The Russellville Democrat., 1888-02-02
THE BLAIR BILL.
That Centralfzing Measure De- n0unced Tn Pubic Meet
 ing In RussellvllIe, Ark.


 I recently received circular from Hon. W. E. Thompson, state super intendent, requesting me to obtain from the citizens of thls county an expression of opinion on the Blair bill and forward the same to him.
 The citizens of Russellville and vicinity had mass meeting on the 23d inst. and denounced the bill Tn strong terms.
 In justice to the people of Pope county, give below a brief state ment of the prevalent opinion of the bill. In considering the bill the fol, lowing questions present them selves:
 Will the passage of the bill inter- fere with state rights?
 Will it promote the religious, nor al, intellectual and financial inter ests of our citizens?
 Will it curtail our taxes?
 Ii the bill becomes law, from what source is the seventy million dollars to come?
 It was emancipation from the tyr ranny of church and state and the love fself-government that prompt ed the early pioneers of our country to flee from Europe. From the very beginning they realized that ignor ance was the greatest enemy to re- publican government, while intelli- gence was it's greatest safeguard. This spirit has pervaded the whole country and prompted the citizens of nearly every state and territory Tn the Union to establish liberal pub lie school system, differing in some respects from the system of each of the other states.
 We must all concede that these systems have been very effective in elevating our country to it's present standing.
 But now, after years of unmeasur- able success, we are asked to make change.
 If the Blair bill becomes law and is accepted by the legislature of our state, we will, in 8 great meas ure, delegate our supervising power of the public schools to the federal government.
 Shall we say how our revenue shall be expended, the books our children shall study, and what their scholas tic age shall be, or shall we sell these dear liberties to the general government and pay the bill our. selves! The donation seems very philanthropic, but the condition of acceptance seems very tyrannical. The donation sounds like the gener- osity of George Peabody, but the condition of acceptance sounds like the logic of Alexander Hamilton. So it seems that we must answer the first of the above questions in the affirmative. As to the second ques- tion, it seems that by the time the federal appointees have disbursed $70, 100000, reserving a small 'de- coction" for their own use, the pub lIc school system will be as odlous to the citizens of our country as the Pacific railroad steal, hence, 1 fear our people will even be demoralized.
 Will our taxes be curtalled?
 The bill provides that no state shall receive, in any one year, 8 greater amount of money than said state raised by local taxation. From this it is evident that our taxes could not be lowered much.
 Cleveland, in his message, and all the leading democrats, pleads earn estly for reduction of the tariff. Suppose the Blair bill becomes a law, what will be the result? Seven ty million dollars will be tackled on to the necessaries of life and paid by the consumers.
 There will be no need of reduc. tion, because congress will have per petual channel to drain of the sur plus.
 A reduction of $70,000,000 on the tariff would be very beneficial, and the citizeus of this country prefer it in that way.
 When new issues are born it be- comes the duty of the people to give such an expression of opinion as will be to their general interests, but we must not let the sound of mil lions dwarf our judgment and cause us to sacrifice the rights which we hold so dear. The friends of the bill claim that It has no tendency to- wards centralization, and that should there be deduction in the tariff the increased importation would even swell the surplus.
 Does not the bill confer less pow CT to the states and more to the gov ernment? Does it not increase the number of federal appointees2 Has congress ever exercised such consti- tutional authority in the pastP
 Senator Blair has certainly lost confidence in the people or he would have made provision in his bill, giving the legislatures of the several states the power to expead thelr proportion of his proposed donation for the support Of the public schools. This would dispense with an army of appointees.
 If the money must be paid we