Mr. JOHNSON. The Senator misunderstood me. I did not say so. I said if it was at all necessary to draw a distinction between the colored and the white children, it would be better to educate the colored, because as a general rule the white population had the means of edu cating their own children, which cannot be said as a general rule applicable to the colored race, not that there are not poor white children who onght to be educated. Mr. WILSON. Only about 1/3rd of the white children of the DistCol are in the common schools of the District. The reason is, as everybody knows, that the people of the DistCol are a very poor people. There are but few ways here to earn much money. By building the Capitol extension and the other public works in this city, we have brought a great number of laboring men and mechanics and poor people here to live, and man of them come from places where there are goo schools open to all, where the children of the poor are educated at the public expense. That is the case in some sections of the country, and it ought to be so everywhere. At this Very time, as the last annual report shows, only about 1/3rd of the white children of the DistCol are being educated in the public schools. We have otagreat number of poor white children here that have no means of education. Then we have undertaken, by what I think to be a very wise policy, to establish schools for the education of colored children here, and they are short of means; in fact, the great trouble in this District is the want of money. We have set apart during our history some 75 or 80 million acres of public lands for the benefit of schools in the States. It was a wise policy. Sir, we ought to have established at the foundation of this District a system of public schools, and this District should have been the pattern of the whole country, where children without distinction of color or race or condition of life could obtain a good commonschool education. We neglected it, and we see the result. Now, sir, I think considering the poverty of this District which is real, considering the fact that we own a vast amount of property here, that we have brought 100s of people here to labor on the pubthe works, that they are rearing families and are unable to educate them here as they would be in some other portions of the country, considering the fact that we long ago established a wise policy of setting apart portions of the public domain in the new States or the purposes of commonschool education, I think we ought to pass a bill of this kind. I only regret that it is so little; but it may give or aps a million dollars to the people of this district the annual income of which will go not to build schoolhouses but for the purpose of educating children, and will be divided according to the number of children between certain ages without distinction of color or race. No body doubts that it will be a great blessing to the people of the District and improve the cause of education and consequently the force and powers of the community, moral, physical, and intellectual, that it will be a great advantage to them; and it does seem to me that it is a wise and sound policy to do it. I think that we ought not go on as we have done, letting the children of the people of the DistCol, 1,000s of whom have been brought here by our wants and our needs, who are (poor laboring peole, go without the means of education when we have the power to aid them. I am therefore for this measure. I believe it to be a wise one. I think further, whatever we can fairly and properly do to build up the city of Washington, to improve the condition of this District, fto make the District what it ought to be, we ought to do.