The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-02-06
A Step Backward.


A resolution was introduced In the
Legislature. on the 30th, by Mr. Cabell
to appoint a committee of two Senators
and three Delegates to look into the ex-
pediency of converting the colored Nor
NAL School at Petersburg into an asylum
to accommodate the colored insane con-
fined in the iails of the Commonwealth.
1t was considered by the committee Oh
colleges and it's adoption unanimously
recommended The bill will not become
spirit of race prejudice and hostility
that would bode no good to those pass
ing it. The people of Virginia will favor
no such short-sighted and re-actionary
legislation. The Petersburg Indeg- Ap-
peal, referring to the matter says:
There is reason to believe that the movement
does not grow out of the necessity for retrench=
melt in the public expenditures so much as it
does out of prejudice and hostility against the
negro. We trust that events viii prove that we
are mistaken in this view of the case, but the
arguments (if arguments they can be termed)
used by the advocates of this conversion scheme
seem to warrant the belief. Among the extra
ordinary reasons urged for this change are that
the students have, by their own handiwork, dec
GRATED their apartments, giving them an air of
cleanliness and refinement mot of luxury,
has been charged against them), that they
study Latin, Greek. and chemistry, and that the
negroes, as class, pay but very small part of
the taxes.
These are grave charges no doubt, in the opin-
ion Of prejudiced judges. It would be hard
matter to defend the teachers and students
AGAINST the habit Of cleanliness and taste for
decorative work in the a4Qrnment of their
apartments, and it would be equally as hard to
disprove the ohargs that they study Latin,
Greek and chemistry. The charge is true. They
pursue these studies and they pursue them sue
cessfully. They are necessary to their work in
after life They make them better teachers and
better people, and enable them to perform a
most important part in the elevation and civil
liZatiOn of their race. That was what the insti
tute was founded for, and it has no mission at
all If it Is not to teach the higher branches Of
education.
AS to the matter of taxes, we do not think the
charge is true. We hold that it is false idea to
maintain that all the credit of supporting the
government belongs to the men wi ose names
are listed On the tax-baQk and who go through
the perfnnctory operation af paying the tax
gatherer The employee WHO labors in the fac
tory workshop of the capitallSt, OF on his
farm OF in any other necessary branch of his
service is, by virtue OF his wealth producing ex
ertions, as much tax payer,-aye more tax
payer than man who lives in luxury on the
profits of honest and half paid labor. The CAPT
talist is often SO by inheritance, OF by economy
and hard work, and then he deserves fair
share of respect But he is more frequently a
capitalist Through intrigue, fraud, corruption
and extortion, haVing never done an honest
days work in his life, and this latter is generally
the creature that despiRes labor the most and
vaunts his superiority a Taxpayer because
is the bfawny laborer in the sweat OF whose
face the wealth has been produced.
The people of Virginia owe the negro very
much more on square balancing of accounts,
than an education, even if it were NOT humanity
ana sound policy on the part OF the State to pro-
vide him with an education. More than two
centuries OF faithful serYtpde, of Hnresstng
toll and privation that others might enjoy the
luxuries of life, have won for negroes the right
to an education even if they paid taxes at
all now, though it is fact that under con-
stitutional requirement that taxation shall be
uniform, they pay on all they have, and the
Wsalthiest bondhOlder can do no more.
It is high time that an end be put to the cry
against negro education and against the negro
as pensioner on the State. II is false, it is
just, and it is injurious to every interest of the
State, and Of the people of the State, white and
black.