The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-19
CHE TEACHERS OF ALABAMA
 ASSEMBLE IN CONVENTION

Being teachers you naturally look to
 the literary life of any town you may enter. and l hope you will not suppose that we arc all business men or poli- ticians:. we have those in abundance.
 but there are others: lawyers, doctors. merchants. whose better life Is spent in their libraries with their books and whose daily labor is only an avoca- ton.
 'Tis true we have no Hannls Taylor to write a book to make himself fa- nous wherever a college or learned lawyer is to be found throughout the English speaking world; nor have we Mary Johnson to make novels for all the world to read and enjoy; but we have a Lanier, an unrivalied liter ary critic, scholar of the highest rank. a student lover of books, the brother of one of America's most fa- nous poets. and himself an author of high repute.
 Here. too is the winter home of Will liam H. Hayne, poet of growing tame. whose poems arc read and enjoy ed by all and whose genius bids fair to lift him up to the level of his illus trious father.
 Our ladies are organized In many
 various clubs, ard devote their time to literary pursuits. Here. too, in former days, lived Colonel Albert Pickett. whose history of Alabama has made his name a household word throughout the State. Wealthy, cul- tured and studious, he devoted his time and money to the thorough investiga- | ton of his subject before he attempted | to write a line.
 l. Our city is growing and progressing every year; we have no booms, no col lapses, but a steady forward move
 ment. and we are pushing with 1t; there are no lingering regrets for what might have been-no backward looks; but once every year we follow the wo-
 men of Montgomery to the cemetery
 where sleep Alabama's heroic dead:
 and laying aside all sordid care, we join them in doing reverence to the memory of the brave soldiers whose graves they so devoatly decorate. The cause is lost but they did not die in vsin-those 800 Confederates. who have left behind them to their children for all time such noble example or patriot ism and seif-sacrifice.
 Here lie buried many of Ala
 bama's most illustrious citizens, | names that will live forever.
 Watts, statesman and lawyer, was | Governor and Confederate Attorney General; Golethwaite, Stone, Clopton and others who have made the judi ciary of Alabama famous for it's abil- | ity and purity; Lomax, Clanton. Holtz- claw and other brave officers who led their men in hundred desperate battles; Rice and Fillmore and Seniple and Troy the greatest of, lawyerE- in | their day and unexcelled since. Here
 sleeps William L. Yancey ,the South's greatest orator, and not far of sleeps | his mighty rival, Henry W. Hilliard, l Here sleeps in the same lot Baldwin | and Tompkins, two of Alabama'e 6 most distinguished Attorney Generals. And here rests Graham and Bragg. who | took up the work of the lamented
 Clanton, and leading the people bravely and wisely, rescued the State from the rule of ignorance and vice.
 Our schools are closed. the long years work is over. and it is but right that we should have a little outing. few | days to meet old friends and new l ones. To us your visit is most well | come for we look forward with pieasur-
 able anticipation to the information and instruction we shall gain from | your discussions.
 But there are times for recreation
 as well as work. and perhaps you will
 want to see what is to be seen in our city. Then go first to the Capitol of I the State. once the Capitol of the Con- I federacy. and see the spot where MT
 Davis took the oath of office as first
 and only President of the Confederate | States Then look at the beautiful | Confederate monument erected by the tireless efforts of Montgomery's noble women. Stepping within the building you may find the Supreme Court in session. and look upon the 1otcnt, grave and reverend seignors weighing out Justice with exact scales. sur
 rounded by the mighty lawyers of the State.
 But whatever you do. wherever you go. do not fail to look in upon the Con- stitutional Convention and behold eur
 wiSest men laboring upon proDosi- tion that calls for the highest intel
 lectual effort. how to change the right
 of suffrage without injuring the polit-
 teal power of the various sections of
 the State.
 Let me hope that you will
 tell your delegates in that his
 toric hall that what we need to bring cur schools up to a respect able standard is money-more money. Let us educate the children, the grand children and the great-grandchildren of the Confederate soldier, even If the ne- gro has to be educated. too.
 'I have always thought that the
 
 that they want a $1,20O teacher for $4OO salary-a f1rst-class teacher for third-rate parents.
 Another difficulty Is that they contin- ually change the principal of the school he ping to get man who can do three mems work. Now, 1t Is strange that in the little villages they do have first-class principals to teach the children of second class doctors, third class preachers. fourth class law yers and petty merchants. If, then, these principals and their teachers are competent, where is the trouble? Why. simply this: there is not money enough to employ a sufficient number of assist ant teachers. How can two or three teachers, no matter how capable. teach hundred or more children scattered through all the grades of the kinder garten. grammar and high school? The work must be slighted somewhere.
 Money Is what is needed: If the pres ent Convention desires to erect a monument more enduring than bronze for itself. let it pass an ordinance that the number of dollars appropriated by the State for public school shall never be less than the number of inhabitants