Birmingham state herald., 1897-01-05
OUR LETTER BOX.
STATE UNIVERSITY.

| pOl0leu SpeeCu Ol llic HUH. H. | ASeN5t | of Tuscaloosa. delivered a few weeks ago l in behalf of our state university before | our state legislature. I know of no re- ] port that so fully summarizes the facts 1 relative to our university and its claims | upon the state. Every alumni, every | friend of the university and of our state 1 should read it. It shows clearly that the university's endowment fund is from the proceeds of the sale of 46 070 acres of land | donated by the United States government I in the act of congress providing for the | admission of Alabama into the union; | that the legislature Of Alabama was. by | the act of congress admitting our state l into the union,S made the trustee of this l fund; that the territorial convention in | Huntsville, July 5, 1919, adopted In the l constitution under which our state was to be organized. the provision that ''the gen. eral assembly. shall take measures for 1 the improvement of such lands as have | been or may be hereafter granted by the 1 United States to this state, for the sup I port of seminary of learning, and the I moneys which may be raised from such | lands by rent, lease or sale, or from any other quarter, for the purpose aforesaid, | shall be and remain fund for the ex- 1 elusive support of a state university for l the promotion of arts, literature and the 1 sciences and it shall be the duty of the l general assembly, as early as may be, to 1 provide effectual means for the improve 1 ment and permanent security of4 the | funds and endowments of such instftu- l tion. ssssa
 The report further shows that by gross
 msmanagement and misappropriation, 1 the funds of the university this institu- 1 tion, in all it's history, has been crippled 1 for want of means, and that the state to- l day justly owes the university more than 1 $2, 100000. ss sr 1 In 1921 an act providing for a board of l trustees was passed by the general as- sembly This act authorized the sale of | the university lands at $17 per acre, pay- | able in installments. The next year it was further provided by an act of the | general assembly that at the end of the | term of credit or within three years there | after, the purchaser could surrender his I deed and convert his purchase into | lease for ninety-nine years, renewable | forever upon condition that he should l pay six per cent, per annum on the | amount he owned. A large number of l purchasers took advantage of this last l provision. For years the agents failed to | collect the interest on the leases, and finally the office of the president was broken into and the leases were so mu- | tilated that no one could tell what lands | were leased and what were sold.
 l In 1923 some of the lands were sold, | bringing as high as S60 per acre,
 l In the establishment of the state bank of Alabama an act was passed by the l state legislature of that year, 1929, making l the unds-of the university part of the l cdDlIdl or the dIOTeSdlu Ddnk lHuS lut | state took the funds of the university to | organize bank that was to furnish its 1 citizens money at low rate of interest. l The lowest rate of sale of the university l lands, SIT per acre, would have brought .S7S3 354 73 The facts show that the re- 1 turns should have. been much more. ' l The committee appointed in 1883 to look 1 into the condition of the university's in- l terests reported to the general assembly
 that 42.540.27 acres had been reported sold l fo,, opd hot orex -ar.a l then unspld
 l At this date the report of the comp l troller of the state showed that sS94, 162.96 l had been deposited to the credit of the university fund, but the discrepancy in I this report and that of the committee l shows how loosely and carelessly the 1 funds of the university had been man. aged Just at this time the general as- sembly passed an act for the relief of the | purchasers of the university lands, by l which careful estimate shows the uni 1 versity lost $l44, ,239.1S. This amount, with simple interest at per cent. added.
 makes the claim of the university against | the state sum up to S, ,234, 35G.14 after de- | ducting two items of $300 900 and s60,O0
 loaned and donated by the state. Add | to this the cost of services of Attorney Porter to gather up the tangled enC,i of l business and shape affairs so that they | could be understood and also the profits | to the state from the funds of the uni 1 versity in the Bank of the State of Ala l bama, with interest to this date at 1 per cent. and the state is clearly debtor to The university for over $2,000, 900. This is roughly sketching a very full state | ment containedin in MT. Fitts report.
 | The state has unQuestionably been | financially benefited by the use of funds l legltimately belonging to the university, | while the university has suffered both in
 efficiency and finance, because state leg
 islation has not protected its interests. | One thing is very sure The university | of Alabama is not using the states
 money It is struggling for lack of 1 means to fulfill the purpose of its estab- lishment, against fearful odds. The im- pression prevails very generally that 1t is a part of the state system of educa- 1 ton that begs for appropriations9o out of | the taxes of the state; that 1t is an object | of state charity sustained as 9 political
 asylum, where disappointed candidates | for state offices can be ..soothed ind shs- tainea, and where trustees can use tKeir l position to enlarge their political ehvifon- 1 nents and increase their. pplistral l strength. -
 When it is known that the ststezhas
 by edict declared it's obligation to be
 $300.0 .00e, and that if, pays the university annually $24.000 as interest on itssobhga tions we cannot expect all the things to
 be found under fairer and more favora- l ble conditions There is not money
 enough in hand to give its facultydheapp portunlties of recesses and trave1s, nor | does tits ineome~-peimit necessary ex- penditures for equipment in scientific de-
 partments or Tor books ana other essen rials. It has conlmendable library and laboratory outfit It is adding 10 the coirfoIt Of it's barracks and boarding halls but whsn we remember that several
 of. the great universities of the United
 States have nearly a million dollars aI-
 nual ipcome from endowments we can
 only wonder that the trustees and facu!-
 tyr of our state univ ersity can do SD muet on an income of SPA ,000 and we should try to quicken the pride of our state un- til she shall gise back to the university the money that is justly due. ., g
 MT. Fitts proposes that the state work or mine the university coal lands win its able-bodied convicts, and pay the
 university @ royalty.
 l His other plan is that the state settle