The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-05-03

New Orleans TimesIDemocrat.)
In a speech>delivered in New York;
some days ago President Eliot, of Har-l
ward. after complimenting the south oal
its educational work and the sacrifices
it has made TO improve schools, suggest
ted hat the task was so burdensomei
that the federal government should
come to its assistance and aid 1t finan-l
ciauy.
The same iiea was presented byl
President Char.es w. Dabney, OF theI
University OF Tennessee. at the meet-l
ing of the National Educational Asso-I
citation at Atlanta last month, and
elaborated at some length. DR.. Dab
ney approved h aston of Pres-I
ident Eliot and answe1z1 the variousl
objections likely to be raised to thel
proposition in the south. We are back
in the Union, and an inhe. ent part oil
the country for all purposes. He said
the national treasury is our treasury,l
We contribute our fun share of it
The negro Is as much q ward of thel
nation as the Indian. II the ratioal
provides for the education Of The ~nel
race why should il not provide for IN
other as we'll?
In answer to the more serious objec-l
ton that national aid might produce
national interference with our schools,
DR.. Dabney recognized the danger andI
declared that we must never permit
such interference. The right of the
state to control it's own schools and all
their affairs" he said. lis a p%rinciple|
that has never been questioned in our
national councils" 1t might be ap-I
propriate in this connection to call az
tention to the fact that taiS was equal
~ true of our suffrage until the nation
al government interferred. 1t not only
questioned" this principle OF state
4c~4ro1 h,,+ nhrn1,tn1y Avnrtbrnr, -
with results disastrous to the country.
There is a precedent already in the
appropriation of national funds to the
support of our agricultural and me-
chanical colleges and experiment sta
tons, and no evil has resulted there
from DR.. Dabney declares. The
amount thus given is small, there is no
incentive for national interference and
the possibilities Of friction between the
! national and state governments over
the agricultural colleges are small. The
avowed purpose Of the proposed federal
appropriation for southern education
Is to teach the negroes, and experience
warns US against calling the. national
| government, now dominated oy epu
lican influences. to aid us in n way
i nthe solution of the negro problems.
We had a proposition Of this kind
some years ago in the famous Blair bill
|, 1t was strongly pressed in the south,
and had many friends here, and it look
ed at one time as though it might car
ry. but although he south was much
poorer then than it is now, and badly
equipped in the matter of schools, it
rejected the offer. There is better rea-
son for rejecting it today.
All that Presidents Eliot Dab
I ney said OF the sacrifices made by tbs
south to improve it's schools is true, ana
it is by such sacrifices that educational
advancement is best secured, They
Il n x-a hrnI1oht tha marfar nf nuh1iF
j schools UP for general discussion and
aroused the public interest in them.
The people of a district in the south
are far more likely to be interested in
a school paid for by themselves, more
likely to see that it is properly mana5-
ed, than they will be if the federal gov
ernment supports it from a pIetho,ic
treasury.
The Hartford Courant is a republican
paper, but it shows the right spitit
when it says OF the proposition to-vote
federal none to the schools:
What is needed in 1904, as it seems
to US, is instant, vigilant, uncompro'
l missing resistance to any and all new
schemes of the sort giving fedora
i money to the schoois) no matter from
what quarter they come or how go
and benevolent their promoters. Dread
full mischief has been done before nov
i in this very complex world by excel!en
men, lat by admirable motives
but not seeing and understanding whal
they were really about.
THE sacrifice which the states Of thu
= south have cheerfully imposed on them
= selves to establish and maintain q
public schools makes one of the bright
| est, most honorable chapters in the1
history. How long would that self
helpful spirit survive annual rains o
federal gold upon the public schools?
$ If we depend on the federal govern
i an rar tho yonnaxr NJ aIrr schools W
: would see men at the front in tn
e south proposing to unload the entir
educational expense Of the Unite
= States. and this woul soon be followed
by relieving ourselves Of the response
bility as we'll as the expense. h ma
tional government providing the none,
for the schools would be finally expect
ed If not asked, to undertake thei
control and management.
The Montgomery Advertiser speak
:, thus of the proposition:
Ell 1T seems singular to us that learned
men like some of those who are re
puted to be behind this movemen
r cannot see that such use of the pub
lie money would be partial, unjust an
unconstitutional. Congress has IL
more right to give money to educat'
eI the children of any state than 1t ha
+ to provide them with clothing or foo
no more right, in fact, than it ha
ri to supply the farmer or mechanic VIII
vi tools. The proposition is paternalisn
run mad, and it loses none of it's oh
jectionable features merely becaus
it is for educational purposes. Homo
and independence and self-respect ar
le! of more value than to be thus sold 70
public money. The project shout
die in it's infancy, as should all othe
efforts to interfere with the exclusiv
affairs Of a state"
The Richmond News Leader ais
speaks in no uncertain terms agains
such a scheme. 1t says:
while the states might control tn
SCI appropriations in theory, they woul
- not and could not control them /
Isl practice, and ii would not be lon
.r before all the school children VIII
IL were penenc1ar1eS would virtually Q