The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-04-29
The Blair Bill Dead.

Inc blalr Bill LEAD.
The friends of the Blair Educational
Bill have abandoned all hope Of its passage.
Democratic hostility to public education
has triumphed, Virginia and the South
have been robbed of a magnificent gift,
and the school system received stagger-
ing blow. When the nation passed to
Democratic control the doom Of the Blair
bill was written. 1t mattered not that
four lifths OF the SIT 600, eco that would
have been donated, was for distribution in
the South ; it mattered not that Virginia
would have received over SIS, 600 600 it
mattered not that four-ffths of this vast
amot MT would have been contributed by
the North and East and expended for our
benefit; it mattered not that the repre-
sentatives of the major part of those con-
tributorS originated and twice passed the
mattered not that the people, irrespective
of party, were demanding it, that the
masses were needing it and that the sue
cess and progress of the school system re-
quired it. These were considerations of
little weight. Democracy and popular in
telligence have been SO long at war, that
the triumph of the first necessarily oper-
ated to the harm of the second. The de-
ception and treachery which accomplished
the overthrow of the Republican party are
manifesting themselves already. The
fruits they yield are Dead Sea apples. In
nothing has that treachery been more con-
spicuously evidenced than in the history of
the bill under consideration. After it had
passed the Republican Senate in the 4Sth
Congress, it went to the Democratic
House and was there smothered. In the
canvass which succeeded, Democratic
organs and orators vehemently declared
that the three months it had been before
the House did not afford sufficient time to
secure its passage, but the next Congress,
would certainly approve it beyond the
shadow of doubt. The next House was
Democratic, and again Republican Sen
ate sent the bill to it. But the Demo-
cratic Speaker, in anticipation of this
action, had so constituted the Educational
Committee that a reference to it meant
| the retirement Of the measure. In its
regular course, the bill went to that COM
mittee, and was promptly pigeon-holed.
| Its friends demanded report but were
laughed at. A similar bill was then intro
duced in the House and referred to the
| Committee on Labor, with the hope of
more favorable result. But the Labor
Committee was also composed of major
| ity Of Democrats, and Democracy was
quick to recognize it's old enemy. There
too the bill was smothered. Who is re-
sponsible for this? Let Democratic eyi-
dence be heard. The Washington CORE
spondent Of the Richmond Dispatch, under
date of the 22d, has this to say
1T is slowly dawning on the minds of
the friends of the Blair educational bill
that it will never get beyond the limits of
the committee-rcom. The Educational
Committee has had the subject under con-
sideration, but so much opposition has
developed amOug the members that it may
be considered dead issue with them for
the future. They will, however, take it
up at the meeting tomorrow. but it will
F.! tie nothing more than formality resulting
| in nothing. The Labor Committee, which
had the Willis bill before it, is in about the
same plight Hon. M. A. Hayes, Of New
Hampshire, a member Of the committee
who is in favor of the measure, informs me
that the disposition o hang the matter up
permeates majority of the committee, and
that the principal ohstructionist is prom
inent Virginian who. strange to relate, is
credited with the authorship of the Vir-
ginia Democratic platform, in which the
Blair bill was endorsed"
AS predicted, nothing was done for the
measure on Friday, and nothing will ever
be done until the friends of education are
again in power in both branches Congress.
But wLo is this prominent Virginian'
who poses as the principal obstruction
ist? 1t is none other than JNo. w.
DANIEL, whom the Democracy of Vir-
glnia has just crowned with it's chieftest
honor. The man who wrote the platform
pledging the Virginia Democrats to the
Blair bill, now boldly 1aunts his hypocrisy
and deception in the face of the world, and
chuckles in his sleeve at the gullibility of
! the masses. And yet this is the man who has
| been chosen to succeed Malone. This the
man who enters the Senate to take the place
| of one who night and day, in.season and out,
has labored for the passage of this great
scheme for manipulating of the South
| and the prosperity of the people through
the education of their children.