The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-03-06
BARBOUR BACKS BLAIR.
VIRGINIA WILLING TO TAKE THE
APPROPRIATION.

49, <~O% @s@~@ %&O@s
Mr.. Faulkner Taken to Task foreAs-
suming to Speak for the Southern
States-Mr. Plumb Opposes the Bill
on the Ground That it Was Not
Wanted by the People.
WASHINGTON, March Sat O'Clock
his afternoon the Senate took up the Blair
education bill, and Mr.. Barbour addressed
the Senate in advocacy Of it. He spoke Of
the great interest which the people of Vir-
gina took in that measure, and said that it
had been favored In the platforms of both
political parties in that state. It was of the
deepest and profoundest inter est to the peo-
pie of Virginia, who had done as
much for the sake of education in the last
fifteen years as the people of any other
state. They had expended about S19, ,000,-
600 for that purpose, and had givenk$5, 900, :
COO to educate the colored illiterates which
the general government had put upon them
not only as citizens, but as sovereigns.
SURPRISED AT THE LACK OF INTEREST.
He was surprised at the lack of interest
in the subject shown by the Senate, and
was astonished at the southern senators
opposing the bill. Why, he asked was that
sof Had they any well grounded appre-
bension that the school system of their
states was to be Inferred With They could
not nave it, because the consent of the
states hsd to be obtained before the bill
would apply to them. How were the rights
of Virginia, or Alabama, or Mississippi to be
violated the benefactiona Did the benefac-
tions of George Peabody interfere with the
school systems in states where they were in
| operationl He had no constitutional doubt
on the subject, as he did not belong to the
hair-splitting class of constitutional
lawyers.
| GOVERNMENT INTEREST NEEDED.
If the general government took no inter-
est in the education of the colored people
there was no reason why the people of Vir-
ginia should tax themselves for the educa-
ton, in their midst, of class Of people who
did not act with them politically, and who
would be more apt to vote with man
| from Wisconsin than with a man from
Virginia. As to the talk about the great
wealth of the south, that, he said, was de-
lusion and an exaggeration. The bulk of
the people of Virginia were poorer today
than they had been nineteen years ago. He
| denied that the senator from West Virginia
(Mr. Faulkner) had any right to speak las
he had spoken) for the southern states.
SIDED WITH THE NORTH.
The bulk Of the state lay west of the ALE
| ghany mountains, and the interest of that
| state had not been with the south thirty years
| ago, when it cast its fortunes (Hisely, no
doubt, and to its own interest, with the fed
eral government The statements made as
to the wealth Of the south were not true, SO
| far, certainly as the states of Virginia and
North Carolina were concerned. The great
| flow of wealth rolling over the pacto-
lian sands had not reached them. He had
never known the agricultural interests OF
Virginia to be more depressed than
to-day. He believed that there was
a better day before that state; but that the
better day had not yet arrived. The land
holder in Virginia was regarded as the
poorest man in it He might be the owner
of 1000 acres of land, and yet not have
money enough to pay for his breakfast.
WOULDN'T BE FORCED ON THEM.
Coming back to the discussion of the bill
| itself, ne reminded the senator from West
| Virginia that no one would force the school
| fund on that state. But if the people of
West Virginia we're willing to take it. he
asked, why, in Gods name should, he (Mr,
Faulkner) oppose their doing so2 Did the
| southern senators believe that the people of
their states would decline the fund? Did
the senator from West Virginia believe that
his people would not take it2 Why did he
stand up in the Senate and say
that they should not have it, and that peo-
pie of other states should not have ita He
knew that it would not do for his colleague
(Mr. Daniel and himself, to go home and
tell the people of Virginia that they must
not take this money from the federal gov
ernment, but must continue to tax them
selves for the support of the schools If
they were to max speeches on the lines Of
the speeches of the senator from West
Virginia. they would be held to accounta-
bility which he, for one, would not care to
encounter.
PLUMB OPPOSES THE BILL.
Mr.. Plumb addressed the Senate in oppo-
sition to the bill The bill, he declared.
Hampshire. He (Mr. Blair was the bill,
measure and idea. Whatever vitality it
had or had had, was due to the remarkable
devotion which he had exhibited toward
it. No state had asked for it. No
southern state, and no northern state had
ever said that it needed federal aid for its
schools But, after the tender had been
made, there had been a few feeble re-
sponses from southern states, just as might
have been expected. The state of Alabama
was TO receive $6,000.000 under it, and
naturally Alabama would like to have that
sc, ,000, 900. The time had passed, and
the good sense and level-headedness
of the people had asserted itself, until TO-
day a majority of the southern states
States which would be the recipients of 75
per cent. of the fund had practically re-
pudiated it and had said that they did not
want it.
HOW THE SENATORS STAND.
The senators from Missouri, Arkansas.
Texas Kentucky, Tennessee. West Virginia,
and Maryland, and he could have until the
end of the session included Delaware
had indicated their determination to
vote against it. Other southern states,
notably South Carolina and Arkansas,
were divided on the question, and now the
Senate was asked to put the United States
in the attitude Of thrusting on those people
money which they did not wish. He vent
ured the assertion that il the bill went
over for two years longer, every southern
state would say that it did not want it.
| Commenting upon Mr.. Blair's remarks as
to making up to the southern states for the
burden of additional pension measures, Mr..
Plumb said that if the bill became law
the southern people would be warranted in
believing that the money was a gift of the
aroused conscience OF the north on account
of the great wrong done to the south in
and after the late war.
AN ExPIATION.
1t would be regarded in the form of an
expiation, just as conscience money was
sent to the treasury from those
who had defrauded it. The section which
gave money on that ground did itself
unnecessary injury and humiliation, and
the section that received 1t could not be