Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-12-24
from the Richmond Dispatch. ]
A Convincing Letter.

| Wr1tCon IOr puDncatlOn III Ine DSSpQtcH Cne
following compact argument in favor of the
Blair bill by the House of Representatives.
His article seems to us to be unans cradle.
It is complete-ex exhaustive of the subject.
1t will enable the Democrats of Virginia
to foresee the use which General Malone
will next fall make of the failure of their
party friends in the House of Representa-
tives to pass the bill. Upon every stump
we shall hear of that failure. The tables
are already prepared showing how many
thousands of dollars each county in Virgin
| ia would have received but for Democratic
negligence. DR.. Curry does not touch upon
this point. We did not expect that he
would. But it is one which the leaders of
the Democratic party cannot avoid. Mr..
Barbour is member of the Democratic
National Committee, the Democratic Ma
tional Executive Committee, the Virginia
Democratic State Central Committee, and
the Virginia Democratic State Executive
Committee. He can exercise wonderful
influence in favor of the Blair bill.
We now introduce DR.. Curry:
1 Federal Aid to Public Schools.
To the Editor of the Dispatch.
! A pressure of official duties has prevent
Il ed an earlier response to your request for
my views on the Senate bill, now before
the House of Representa- ives, giving Fed
eral aid to public schools. The subject has
been SO extensively discussed in the last
few years that it is difficult to present any
thing, either new or interesting. As the
! question, however, is one of paramount
importance-the most vital before the coun-
try-I am more than willing to cooperate
with you in trying to get the Representa-
tives to recognize it's 'surgency" and to act
on it promptly.
Much Misrepresentation exists as to the
character of the ''Blair bill'' as it passed
the Senate. The fears of che par-e1ce1ence
strict constructionists and States-rights
politicians have been excited by what is in
their perturbed imaginations rather than
by what is in the proposed legislation.
fa.) The basis of distribution of the
money to be appropriated is not population
in the aggregate but the illiteracy of the
population AS the immediate peril, justi-
flying and making imperative the legisla-
dy where tho evil or disease exists.
o. The aid proposed is temporary, to
meet the present exigency, and the appro-
priation is self-limited, and diminishes ac-
cording to fixed rate. The aid is not in
perpetuity, nor is the policy intended to be
permanent. 1t is means of immediate
relief to meet conditions which the States
chrefy to be benefited did not create, and
could not control. TIE operations of the
law are to cease at the expiration of def
nitely-prescribed term of years.
i (c.) Federal aid is applied at the weak
est and most critical point, but there is no
subordinate or State systems of education
to Government Bureau or to Federal
supervisors and control. The money is to
be applied through State stockholders,
and there is no officinus or distrustful in
termeddling with the State machinery.
The Blair bill is characterized by great lib
crafty and by a tender concern for State
Jurisdiction and authority. 1t proceeds on
the right principle, that the States are to
establish and manage their own systems of
public education, and that the education of
the youth is primarily and properly charge
on the property of the citizens of State,
and hence Federal aid is to be Withdrawn
as soon as the emergency ceases. Much as
desire Federal aid, it should, in my judg-
ment. be resisted ''to the bitter end, !" and
Indignantly spurned, if it has the effect of
paralyzing local effort or inducing the
States to give up the essential idea of local
taxation Tor the support of public schools.
i The constitutionality of such temporary
aid ought not to be questioned even ON the
basis CT ante-war Interpretation All the
States are estopped from the dentil of the
power. Every State, old and new, over
and over again has accepted and used for
purposes of education money, or its equiva-
lent, given by the General Government.
The determination sought to be made be-
twixt a direct appropriation from the
Treasury and using money from the Trea-
eury to buy land, and then selling the land
and discussing the proceeds Of the sale,
hardly merits dignitied reply. Soldiers
and sailors and Indians, the deaf, the
dumb, and the blind, have been educated
at public cost. Agriculture and mechanic
arts have had colleges endowed for their
benefit. To the 'land' States, so called
because of public lands lying within their
boundaries, 100, 900, 900 acres of the public
domain have been given to support schools,
and colleges, and universities. While the
practice Of the Government is consistent
and uniform in granting aid for purposes
Of education, no patriot nor statesman can
ueny that to preserve imperilled liberties
and institutions extreme measures of even
doubtful constitutional sanction may be-
come necessity and duty.
Unless the fathers of the Republic were
gross by deceived, and all writer's on govern
ment are stupidity Ignorant the census of
1880 discloses a state of facts which should
make all patriots tremble for the safety Of
he country. The testimony of such men
is concurrent in reference to the dangers of
uneducated citizens upon material prosper
ity and the perpetuity of our representa-
tive government. Nearly one eighth of tile
entire population of The United States over
ten years of age cannot write their names
4 Those who have given much attention to
census returns know that the picture is not
sufficiently dark. In the 16 Southern
States, there were 1,676,9 illiterate
whites over ten years of age, and 3,U54, 234
illiterate blacks More than one-fourth of
the people of the late siave-holding States
cannot read the Bible or the Constitution.
In the thirty eight States" says the Hon.
Mr.. Willis, Of Kentucky. ''there are 1871, )
2l7 illiterate voters. They hold the bal,
ance of power in ten Northern and all the
Southern States" In South Carolina more
than half of the men over twenty-one can
not read. In the other Southern States
Cn0 pTOpOTblOu VI BULL NOtcIb Is 1cdIlul.
On the influence o. such citizens endowed
with suffrage and the prey to the vicious
dumagogue, it is not necessary to enlarge.
These statistics have been produced
so often that the public ear is becoming
deaf to the appeal which they make. In
sensibllity to danger does not lessen our
duty to avert it, nor its power to harm us.
Ii is well known that a large percentage
of the national illiteracy is in the South.
What the Southern people have done since
Appomattox in reconstructing their gov
lernments, preventing chaos, laying anew
the foundations of slow coming material
prosperity and establishing and maintain
ing systems equally for the education Of
The black and the white, is not so we'll
known. Upon che education of the child
zen, our people will spend this year full
S15, coo, 900, and yet nearly one-half of the
children are not receiving any education in
schools. Relatively, some Southern States
and communities are taxing themselves for
school rposes as much as Northern States
and communities The difference in the
aggregate amounts expended grows out of
The difference in taxable property. While