Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-08-22

read. The time has come that the nation
should exercise the right, seeing that it has
the ability, to do what can be done TO pre-
psre them to be what they are not-inielli.
gent citizens; TO do what it can to help
them 10 get ready 10 be free indeed, and
that they may vote not merely IS freed
men" but as free men. Ii the nation owes
nothing to its own safety it owes this to lis
"wards."
Some seem TO be troubled about what they
suppose o be a drift toward centrsliza,io
in this proposed national aid to education.
There is small danger if common sense pre-
vails-and the American people have com
mon sense. The government would naturally
and necessarily dispense il. aid through the
State school systems already existing. This
would be the natural method, for the very
conception is aid, not substitution, and there
are public school systems in all the States;
and, as systems, they are as good as any the
general government could devise. This
would be the necess Try method, for no other
is practicable in a government organized
like ours. Senator Logan is clearly right
when he says: "For the general government
10 ts'ablish a separate national 3 stem OF
education, would, as a matter of course, not
only entail upon the people an additional
and unnecessary expense, but would un-
doubtedly bring the national and State
authorities into constant conflict"
Two distinct systems OF public education
for the same children in the same territory
cannot 90 on al the same time without de-
struction to education i self. In the States
which would receive from the general gov
ernment less than their own expenditure, the
weaker system established by government
would fail of success. Where the govern
ment expenditure would be larger than the
State expenditure the State system would be
Destroyed. A system run by the general
government would be for the Slstes-if
States are 10 continue to exist-the worst OF
all evils. 1t would educ tie backward, ard
in a genei alion would destroy all sense oil
responsibility in the State government iu re.
gard to education. At the end of The ma.
Iional experiment the State systems-in the
weaker States most certainly, would be non.
existent, and the end would be worse than the
beginning.
A DISTINCT SYSTEM
| would add tenfold to the corruption of poll.
tics. 1t would introduce the most vicious
syftem of patronage possible in a republican
government. Education itself would be
merged in politics, and the very springs OF
national life would be poisoned. Such q
system may suit Germany, for in Germany
the people belong to the empire; 1t would
not suit in Americs, for in a republic the
government belongs TO the people. In this
case the function of the government in rela.
ton to the State systems Is analogous to the
function of a city government in the matter
of its water supplies; it is the city's bushes s.
to furnish water plentiful and pure, but the
washing Of children's fa,es is better done by
their mothers.
1 have read somewhat, in current discus
fions of this subject, of distrust of the South
if the proposed government aid should be
dispensed through the State systems. This
is either a groundless fear or an unreasonable
| prejudice. There are not lacking some lead
ing journals that seek 10 "6re the Northern
heart" by the suggestion of "rebei text
books" used in the schools of the South. Tnis
is nonsense, or worse. l know of but thres
sets of textbooks in common use by Southern
schools. One is a series in atics, on
in Greek and one in Lstiu. II i-essy to foe
out the truth 10 the case. Nearly all oul
textbooks are published in the North; ash
your publishers what books the South buys
Ga this whole subject it is right to say ans
it is time to say: Desperate as the South
need is in her effort to carry her double bur
den of poverty and Ignorance, if aid from
the general government comes in such Torn
and under such conditions that Its very pres
ence in the South becomes a token of eterna
distrusi, then the South don't want it at all
and il is better for all concerned that
should never be given.