, and is expected to pass
the measure. A more cleveriy contrived
scheme to make thousands of new office
holders, maintain national taxes, find
work for revenue assessors and collectors,
and strengthen" the central government,
has never come under our ewes AS
prop for the Radicals, it is the best thing
yet thought of, for il viii plant their pe-
cuGar political doctrines in the breasts of
the rising generation, along with the first
seeds of reading, writing and arithmetic
That shrewd gentleman, whose name is
the occasion of considerable proftless dis
pute among antiquaries, who wanted to
write the songs of a nation in preference
to make its laws, did not originate half so
smart an idea of moulding national char
acter as Mr.. Hoar has hit upon. A mo-
nopoly of ballad making and mongering
could do much to shape the prejudices Of
a people, but nothing like what an army
of political pedagogues, with a switch in
one hand and the Radical articles of faith
in another, and the whole power of gov
ernment at their backs, could do in that
line. The inventor of this patent for con-
frmlng and extending Radicalism indef-
nitely is the master craftsman of his par
ty.
After long, high sounding preamble,
apropos of the 10Th Amendment, Mr..
Hoar comes straight to business, and pro-
poses the appointment, for each State in
the Union, of Superintendent of Ma
tional Schools" at yearly salary of So
600. Multiply 5000 by 81 (the number
of States when all in, we have $111 900
of annual expenditure to begin with
These superintendents will "boss the iob, !"
under the direction of the Commissioner
of Education, who, in turn, reports for
general information to the Secretary of
the Interior, who finally takes his cue
from the President, making the whole af-
fair complete administrative machine,
as much as the army of the revenue
crowd. For each Congressional District
the Secretary of the Interior is to appoint
Division Inspector of NaUional Schools"
on a salary of $2,000-multiplied by 242,
equals $484, 200. Each of the divisions
shall be divided by the State Superinten-
dent into school districts of convenient
size, to be managed by a Local Superin-
tendent of National Schools" at So day
for the time he is actually engaged. This
means millions upon millions of dollars in
the aggregate, but, for want of more pre-
else data than we have, we cannot esti-
mate the sum even approximately. What
with the salaries of al these myrmidons
of the strong government, the hiring OF
an indefinite number of school masters
and mistresses, the erecting and repairing
of school houses, the furnishing of school
books for children unable ts buy them,
and other incidental expenses, Mr.. Hoar
is probably within the mark by providing
for q district tax, to be apportioned
among the several States, of $50000,000
just to start the experiment, for that is al
| that even 50 large an amount wI1f readily
| do. The more we turn this scheme over
| the more we are lost in enforced admira
ton OF the audacions genius that plGnneC
it. Besides the incalculable political pow
ar that it confers on the administration
| through its thousands of well paid anC
/ willing stipendiaries, and the indoctrina.
ton in the tender mind of childhood o
the straightest Radical principles-thinl
of the pickings and stea1ingsl The prof
its to be made from supplying schoO
books, putting up school houses, &c. Pat
ronage, power, money-all things that pc
litical prizes and struggles for-will hoV
in boundless measure from Hoar's bill.
This stupendous political and none,
spending engine will go into effect in tn
Southern States Immediately after the pas
sage of the bill It rests with the opinion
of the President whether it will not b
introduced into all the States in the Un
ion. The last section declares that an
State may make provision for the educa
ton of all the children within its border
between the ages Of six and eighteen yrs
but the President is clothed with absc
lutte power to decide whether any syster
meets his views and wishes, and. if no
the national scheme will be made TO 81
persede it. Democratic States will be e'
pecially liable to have their own educs
tional laws nullifed and schoolmastel
turned out to make way for Radical teacl
ings and teachers. Wherever it may /
: of political advantage to rub out Sta
) system and impose the national one, rel
, sons more plentiful than blackberries ca
= be found for exercising it.