New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-02-20

in danger
Mr.. G. d. Nicholas, Of Mobile, Ala, writes
that the States doing well as it is possible
for them to do, but that their inability to meet
the d. mands upon them is very plainly shown oy
the fact that there is dimnution in the num-
Der of the illitcrtc i'll proportion TO our growing
country. but rather an increase
Mr. Frank Wise. secretary OF the School
Board of the City Of Pine Bluff, Ark, writes
The annual increase Of illiteiacy in the country,
particularly in the UttOn-growing States, Is Ill
my opinion an indisputable and lamentaDic iacI;
] believe the census OF 1880 VIII snow IL. .,ii a.
it be true that Ignorance is dlsplaeng lnteiil-
gcnce which is the basis Of our institutions, II Is
"a question paramount TO all others
From Texas. of whose ability and magnificent
school fund so much is said, Professor logg OF
Fort Worth says:
Iiteracy is increasing at fearful rate even
1870 there were only 1906 illiteratc
white voters but in 1850 there were 33,0S5.
There Won have the startling increase OF VIM, VIM.
crates number 47.235 voters in $40 and 56,69O
in 1880, an increase of 20 per cent
This evidence and statistics show that at this time
the aid pledged by the Republican party is needed
the pledge is binding, and the Southern people
with singular unanimity demand the promised
assistance One objection that might perhaps
have been raised at an earlier period with some
plausbity that the South had not yet learned
TO appreciate the public school system, and that
the funds given them for the local management
might be wasted or msused is now excluded by
the clear testimony of General Armstrong to the
vigor of sentiment existing in the South IN favor
of the public school system" to the important
devotion to it Of many Confederate slave holders
which have personally Witnessed" to " the fact
that it is hopeless and fatal for any politician
whatever his standing, to oppose 1t, the negro
vote finding its chief excuse in the solidity with
which it goes for free schools"
This settles the question that there will be no
misuse OF the fund, and it helps to dispose also
of the singularly unphilosophcal argument that
the temporary national aid proposed by the bill
will demoralize the South, discourage self-help
destroy their sclf-reliance, humble them to low
level Of mendicancy, impair the State manhood
and njure instead of henefiting the cause OF ed
ucation Congress voted gold medal TO MI
Peabody for his gift of fifteen millions, ana oil thc
great good already accomplished and now gong on
from that private charity, the Hon. K. Z. VIM
throp, q strong advocate Of the BAR BIZ, has
written; and General Armstrong wrote that IL
had had for negro education "a tremendous men,
tai and moral result" The methods OF the BAR
bill were framed on those of the Peabody fund; its
annual quota to each State cannot exceed the
amount rasied by that State, thus encouraging
selfhclp by doubling its results. The payment
iudiciously arranged with view to sole State
support after temporary assistance of eight years
comes not from private charity but from the
national treasury from which New-l DIRK ana Mass
achusetts and the other States have drawn their
quota of assistance not as medlcantS but as equa
States, with no diminut,on OF State pride, no
abatement of life and energy and effort in behalf
of common schools, but with great advantage
in their rapid and permanent Improvement.
1t does not seem to have occurred to the outside
assalcrs of the Blair bill who in succession have
called it a bill to promote medicancy,' that the
taunt and sneer 50 dcfantly flung at the Southern
States burdened with their millions Of Ignorant
blacks whom the nation has placed among the
sovereign rulers of the Republic and whom we
ask them, exhausted they have bccn TO educate
at their own expense-that the sheer was not only
unjust ungencrous and un-American, but that II
il could have had the slightest force as regards
the South it would be a sarcasm, just and bit
ter and crushing, to every Northern State which
had perfected its common school system by the
assistance Of the Nation.
Will either the North the South appreciate
the argument that the grant in this case would
be unconstitutional, when that point is urged by
Senators or Representatives by editors, or by col
lege presidents belonging to States whose citizens
point with pride to their admirable school houses
sisted by lands and money under similar grants;
accepted again and again without suggestion
that the grants were unconstitutional Are there
to be two rules for the construction of the con-
stitution, one by which The North has been as
sisted and another by which the South will be
made to bear alone the education Of a race en-
franohised by the nitioLp
IT, is true that some distinguished friends OF
American education have hastily and at the last
r'omcnt joined IN the crusade against The Eli;
il has without doubt been chiefly due to COM
plete misunderstanding OF the helplcssness OF the
South, of the impending danger to the nation and
of the very guarded and iudicious PROVISIONS VI
the bill Others more familiar with the fact may
lie honestly governed by desire to correct at
whatever cost what they hold TO be erroneous
theories OF government without regard to the
practice of the nation. But the chief opponents
of this attempt 10 aid in the establishment OF
the common school system in the South are thuse
who desire the destruction OF the common school
system as the bulwark of the republic and Of its
civil and religious freedom
The war against the bill will be continued;
and as one argument fails others will be invented.
When the Northern people find that the consti-
nationality of the bill has been proven by Southern
Senators from the works not simply OF Jefferson,
Madison, Monroe, Strong, and Kent. but even
of Calhoun. they will probably be met by appeals
to save the Southern States from having their
rights invaded and overthrown by the encroach-
ments of the National Government seeking to
change and control their established systems OF
common schools. Those who have read on this
point the speech Of Mr.. Eyarts or that OF Dir.
Pugh, of Alabama, a member of the committee
who reported the Blair bill, viii understand this
last desire, and those who have not may perhaps
trust the Southern States in their jealousy Of
national Capitalization and encroachment upon
State rights, and recall the leading provision Of
the bill that each State can accept or refuse the
amounts of the quota which avoids the slightest
pressure upon any OF them. Can any one
suppose that American principles will permit