The Dawson journal. (Dawson, Ga.) 1878-18??, 1884-04-17
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.

|
house have been indulgiag durin.
the greater part Of the week in AMI
mated discussion upon tie Blair cdu
cational bill THe measure anpro
PIRATES $l05,000,000, and the main
idea, which is to give the South funds
vii b which TO educate the negroes
finds favor OH both sides OF the
Senate. The strongest opposition
comes from Mr.. Morgan, whose
speech attracted much attention. Il
WAS frank statement of the opposi
ton on constitutional grounds, and
an equally frank expression of doubt
as To real value of education to the
negro. He said there was less to be
expected from the young negro popu-
lation Of the United States in contrib.
utlens to the moral, social, and poIit
zeal instructions OF the country than
was 10 be expected from the Arabs
on the desert of Egypt. and that he
would rather see $l,O00,0OO appro-
priated to establish steam con,muni-
cations from Charleston to tn, mouth
of the Congo River than to see this
appropriation OF S105,000,000 for ed
ucation. The principle bone of cou-
tentlon upon the bill is, however. up
on the question OF the system of dis
tribution and supervision of the fund
and it is here, if any where. that the
bill will fail. In this connection.
Mr. Hoar has introduced an amend
ment providing for the distribution
of Only s7,O00,000 the first year,
$lO,000,000 the second, $4,000 900
the third end then the amount to di-
minish at the rate of $2,OO0,O0O q
year over period OF eight years.
Dir. Blair is confident of the passage
of his bill without radical alteration,
and it has been agreed to finally dis
pose of the measure to-day.
The House entered Saturday upon
what promises to be one of the Bit
terest fights of the session. The
Public Lands Committee got the
floor with the bill FORGETTING the Ore
gon Central land grant. It's one of
the eight bills which the committee
has reported since the House passed
the bill S repeating the land grants
OF the Texas Pacific and eight other
roads which made no pretense of hay
ing earned their grants. The bills
now to be considered relate TO roads
which claim to have earned their
grants in the whole or part, and here
the fight will be hottest.
1t now seems almost certain that the
House will reach no important meas
ure of general legislation outside of
those which have secured the right of
way, and that the gloomy pros
pect for the many important meas
ures now hung up to dry on the cal
endars, as for instance the McPher-
son banking bill, is that they will
stay where they are till they die of
old age, on the fourth o; mach. 1885.
It is therefore very fortunate that the
Congressional library bill has been
made special order" The people
at large begin to fesl that the vast
Government collection of books is by
no means q mere Congress ssional H.
brary. 1t is fairly and fully repre-
sentative Of the intellectual life of the
American people, and the question
providing an adequate library build.
ing has grown to be one OF ma
tional Importance. The books and
periodicals of the library already
number far above half million, Civ
! ing it the fifth or sixth rank among
the great government libraries of the
globe. It's law books alone exceed
10000 volumes in number, making
it the largest collection of iurispru-
dence in the country. It's grand col
lection OF maps numbers nearly ten
thousand, illustrating every part of
the country from the charts of the
earliest explorers down to the latest
postal map issued by the government
In school and college text books its
collection is mort complete. In po-
litical science and economies the L.
, brary is very rich, while in the histo-
ry of nations and OF epochs, it has
) all the more important literature in
, every language. The national OK.
t preston of the Requirements for suit
, able Accommodations for this vast col
lection and literary treasure has a
last visibly IF c,ed oeer law maker
on Capitol hill. and the prospects AZ
I bright for al early passage Of tn
, bill.