592 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



or about |200,000,0O0. It sliould be observed that revenues de- 

 riyed by cities, counties, townships and other political bodies make 

 the State and local taxes presumably somewhat larger than the 

 Federal revenue. The fact that the State legislator is often chosen 

 under pledge to keep down State expenses, while the Federal legis- 

 lator is expected to secure all he can get for his State from' Federal 

 appropriations has not a little to do with the relatively larger 

 growth of the Federal budget. 



It may be of interest to note that this centralization of revenue in 

 the hands of the Genral Government is a great force in centralizing 

 governmental power, and if the people had less education or lived in 

 a time less democratic this vast sum secured from indirect taxation 

 might be a fatal danger. On the other hand modern conditions re- 

 quire immense strength and resources at the command of political 

 adminis'tratiOEs which every four years must depend for their power 

 upon the vote of the entire people. Not only the outside forces 

 with Avhich our Government might come in conflict, but the vast cen- 

 ters of financial and political influence within the country are gain- 

 ing such mammoth proportions that the people as a whole agree that 

 a strong government is required that it be more powerful than any 

 rival external or internal. 



The productive industries of the country j^early provide the |800,- 

 000,000 which goes into the Federal treasury. If the workers were 

 better prepared for their tasks they could easier provide still larger 

 public funds. Since states, cities and counties and small school dis- 

 tricts are handicapped by direct and less popular methods of taxa- 

 tion in securing school funds with which to pay for the expensive 

 work of providing education in the industries it would seem legiti- 

 mate to use a small part of the national budget for that purpose. 

 Congress has thoroughly established precedent along this line by 

 passing the agricultural college land-grant act of 1862, followed in 

 1890 with a direct appropriation of .f25,000 to each state for educa- 

 tion relating to the industries of the state colleges — thus by gift 

 forced on the people. 



It has been proposed that Congress offer to each rural Congress- 

 ional district |10,000 annually toward the support of an agricultural 

 high school. In ]887 Congress gave to each state |15,000 for agricul- 

 tural experiment work, and in 1906 this amount was made |30,000 

 for each state. It has recently been proposed that |2,500 be offered 

 by the Federal Government toward the support of a branch experi- 

 ment station at each Congressional district agricultural high school. 



It seems only proper to carry the suggestion one step further and 

 suggest that Government aid should be extended also to industrial 

 education in mechanic arts and home economdcs in the city and town 

 high school. Tender this plan a Congressional law has been suggest- 

 ed under which, say, 10 cents per capita, or a total of -18,000,000 an- 

 nually might be apportioned to agricultural high schools and to city 

 high schools. The payment of this fund from the Federal treasury 

 could be conditioned on the State supplying the necessary lands, 

 buildings, and equipment, and on the appropriation by the respective 

 states of sums equal to their allotment from the General Govern- 

 ment. The law could be made to stipulate that the Federal fund be 

 used only for actual work in classes devoted to the industries and 

 domestic work. 



