Mr. ROGERS. Mr. Speaker, I do not intend to occupy the time of the House but a very short time in making a few suggestions I intend to present against the passage of this bill. In fact, 1 did not know until the honorable gentleman who preceded me began to speak that a bill of this character was before the House. I had reason to believe that from the experience we had in this House and in this country no more Federal bureaus would be attempted to be established for the purpose of carrying out any particular ideas of philan thropy of any set of) men whatever. I think, sir, the finances of the country are now sufficiently burdened and that we should allow the States, as they have been in the habit of doing, the entire control of looking after the education of their children. it. To establish here at the head of our Federal affairs in Washington a bureau for the purpose of giving the principles by which the children of the different States shall be educated would be something never before attempted in the history of this nation. It was never thought of before. I say here today, without fear of successful contradiction, that at no time in the history of this Government, from the time of its 1st organization down to the present hour, was there ever before an attempt to establish a bureau or an institution of any kind or character at the head of Federal affairs for the purpose of diffusin‘r intelligence throughout the States of this Federal Union. I say, sir, in the 1st place, there is no authority under the Constitution of the U.S. to authorize Congress to interfere with the education of children of the different States in any manner, directly or indirectly. This bill is one similar in purport and effect, so far as power under the Constitution of the U.S. is concerned, to the Freedmen’s Bureau bill. It proposes to put under the supervision of a bureau established at Washington all the schools and educational institutions of the different States of the Union by collecting such facts and statistics as will war rant them by amendments hereafter to the law now attempted to be passed to control and reg ulate the educationalsystem of the whole country. I say that this country will compare favorably in respect to education with any country upon the face of the earth. Go back to the most glorious days of Rome and Greece or of English history, and you will find nowhere a population of the character and magnitude of this where education has been more univer sally dilfused or a people more intelligent. I am content, sir, to leave this matter of education where our fathers left it, where the history of the country has left it, to the school systems of the different towns. cities, and States. Let them carry out and regulate the system of education without interference, directly or indirectly, on the part of any bureau established as an agent of the Federal Government. This bill proposes to provide that there shall be established at the city of Washington a Dept of Education, for the purpose of collecting such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and rovress of education in the several States an 'lerritories, and of diffusing such information respecting the organization and management of schools and school systems and methods of teaching as shall aid the people of the U.S. in the establishment and maintenance of etficient school systems, and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout the country. The bill does not seem to be so broad in its terms as the speech of the Gentfrom Minnesota [ML DONNELLY] would indicate. Although the bill does not propose to go into the States and interfere with the regulation of the school systems there, yet it proposes to collect such statistics which will give controlling ppwer over the school systems of the States. how is it proposed to carry on the object in view? To establish a bureau here which will cost this Government more than $100,000 a year to get it in running order. The officers and cler swill cost some 15,000 dollars a year. They are to go from one end of the Union to another and to involve this government in the expense of collecting information. Now, sir, I say when you refuse to give the soldiers of this country their due, when you are not willing in this House to meet as we ought to have done the bounty bill and pay to our soldiers the bounty without regard to what they may have received from township, county, or State, it is a poor time in the present deplorable condition of our finances, to inflict upon the countrya centralization of power and influence at the ca ital of this Government, to interfere with the omain of States with regard to education, and at an expense of $100,000 a year.