The age-herald., 1898-03-18
A WORD ABOUT
 EDUCATION AND TAXES
BY W. J. WOOD.


 The people of Alabama are determined to provide better education for their children. The movement in this direction is clear and powerful. The sentiment was in the hearts of the people. It only needed a voice or a pen to arouse it.
 The question now is only one of ways and means; and with reference to a matter so vital and necessary to the prosperity and to the elevation of the state this question also will be resolved for the public good But we must face practical matters and prevailing conditions. Where is the money to come from?
 can we expect to get 1t outside of the state? Will other states or persons pay the tuition of our children? Is it worth while to hope for aid from the general government? But we know that other persons, collective or single, have all Ahey can or will do to educate their own s,Ail- dren; and we are informed that the general government will not grant to the states the public lands, and that those remaining Tn Alabama, even if so granted, are worth very little, certainly not more than would afford three months tuition to our chil- dren. We are relegated to our own pockets. to our own property, to our own people to raise the money to educate our own chil- dren.
 But can Alabama afford to educate her children? Is she not too poor? Are not the elements Of wealth within the state too few, and too worthless? But the commer- claa clubs parade to the world the mex haustible iron and coal and timber and cotton and the census agents and commer- cial reporters add up great columns of actual values of property and find the to- tai to be, say, $750 100000.
 his is to say, the property of the state IS worth Si50,OOO,OOO, for the purposes of in- come and sale; and the supreme court of the united States says that what property Is worth for income and sale it is also worth for taxation. Now then, we turn to the auditors report of Alabama and find that under oath," the property of the state is valued at only $25O O0O O0O
 iWo-thirds of the property escaping taxa ton! Here is the money, the taxes on the escapes, to educate the children. It be- longs to the state. The state is being de- 1rauded out of it. The children are being robbed day by day.
 It is almost impossible to get the legis- lafure to raise the rate of taxation. The field for the practical educator is here. to get the taxes on the books which evada the tax assessors,
 This very reformation was commenced A year ago by the wise and practical gov ernor of Alabama He had deficit in the state treasury. He determined to pay it off. He did not favor doing this by asking Tor an increase of the tax rate, by making those pay taxes who already pay in full, but he recommended the tax commission law, and it passed There Is moro money in the treasury today than for years. The deficit Is $2OOOOO less than last year. It will be paid off entirely next year, and whatever excess of money that is brought into the treasury by the tax czn- mlssioners may be appropriated to the pub lie schools
 The friends of education should adopt the wise methods of the governor. Rather than ask for an increased rate of taxation let them stand behind the governor in enforc- ing the law and putting on the tax books property that is escaping and evadng, If they can by concert of action get one fourth of the property now escaping its just share of the burden 1t would bring $60o,OO0 additional money into the treasury every dollar of which could go to the schools and make our fund over a million and quarter of dollars and give our chill dren six months instead of three months of schooling.
 The tax commission law, erroneous1y called the back tax law, but whose most important provisions refer to present tax. ation, to the undervaluation and tnc6fn- plete assessment of property for the cur- rent year, has not only outlived the olamor and misconstruction directed against 1t. but 1t has demonstrated that 1t was Of ali things the very measure impertously de- manded by the perilous condition of some peopie, SeHeIstlly poor people, pracl1. cally bearing the entire burden of the state; while more than half, nearly twoIth1rds, of the property, generally the wealth of the state, escaped any fair and adequate tax ation nor does it provide for any back taxes whatever, the statutes on that sub- ject remaining just as they were before it was passed. The single purpose of the tax commission law was to provide addi- tional and special tax officers of the state, to get on the tax books the millions of property which escaped in former years, and was not assessed in the current years. So far from any objection to such a stat ute, it seems bound to secure, in the end, when understood and properly enforced, the commendation of every good citizen who is willing to pay his part of the public demands and is not lodging the tax asses sors.
 And this is the law, which having direct ly and indirectly paid the deficit, we desire now to utilize to bring into the state treas- ury the money due there, which will be enough to educate all the children of the state.
 Now, then,- plainly, the property of the state must be placed on the tax books. We call upon the county tax commissioners to do thier duty, to raise valuations to their actual cash value; and we call on the friends of education to ai1 the county tax commissioners in the performance of their duties. It is the practical, perhaps the only way, to get the money to educate our children. It Is the honest way to do ft And certainly in such a movement, by whomsoever made, 1t can be said. as Mr Bryan publicly and eloquently said to Gov. Johnston at Montgomery, "The great throb- ping heart of the common people is behind you in this movement"
 HIS INTERESTS CHANGE. From the Atchison Globe.