New-York tribune., 1878-06-11
NATTONAL EDUCATYON.

during the closing hours OF Congressional
session, there is always much pushing and
scrambling and grabbing and Overreaching and
n good zeal of eccentric legislation altogether,
and therefore somebody has been advising Mr..
Burnside that now is the accepted time to
push bis own bill fer dividing up certain OF
the Federal revenues and distributing them
among the severai States for the be-
nign purpose Of educating the people"
Accordingly, the trustful Senator has
given notice that he will call up
his bill rs soon as the River and Harbor
divide has been adjusted, and he as
sures the Senate that if this important
measure passes within Gay or two, 1t
will. probably slide through the House,
receive Mr.. Hayes's signature and be-
come a law mt once. This bill, which
has been prepared for Slr. Burnside, and about
which he feels so cheerful, is not any worse
than Mr.. Goodies bill, or any Of the others
which the National system makers have been
fabricatng year after year, ever since
the war. There is no need of reiterating
the numerous and fatal objections to these
schemes which are manifest as soon as they
are inspected from any point OF view; but
the essential vice in them all cannot be too
frequently insisted on. If education Is
made n State matter, il ought to be
provided for exclusively by local tax.
If il is Federal matter it ought
To be supported exclusively out of the Fed
eral funds 1t certainly does not belong to
both, and our system provides no ma
chnery for complicated pecuniary transac-
tions between the Federal Government and the
States Still less was it ever intended that
the States should be suppiants for National
bounty, and no more certain method of de-
bauchiug political morality could be devised
than to have candidates outbldding each other
IN their demands for Federal money. Ii ought
also to be remembered that rs soon
as the Central Government begins to "edu-
"cate the people," some central authority at
once, within certain limits, begins to interfere
with and exercise control over existing State
systems. This authority must app0rtion and
distribute school money it must specify the
objects for which the money is expended, and
prescribe the methods of its expenditure; it
must enforce the provisions of the Federal
law, and fix and inhict the penal
ties for disObedience or negligence on
the part of the States. And if the
General Government can exercise partial
control over education in the States, il can
assume the entire charge. And if of educa-
tion, why not of other matters of local con-
cernf And if it can divide and distribute
one portion of the Federal funds among the
States, why not lay its hand on any other
portioni And why not create new revenues
for educational purposes from any source
whatever2
f,,1F 4
with its Minister of Education, and titles and
salaries for the unattached professors who are
lobbying for the scheme, is not now openly
demanded but n careful look at any of these
bills will discover their final aim, and show that
the proposed enactments are only intended
rs preparations for something higher. Mr..
Burnside's fund, for example, is to be derived
from the net proceeds of patents and the net
proceeds of the public lands. Last year Gov
cmment overcharged inventors a trihe more
than 100000 for transacting their busi-
ness for them, and the time must soon
come when these exactiOns will be done
away with. The net proceeds of the public
lands last year were less than $500, 900, and
the estimates of the Land Office for the COM
ing year are more than will probably be real
lied from sales. Now, the interest on this
vanishing fund Of 100000 after One-third
of it is cOnsecrated to the agricultural
colleges according to the Burnside plan,
would yield, when divided among the school
population, the munificent sum of one mill
per head. Mr.. Goodies bill, which takes the
entire net proceeds for five years before estab-
fishing any interest fund, would furnish each
child with about three cents worth of educa-
ton, and leave the youthful American dis
solving prospect of pecuniary aid in the
future. No doubt the funds might slow
ly accumulate as children multiplied, but
after all the revenue from any of
these projects would, in all likelihood, be
so preposterously small that it would have no
appreciable effect on the education of the
people, and the greater part of it would adj
here to the various fingers through which 1t
passed before it ever came within reach Of
"the people"
Even Mr.. Burnside ought to see that for
any immediate or practical use his bill is
worthless, and it is very plain that the advO-
Gates of National School system are simply
laboring to get an established foOthold. Their
plans may be covered up under the guise of