The age-herald., 1900-12-12

and staunch supporter of the Alabama Uni
 yersity. T go much further than the stu | dents in my wishes, for I would have the | whole military system abolished. Uniforms l and guns are completely out of place
 in the university as a vaudeville play would be in church. It is all nonsense, and very
 silly nonsense at that, subjecting large
 number of boys and young men to military attire, arms and discipline; sending them about the country wearing badges and uni 1 forms to advertise their school, like sand
 which men advertise quacks of all sorts in
 cities. And the law and custom of calling 1 the students cadets thereby meaning stu- 1 dents of military college, are absurd. The l Alabama university Is not a real military i school in fact, the people of the State don't l wish 1t to be military and the students are I not cadets Alabama corps cadets Is a
 misnomer of the worst sort The people | do not need State military school, and
 are not in a position just now to support
 a worthy one if they had such.
 l "The very title University applied Go l the States school at Tuscaloosa is in measure misleading. What we call the 1 State University is merely a college in l which are taught various branches of learn l ing, few of them belonging to the higher education According to Photographer 1 Webster who may be obsolete at Tusca- l loosa, as he clearly was in the Alabama l Legislature in days gone by, University ] is A universal school in which taught | all branches of learning, or the four facul- 1 ties of theology, medicine, law and the 1 sciences and arts; an assemblage of col leges established in any place, with pro- I for i'm Stl11p mt n
 ences and other branches of learning, and l where degrees are conferred That hardly | fits the school at Tuscaloosa, which is so l justly and so abundantly loved by the peo- pie of Alabama and which has been so long the first of our institutions in the public
 regard. For the reason that love our uni 1 versity am in favor of doing away with 1 the brass-button and toy-musket features 1 of it's student life, and in favor of stopping | that cadet nonsense
 Speaking of our higher schools, actual | and fictitious, in this county, the reckless | ness with which all sorts of degrees of | learning are conferred upon the undeserv- l ing and the ignorant has made such de-
 grees ridiculous in the eyes of the public. l This is especially noticeable in the D. D.'s | and the IL D. s. Read the names of any l six or seven preachers printed together in | any newspaper, and before six or seven of | such names you will find the now meaning l less Dr. or Rev. Dr.; and doubtless many | a well-meaning man who sports that once l greatly honored distinction could not to 1 save his life recite off-hand the first fifteen | verses of the sixth chapter of the Gospel
 according to Saint Matthew, although l seven of the verses embrace the Lords | Prayer It is not the fault of unlearned | preachers that they enjoy the title of doc | tor of divinity, but the fault of colleges | and universities, real and so-caled. An au- | thority of one of the largest religious de- | nominations in Alabama recently stated in l a newspaper letter that out of 1250 preach | CTS of his church in Alabama less than 120 enjoyed collegiate training Yet we have an army of D. D.'s.
 "There was a quack dentist in Bradford England, who spent thousands of dollars in newspaper advertising, and never failed to describe himself as doctor of laws. Regu- | lar dentists got tired of that, and sought | to stop him from using the honorable dis | tinction of LL. D. the common law of Eng | land forbidding fraud of that sort. The | quack produced degree, drawn up and | signed in legal form, from a college in Ten nessee-the degree of IL. D. to Dr. Quack | of Bradford. Being then resident in the | old country I was asked to decide upon | the genuineness of the document. l didn't | doubt it was genuine, but I took the pre- 1 caution of writing to the superintendent Of education of the State of Tennessee. He | promptly answered that there was such l college as the one claimed as issuing the | degree; that it was located in -, and | that it was chartered by an act of the Ten nessee Legislature and authorized to confer degrees. That settled the Bradford dispute; l but it is believed in Europe that there are | numerous colleges in America which make
 d practice of selling degrees Certainly, | judging by what I could learn, the Brad l ford man was no more entitled to LL D. than he was to D. D.; that is to say, not at an.'
 "Governor Jelks' first veto was attached | to bill providing for special committee | to personally inspect State-aided colleges l and higher schools, which inspection would
 have cost 5000; and whilst that is com l paratively small sum, still it is S2OOO saved, | and the veto shows that Governor Jelks | is closely watching the greater interests or l the people," said lawyer His first veto | is an honor to him, and will give a sense | of satisfaction to the public. Full infor-
 nation regarding the practical conduct of | the colleges and schools is doubtless need | ed, but there are other and cheaper
 methods of obtaining it than through | committee of legislators, some of I whom may not know ledger from
 a blotter, or geometry from
 geography. Governor Jefks is a safe,
 conservative, and successful business man,
 who has made for himself, early in life, | by his ewn -unaided efforts, a flair fortune | as fortunes go in Alabama, and he may | be relied upon to bring to his conduct of | the States business that skill and wisdom
 which have controlled him we'll these twen-