Mr. PIKE. It is to gather statistics of the sire to have the amendment which I propose asloh' ‘e but thre ftlis of the salary that is common schools of the country. Of course to this bill read. 0d for this as tfice. 1NewYork [Mr “cw depts. nould e attached te’the Well” A 'culture‘. y.i; and will yield to him for that He may make the purl. 1, ‘if I have any time remaining when er cludc. Mr. Speaker, the reposition is to have a new dept; and] I am very ha py to see that the bill provides very liberaly for expenses. Of the several 1,000 officers at the other end of the avenue, there are, if I recollect aright, but 2 who now receive a salary of $5,000. One is the Treasurer of the U.S., and the other the head of the banking dept. The others mainly receive no more than the modest salary that we set for the performance of our duties here in congress. A. 5,000 dollars is to be the salary of the new officer. Then follow the body and the rest of the dept, summing up some 13,000 dollars. Quarters are to be provided in a correspondin liberal scale by the ComrPubBldg andGrounds. Whether a new building is to be erected we do not know. I understandall the present public offices are occupied. I understand that the Government, in addition, are hiring otherbuildings at great expense. Whether a new struct are is to be erected, or a building is to be hired, I know not. But all accommodations are to be provided liberally. I make no quarrel with this matter in detail; I only speak of the machinery which is provided by this mostintelligent committee for the purpose of accomplishing this work. ow, what is the work to be accomplished? The bill provides, in the 1st place, that the business of the bureau shall be to collect sta tistics. Whether it is to have original juris diction of these facts like the Census Bureau, and to send out its a ents to gather them up and embody them; whether it is to collect new facts in relation to public schools, or whether they are to take the returns of the different States and analyze them, the bill does not in dicate. The machinery would indicate that this dept is to have original jurisdiction of these facts. They are to collect these facts. That is the 1st great business of the bureau. 2ndly, it is provided it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Education to present annually to Congress a report. Of what use is it to present that report and have it tiled away here among the archives of Congress? Of course it will be of no use unless ordered to be printed. It will be no use to print it unless it is printed in large numbers and distributed throughout the country. The Gentfrom Massachusetts says we will take care of it when it comes here. how will you take care of it? It will be printed in large numbers. We are not going to slight this new dept of the Government. We are to have it distributed in like numbers with the agricultural report. Each one of those reports cost the Government $1 60. The chairman of the ComPrintg [Mr. Lsrus] Just now tells me that the agricultural report costs $200,000 annually, and that is outside of the monthly reports on cholera, hog disease, and various other items of intelligence. Following that eminentexamplewe are to have unlimited espouse in public printing. The entle mau from NewYork, chairman of the ComPublic Printing told us the other day that the expense of public print lng runs up to 2 millions a year. We have a printing office, the largest in the known world, consuming year b year, at least last year, one 13th 0ft e whole value of printing aper of the country according to the census otP1860. I should think, therefore, that Office is at present sufficiently engaged. The gentleman. s] suggests that this” there is no need to go into the statistics of those who are studying the higher branches of mathematics. We do not want statistics of colleges in this country. I submit whether all this machinery for the collection of facts had not better be leftto the States. I ask whether it is not better that the States of the Union should not be left to have something to do. We have bills to reorganize the railroad sys tems of the U.S. We established railroad corporations in the ignorant State of Pennsylvania which did not know its own needs and wants. We have a serious prop position that all the telegraphic wires shall center here and shall be under the control of the PostmastegGeneral. And here we have in addition a scheme of governmental control of all the common schoo s. The Gentfrom Massachusetts [Mr. Bsxxsglsays it is merely an initiatory measure. 0 means by that, I suppose, that this measure, which commences in criticism upon the public schools of the country, shall end in making direct appropriations for that purpose. I think he said something about the Government undertaking the education of all the freedmen of‘ the country. If they would confine their efforts to that I should not be so much opposed as I am to this measure. But now we have the initiation of a system. At another time it will be more fully developed. The schoolhouses of the country will go under the control of the General Government. Churches, I suppose, are to follow next. So, takin the railroads, telegraphs, school houses, an churches it would seem Congress would leave little to us but our local taxation and our local pauperism. If they would take them too I do not now as I would object. But I submit in all seriousness that these matters of education had better be left to the States where they are much more economically managed and where they preperly belon.