The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1886-03-25
NATIONAL EDuoATIoN.


The Blair Measure Considered from
Broad Platform.
The Blair Education bill has been de-
bated in the Senate along lines of ar
gument which practically take it out of
the domain of party questions. 1t is
evident that it will receive the votes of
q large number of Democratic States
men who attach less weight to the con-
stltutlonal objections to it than to the
fact that is an urgent necessity of their
States that the Nation should aid them
in the work of educating their people.
We are not disposed to underrate the
strict constructionist view, which in
sists that education Is a matter that be.
longs to the States and ought to be left
in their exclusive charge. But the day
has long since passed when narrow
and rigid Interpretation of the consti-
tuition can be successfully invoked as a
barrier against measures that are in
the nature of imperious National neces-
stiles. In the debate now finished in
the Senate, it has been argued that
Congress had no power to appropriate
the money which paid for the purchase
of Louisiana. Doubtless this is good
strict constructionist doctrine, and yet
President Jefferson approved that ap-
preparation, and it was obviously justi-
fed on the ground that the National
welfare was the supreme consideration.
The facts of the present case appear
to us to constitute similar occasion,
where the good of the Nation ought to
override any fnical and fine-drawn OBJ
jections, founded upon constitutional
hair.splitting. In the sixteen Southern
States, out of 4,154, 125 males, of
21 years of age and upward, 1885,, ,974
whole. In the State of North Carolina
there are 145, 600 illiterate voters, more
than one-half of her entire electorate
It is maxim universally accepted that
popular government must be based on
intelligent suffrages to be safe. In
communities where, as in Massa-
chusetts, the number of iliterates in
the total population is small, free man.
hood suffrage may prevail without any
great danger to good government, but
where the illiterate voters form more
than one-half of the whole body of
voters it is undeniable that free gov
ernment is exposed to serious peril.
And that Is the actual state of things
which exists at this moment in many
of the Southern States, while In no one
of them is the number of illiterate
voters less than 80 per cent. of the en-
tire electorate.
1t is quite true that this dangerous
state of affairs in the South Is one OF
the legacies left to us by twenty-foul
years of Republican policy. 1t is also
true that the great mass of illiterate
voters in the South, for. whose benefi
the Blair bill is designed, are Republic.
an voters. These considerations ough
| not, in our judgment, to prevent Dem
| ocratic Statesmen and Representative
from dealing with the bill on its mer
its. Indeed it would seem that if any
reason could be strong enough fol
straining the constitution a little 1t il
found in the fact that the Republican
party has created situation so full o
evils and dangers that the ordinary re
sources of the States are wholly made
Quate to meet it.
The Southern States, most of them
are unable to cope effectively with tn
mass of illiteracy which Republican
craftsmanship has injected into thei
citizenship. This being an unques
toned fact there remains only one al
tentative offered to practical states
men; either to stand upon the propo
sition that free suffrage in the hands o
vast bodies of ignorant voters is not
source of danger to the Nation, or els
to admit that it is National evil fo
which, as the States can not, the Ma
ton must provide a remedy. We d
not propose to waste any space, argu
ing the first of those two propositions
We take our stand upon the broa
platform that universal suffrage mus
be based upon something like universe
education, and that where large sec
ton of the country is unable to furnis
its people with school facilities, an
thirty, forty, and in some States owe
fifty per cent. of the voters are ignol
ant men, a grave National emergenc
has arisen, before which strict col
structionist dogmas must give way
Boston Globe.