Birmingham state herald., 1897-04-18
THE FGFrH DISTRICT SCHOOL.

THE FIFTH DISTRICT SCHOOL.
 The. newspapers and, presumably, some of the people of Dadzvi1le are display ying very wide-gaping wound over the cap s,ture by Wetunfpka of the Fifth District ~AgficnIura1 scS6of, The charge is made That -dfteFsthee bids were closed We tumpl0a was allowed surreptitiously to increase her bid, and thus capture the prize. Of-eoursas-pobody believes libel sIfke .thdt against Gov. Johnston Maj. ~Culver ,andssDr Trrner. The rbelers fheffiselvesf do rir4- fbellve it.
 AS a matter of fact, the bid of We tuppSa, ,Which was accepted, Is now on
 file in. the governors office, and is pre- cipely the one opened in the presence of the representatives of all the contest ants. Of cqufse, tke excess of cash infjhe bid of Wetumpka tipped the beam in her favor. All sprts of valuations may be put on lands and lots, houses and fur niture.. A lead pencil can make bid of that sort large or small.
 But when it comes to a certified check for $7,400 cash, that Is valua.1ola, which approaches. itself. and we do not believe ~bulolic sentiment in Alabama would have justified the board in ignoring the su- perior attractions of cash over estimated valuations of real eSiaate.
 One of the objecticns made by the .Ga dsviHe papers is, that Wetumpka is in the7 black fbelt. Are our conltempor- aries quite certain that as a matter of equity, the school should not have been louatstf in this same black belt?
 There are nine of these schools. one in each congressional district. Of the mine districts, over half the people in the Third district, and nearly half i'm the Second, Fifth and Sixth districts live in the black belt and buy fertilizers and pay the tag. taxes in the black belt. Tn the Fourah district is the great black belt county of Dallas, while in the Ninth we have Perry and Hale.
 |. In. the Second district. Montgomery ard Wilcox arg passed by. and the school is locetsd inl far southern white county at Evergreen.ev
 In the Third district, Barbour. Rus sell. Lee and Bullock are passed over, and the school given to the southernmost county the white county of Henry.
 In the Sixth district, Greene, Sumter and Pickens made m struggle, and the school went to Hamilton, in the small . diiu ldf iIOitHeluI WIllle- COulity Ol Mar
 In the Ninth Perry and Hale gave way to the extreme northern white coun:y of Blount. -e s
 I'm the Fourth, the great county of Dal- las was not considered in locating the ' school at. the fartherest northern ex- tremity, in thes county of Cleburne. .' Now, these schools are supported by the fertilizer tax. ard the black belt pays a. good share of that tax, and if any body has a righl. to qua rrel over the loca- tion of 'ihe schools, it is not the white counties. a'us
 We are nclt taking sides in the contest for lccaticu1 as between tfisse several counties in the Fifth district. But the school has been located, after a fair com petition, ard the State Herald thinks tlrat the competitors should accept the result in good faith. Especially do we think it our duty to defend the board from must attack and in pursuance of this purpose we desire to add one more statement as to the geographical si.ua- tion which was before the board. ARy one can9take the map of Alabama and sse for himself thia relative situation of Wetumpka and Da.devilla in the Fifth district. Wetumpka Is the more accessi- ble to Lowndes, Autauga, Cocsa and El- more. Dadeyille is the more accessible to Chambers, Randolph, Clay and Tal- lapoosa. They are about equally aecsEsi- be to the people of Macon.
 It is plain case thai. so far as geog- raphy and accessibility are concerned, 1t Wfatst "a toss-up. We are bound to con- clude that -bt was the predomnance of cash, that won the fight for Wetumpka, and we counsel moderation on the part of disappointed citizens, for nothing is plairer. than that the people at large will badorse Sthe board for accepting the cash argument,