Show The Proposed Educational I Scheme The question concerning the promotion pro-motion of education among the people peo-ple of the country by the Federal Government will soon be discussed in Congress A bill has been reported re-ported In the Senate providing for the appropriation by Congress of 10000000 annually for that pur pcae The money ia to come out of the public treasury and to be distributed distrib-uted to the several States and Territories Terri-tories in amounts proportionate ta their illiteracy It is not surprising that this measure finds favor in the South because there illiteracy prevails pre-vails to a greater extent than in any other section of the country And there ia a rough juetoe in making the States at large pay for the education educa-tion of the ignorant negroes in the Sontn who were armed with the right of suffrage by Northern votes before they could read or write or exercise ex-ercise an intelligent judgment in casting their ballot Bat such a eentimental consideration should not control in this matter Hard as it is upon the propertyowners of the South they must bear their cross and educate their negro population as best they can The duty of educating the people has always been left to the States in their individual capacity The general gen-eral government has never adoptEp the policy of making the taxpayer at large pay for the education of the people It will also be impossible to find any constitutional authority in Congress for making any such appropriations ap-propriations Congress has no right to vote away the peoples money for any such purpose ana if it had the policy of doing so would be very doubtful Its tendency would be to diminish the efforts of the States in the matter of providing liberally for educational purposes and throw the chief burden on the people at large Knowing that the government will provide funds far the purpose there would be danger that the States would very soon turn the whole matter mat-ter of public education over to the national I treasury The old way in thia matter is the beat way and it iso is-o be hoped that this movement will be defeated The country has had a surfeit of schemes for introducing temperance educaticn thrift and godliness among the people by Federal Fed-eral missionaries There is no warrant war-rant for it |