The Daily Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Or.) 1876-1883, 1882-03-28
Educational Schemes.

bill through the Senate granting
the hero of Appomattox s12,750
a year. is now engineering another
bill that has about it.sll the charm
of novelty and all the invidious
merit of a genuine surprise. 1t
is to turn the federal tax on spirits
into a general school fund. The
proposition is seriously considered
in the Senate. At present there
is s65,oOo,o0O annually collected
from the manufacturers of whiskey,
wine, and all the rest Of the bev-
erages, which Logan thinks should
be given to the states to help edu-
cate the rising generation. 1t is,
not necessary to go into the argu-
ments pro and con. There is
something comical about the propo-
sition. but ludicrous as it is, it may
pass. If it pass, Oregon's share
of the money would be s201,00
which would give each school GEN.
sus child in the state s3.27, which
would materially increase educa-
tional facilities with whisky
money.
There is another bill before the
Senate, fathered and fostered by
Blair, of New Hampshire, which
is still more Utopian in its nature.
The honorable member from the
old granite state hopes to have
Congress appropriate s15,000,000
this year, s14,oOO,OOO the next
$13,000,oO0 the next and SO on,
for ten years in descending se-
ries, thus raising $105,000,000,
which shall be distributed to the
states and territories Sin that pro-
portion which the whole number
of persons in each who, being of
of the age of 10 years and over,
cannot read and write, bears to
the whole number of such persons
in the United States"
The intent is 10 do away with
illiteracy. This bill if passed,
would be grand thing for the
south, where the bulk of the
money would go; it might be a
good thing; we doubt it. George
Peabody gave the south a grand
educational fund, which has never
resulted in any tangible good.
The last we heard of that quota of
it that should go to Mississippi,
the legislature Of that state
was engaged in an unsee,nly
squabble with the executors in an
attempt to force those parties to
pay them their part of the bequest
without fulfilling their part of the
contract. Senator Blair's bill is a
good deal like the handle of Jug.
Take two states-Ohio and South
Carolina; the one representative
northern, the other a representa-
tive southern state. Ohio has a
population Of 100000. in that
there are $4,000 illiterate persons.
South Carolina has a population of
995,577; in that there are 500, ,S4S
who are illiterate. Should Blair's
bill pass. Ohio would get S3l6,433;
South Carolina would get $751;
635. "But that's just the intent
of the bill," say its champions.
The plea is a fimsy one. 1t looks
too much like an attempt to tax
the frugal and the provident to
help out the lazy and Indifferent.
Congress has large lot of eggs
to sit on; two promising chicks
have been hatched; the anti-polyg-
amy, and anti-Chinese bill; Blair's
little scheme for making the north
foot the educational bills of the
south is a bad egg and should be
removed from the patent incu-
bator at Washington.
-
The Mississippi river has fall
OF 5 inches to the mile from Cairo
to Memphis: 4 inches to the mile
from Memphis to vicksburg; 81
inches to the mile from Vicksburg
to the mouth Of the Red river;
and from 2 to 8 inches to the mile
from the mouth of the Red river
to New Orleans. In 1,10o miles
the fall is but $50 feet.
The Los Angles, Cal, Herald
is entitled to the medal for the
champion idiot, in asserting that