The age-herald., 1898-03-01
MIR. CORY'S OPINION
 ON NEEDED EDUCATION

tax themselves for the education of their
 children Is a most serious misfortune to
 Alabama Its effact Is felt already through
 out the state, and every interest must suf-
 fer in consequence for years to come. The
 state has practically declared against the education of the masses by placing an em- bargo upon the common schools. The Age
 Herald repubashes from its files extracts
 from an able address delivered at Florence
 about three years ago by MT. Chappell
 Cory. MT. Cory's statements are strong and to the point:
 "NOthing ever written is plainer than the
 provision in the constitution that the state shall not levy over 70 cents of taxes on
 the $1O0 worth of property; that the coun- ties, except for bridges and pubac build ings, shall not levy more than 50 cents,
 and that the cities shaA not levy more than 50 cents, except for debts existing prior to
 1875. It is not to be questioned then, that
 the state nor county nor city nor village nor township can levy special tax for public schools. The state can appropriate
 money out of its general taxes, and so can the county, and so can the city. As
 matter of fact, the state gives a mere baga- telle as compared with the needs of the children, and only one county gives any thing at al, the result being that in the city alone we have public schools of credit to us as a people and worthy of the name
 they go by.
 The state treasury is empty. There is
 not the slightest hope that the school ap- propriattons can be increased from that source for many years to come. Yet the children are multiplying and the present beggarly per capita of 70 cents will present. ly be reduced to 60 cents and after awhile to 50 cents. That means increasing rather than diminishing illiteracy in a state whose
 percentage of white men unable to read or write is already disgrace to the civi,iza- ton of the century.
 Few of the cultivated people who make up such an audience this appreciate just how serious problem does confront us in the ignorance among the masses of the back country. An attorney of one of our federal courts, before whom large number of men are brought from the coun- try districts as principals or witnesses in criminal cases, told me recently that one third of them cannot write their names. Ignorance, as of old is the champion of crime, and our good state is staggering under a tremendous burden of it. We won der that our cities, surrounded by wealth of resources unparalleled on earth, do not prosper and grow as do the com munities of the west and east, forgetting that men produce wealth in proportion to their intelligence. While the east and the west are educating the people and cheerful ly submitting to whatever amount of local taxation may be necessary we twist and squirrn at the beggarly burden of few hundred thousands doled out from the state treasury with miserly hand. Are we willing a people to see our children becoming more ignorant than their parents as the years go by? And is there any way to prevent it, except by go- ing down into our pockets and paying for
 more schools? The money must come from somewhere. The state cannot give 1t without increasing the tax rate, and the guardians of the severals political parties win never do that if they can help it. The counties are not going to give it, for many of them are already nearly up to the con- stitutional limit of taxation, and commits soner's courts are not brave men when it ] comes to the exercise of the taxing power The cities cannot, if they would, because their special resources must be expended on the schools within their limits and for their own children.
 "I believe the people of our cities. rich
 and poor alike, pay that portion of their
 taxes which goes to education more readily and willingly than any other. They feel it to be the best investment which the gov ernment makes for them. It pays to be taxed for such purpose. And the people of the country are catching some of that 1 same spirit.
 ttt1tih state steps in and says to them: You | shall not tax yourselves to educate your | children. The result is that the mass of l the children go to school to the extent or l 70 cents per capita, which comes from l the state, and only the fortunate few get l beyond that.
 "I know a country neighborhood where l the old citizens are men and women of 1 culture; the young men and women have | a fairly good education; the little chil- dren will be fortunate if they all learn the | art of reading and writing. A few of the more public-spirited farmers struggle | along endeavoring to supplement the pub- | lie school of scarce three months by vol | untary contributions out of their own 1 pockets. But that voluntary system of | unequal taxation is poor makeshift. l Jones is apt to tire of 1t and fly the track. l So is Smith, and the whole thing is precarious experiment all the while. "Now, if the burden of raising the mon- ey for nine months schools was divided I out on all the farms and property in that 1 community, upon the parents and the l bachelors and the childless widows and l the absent landlords alike, it would be a feathers weight for each The communi- | ty would take pride in it's school, would l be more sef-respecting, fewer people l would catch the Texas or town fever and | every boy and girl would grow into an 1 educated and intelligent man or woman.
 Those people are anxious to pay that l tax. But the constitutions warning and l forbidding voice is heard: You shall not tax yourselves for such a purpose That 1 seems to me monstrous thing for the | state to do. It is heartless and cruel l thing"
 Would-Be Assassin Arrested