The age-herald., 1897-11-21
TO AID TIE SCHOOLS.
Professor Patton Recies Some History Upon
 the Public School Question.

In the house of representatives of the Fifty-fourth congress, March IT, 1896, MT. Wheeler introduced the following bill; which was referred to the commit tee on the pu 5Hc lands and ordered to be pnnted:
 A bill to donate the public lands located
 within the State Of Alabama to the
 s:ate of Alabama for educational pur-
 poses:
 Section l. Be 1t enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America in eongrs ss as- sembled, That all the public lands within tha state of Alabama are hereby donated to-the state of Alabama for. the purpose of improving the school system in said state ard the secretary of the interior shall issue to the state of Ala bama patents for said lands: Provided, that the proceeds of said lands, wh;n sold or leased. shall forever remain a fund to be used for the purpose of inn proving the school system of Alabama; the said proceeds to be apportioned be- tween the schools fer colored children and the schools for white children in proportion to their population in said state, as shown by the census taken by the United States authorities.
 Sec. 2. That in case of the forfeiture of any land of the United States within the state of Alabama which, previous to the passage of this act, had been acquired by homs stead, pre-emption, or any other laws, said land so forfeited shall be pat ented by the secretary of the interior to the state of Alabama for the pur- poses stated iIa the first section of this act and under the provisions and Hmita- tions as stated in section one of this act
 O. .4I. T. in section one of this act have been pat ented to the state of Alabama the land office in the state If Alabama shall be abolisted and all fficers connected there with shall be honoraby discharged from the s;rvice of the United States.
 In July of the summer of 1895, I con- ceived the plan to have all the public lands in this state, belonging to the fed eral government donated by the gov rn- ment to the state for our common schools. ] made inquiries of the land office at Montgomery to know the exact number Of acres of public lands in the state. At the time of my inquiry there was something like So0,G00 acres. I did this about Christmas time and then be- gan my first article upon the eduea tional needs of Alabama. This was before any one, to my knowledge, had ever advo- eated this plan. This was some time bs- fore pr. Curry came to the state to talk in the interest of education. Three ar ticles were written, but were not made public until March, 1S96 The first, how ever. was submitted to the Exchange in January, 1896, think, but the editor pre- ular paper. It appeared in the Eutaw ular paper. It apepared in the Tutaw Whig and Observer March 26, 1886, the others subsequently, following. In May Dr. Curry addressed letter to tha- candidates for governor. It appeared in the State Herald May B, or nearly two months after I had sounded the first ncte of alarm, showing Alabama's il- nteracy. My article subsequently, ap- peared in the Mobile Register and the Teachers Exchange also in several county papers at the instance of J. A. Van Hoose, who at that tims was mayor of Birmingham. It seems that others had the idea of having the public lands donated to the state; for some mention was me de of the fact in either the Janu- ary or r bruary number of the Ex- change, but not in the same manner as I proposed it. We need compulsory law in education and I desired these lands donated so that our funds could be raised sufficiently to hav5 such law enacted. I also advocated that we should have constitutional convention.
 This was done eight months before ths Commercial club of Birmingham took any steps in the matter of advocating constitutional convention. l do not re- member seeing this question agitated be- lore Q1u. an Sldu lo Ste tiot SO ih-tis eading men of Birmingham are favoring a convention.
 I sincerely hope 1t will ba kept up un- til we can ur bind the fetters which chain our educational system so that little progress can be made in lifting our state from it's present scals of illiteracy. There are many other interests which demands that a new constitution be had, but none need it more than our public school system.
 One cf the principal reasons for this was to improve our school syst m S financial policy, which can only be ac- compished by having a new constitu- ton. pr. E. R. Eidridge. of Troy, went to Washington some time in March, 1896, and the above bill was introduced. Gen. Whe eler's letter speaks for itself l sincerely hope that all who are inter- ested in helping our state educationally, will do what they can towards the sup port of this measure. 8.s..4
 I hope that every perscn, every lover of Alabama with all her magnificent na- tural resources, will do all in their DOW CT to Eft up and help build this gerat state in educa tional advantages n't
 I trust that every person in the state. in each congressional district will urge upon. their representative to do all in his power to have the above bill beconla law. Trusting tfat thousands will be added to those who favor new con yertion, will be added to the growing number and that ere long, but little dis sension will be heard and with better opportunities fer improving our schools we will take rank with any state In the union educationally, is the heartfelt W.sh of EDWARD l.. TAI lON.
 Birmingham, Ala, Nov. 2O 1897.