Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-11
rHs RuRNs1pE rpucAFEoNAL BILL.

serious defect. OF course it must be un-
derstood that the National Government |
does not propose to take the work of edu-
cation out of the hands of the States, but |
only to assist those States and Territories |
where the percentage of illiteracy is SO
great as to be beyond the capacity of the
local revenues. One of the most significant |
and important features of the measure,
however, is its aspect in regard to the
South. 1t is well known that in that |
region the percentage of illiteracy has al
ways been far greater than in any
of the Northern States, and it is
unquestionable that to this backwardness
in education must be attributed many of
the traits which have retarded the progress
of Southern communities. It is indeed
not little singular that a principle of
craftsmanship which has long been recog-
nized and acted upon in the various States
should have remained unutilized until now
by the General Government. The doctrine
that the State has the right to educate is
now almost universally acknowledged.
| Education in fact is perceived to be neces-
sary to the stability of free institutions,
and therefore its diffusion is as much
measure of self-protection as are criminal
laws. Macaulay said "the power which
assumes the right to hang, must have the
fright to educate" and he was right
Society can have no rights which are indie
pendent OF obligations. If it undertakes
to punish its members for breaking the
laws it enacts, it must first see to it that
they are enabled to understand those laws
There are thinkers who have held that when
the state neglected its duties, the citizen
ought not to be punished for following
the example. That when the means of
learning to distinguish right from wrong,
and of gaining an honest livelihood, were
withheld from the masses, they ought to
be held blameless for the consequences
But however this may be in an abstract
argument, it is not capable of being applied
in actual life. Society at its best is full of
imperfections and inconsistencies, and
every movement toward better things is
tedious and difficult. We must be thank
full if after much exertion we obtain small
reforms, and we must not refuse to accept
them because they are less than we ex-
pected. The State cannot in its present
development DO more than begin the work
OF education. 1t can only put the instru-
mentalties of knowledge in the hands of
the people, and it must leave the rest to
themselves. That it not only is justified
in doing so much, but under obligations to
do it, we think evident.
The principle of the Burnside bill, more
over, is one which is already in full appli.
cation. Here in California we do precisely
the thing that the new bill proposes. We
take from the Weather localities to sup
port ehs educational requirements of the
poorer ones. We do this because we per-
ceive that it is to the interest of the entire
State that every voter and taxpayer should
be intelligent and educated II is, of
course, equally to the interest of the en-
tire nation that the people of every State
should be educated. How much loss and
mischief has been already caused by the
illiteracy of the South it would be impos-
sible to estimate but it is safe assertion
that if some such scheme had been adopted
at the close of the rebellion the condition
of that region would have been
greatly improved, and that there
would have been no "solid South
in politics to make a mockery of
republican institutions, and to prove to the
country that nothing is stronger than its
weakest part. We have seen it said that
this bill is not likely to effect any good,
because if the Southern States are illiterate
it is because they prefer illiteracy. There
is no force in this argument. Senator
Burnsides has done just enough to awaken
the shame and touch the pride of the
South. When the National Government |
comes forward thus and offers to aid |
the Southern States in establishing better |
educational systems, it is not to be believed !
that they will turn sullenly away and re.
fuse to accept the generous proposition. |
Ali Southern men of any reflective capacity |
must have realized before now that educa-
tional facilities are more needed than
any other in their section, and |
there is already satisfactory evidence that
the intelligence of the South will heartily |
| support the new bill. 1t is only beginning,
but it is good beginning. 1t is an olive
branch held out to the South which pos
sesses infinitely greater significance than any
OF the theatrical parades of reconcilia-
ton which few years ago created SO
much sensation, only to end in smoke. 1t
is proof that the North retains kindly
feelings towards the South, and that it has
a genuine desire to knit together both parts
of the country. We hope therefore that
it will encounter no distractions in the
House, but that it will become a law be.
fore the close of the present Administra-
ton. Such measures are of good augury,
not only from sectional standpoint, but
because they indicate the growth of
more statesmanlike view of the relation
of the States to the Nation than has OBJ
tanned commonly in the past.
THE FUNDING BILL.
The debates on the Wood funding bill
in the House have thus far deyeloped a
good deal of unorganized and discordant