The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1886-04-07
FEDERAL AID.

We have read carefully the bill
passed by the U. S. Senate, appro
priating money in aid Of the common
: schools and known as the Blair bill,
and the one introduced in the House
is :. duplicate of this bill. We can
see nothing Objectionable in it. We
fail to see why there should be such
vigorous opposition in some quarters
to it. The great need Of our present
public school system is money.
Those who oppose the public school
system altogether, we can under
stand why they should oppose this
measure. But it is argued this
comes from the republican side, and
it is: a step towards Capitalization.
Suppose republican does propose
it, that is no reason why we should
refuse it if it is unobjectionable in
itself. By the provisions of the bill
the money is to be turned over to the
State accepting it, and disbursed in
the same manner as the public school
fund of the State receiving it. A re-
port is to be made to the general
government. Nothing wrong in that.
But the negro will get the most of
it. Suppose he does get little more,
is there any thing wrong in that? 1t
Z is only to be disbursed in proportion
to number, and where the negroes Of
school age are in the majority they
will get little more. Are we to re-
fuse the benefit to be derived from
this money to the white schools be-
cause the negro children in some
places outnumber Us? The negroes
are the ones that cause our present
sehaoS<sud to be inadequate. Take
~
e1E negro out and the white people Of
South Carolina can educate their own
children. But the negroes are here,
and they are here to say. They ere
citizens with all the rights and pre-
negatives of citizenship. They should
bt taught thesEadments of an educa-
ton, at least, so that they could ex-
ercise their franchise with q degree
Of the sense of the responsibility rest
ing upon them as citizens. But it is
claimed by some to educate the ne
gro, makes him worthless as a Ia
borer. We do not believe this argu-
ment can be sustained by facts.
When education becomes more gen.
eralatnong them we believe the con-
trary will appear. Those who op-
pose the bill on the ground that the
negro VIII be benefited should op-
l
pose our present, school tax on the
same ground.
But again, it is argued by some
that because this bill only proposes
temporary aid, what will we do when
this funds exhausted-that we will be
in a worse condition then than we are
now-our present system will be de-
moralized and dependent-and be-
cause the appropriation does not 60
on forever we should reject it. That
IS Tie same as saying that because q
starving man cannot always be fed
by you he must refuse temporary
offer Of relief and starve. When this
fund is exhausted probably we will
be in better condition to take care of
ourselves.
We are in favor Of this offer Of aid
to cur common schools if we are to
try to keep them up at all. And we
are sorry to see some Of our cotem-
poraries fighting against it, because,
per chance, the negroes in some in.
stances would get 4 little more Of it
than the whites. We hope the bill
viii be passed, and that the .Legisla-
ture of South Carolina will have the
Sseod sense to accept the money.