The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-22
LACK or PRIMARY EDUcArIoN,

Il " |1ng institution ought to, be cornpe- tent judge of the kind of education
 necessary for successful business man. or. that would enable young
 man to succeed in business. Recently the President of bank in Chicago ad- dressing a graduating class. outlined what he considered necessary qualifi- ,ations among them the following; First-To be able to write a good. leg
 ible hand. to make good rgures and to place them correctly-the units below the
 units. the tens below the tens, and so on. Second-To be able to add. subtract and
 multiply rapidly and accurately
 Third-To be able to express yourself
 clearly, briefly and grammatically in
 letter and to spell the words correctly.
 Now. a teacher in one of our schools
 who would confine his pupils to this
 limited curriculum would hardly hold
 a position long enough to learn the
 names or faces of his pupils. yet all
 must admit that these requirements are certainly necessary in business. The banker said it was rare in his ex- perience to find young men possessing such elemental knowledge, and added Efurthef. that he had taken many youths into business, but he could re- member scarcely one who could be re- lied upon to do the simple things just enumerated. Many of them were grad uates of high schools. yet they could not always write legibly. figure accu- rately or spell correctly"
 No doubt some of these young men were well educated in the higher
 branches and were qualified to prepare an interesting and instructive paper on important questions, yet were deficient
 in the very things essential to practical
 business life. And we think it alto- gether likely that what is true of the schools of Chicago would hold good In those of other sections of the country. Too much education at the top and tosO little at the foundation. is the fault. THE STATE PRESS RESOLUTIONS
 Yesterday The Advertiser called special attention to that part of the annual address of President Rhodes, before. the State Press Association on Thursday. iniwhich he boldly urged the Constitutional Convention to place duty above Party pledges and to make the best Constitution possible. The Advertiser suggested that the State As- sociation take up MT. Rhodes's view, endorse it and incorporate 1t into some kind of resolutions that might be of some service to members of the Con- vention.
 It is a matter for the congratulatiOn of all concerned that this suggestion was mot in vain. The Alabama Press Association on yesterday adopted it, and after a full and free discussion de- cided by a vote of two to one to pass resolutions incorporating this idea. The resolutions were introduced by Mir. J. c. Lawrence of The Alabama Baptist, and are as follows:
 Resolved, That the Alabama Press As- sociation endorses the position of Presi- dent Rhodes in his annual address yes- terday to the effect that the members of the Constitutional Convention are under greater obligations to observe their sacred oaths to the Commonwealth of Alabama to devise the best Constitution possible rather than to redeem any Party pledge that may hamper them in the proper dls-
 Resolved, fnrther. That the members of this Associat lion will support the Con-
 vention in acting independently of any pledges that were made hastily or incon- siderately, and that this body urges the Convention to perfect the very best Con- stitutiop it's brain and conscience may suggest in full confidence that the re- suit will be endorsed by the people. There were thirty members of the
 Association present, and they were
 representative members from various
 parts of the State. The vote was taken by ayes and noes after prolonged dis cussion. The result was decisive-two to one in favor of the resolutions. as already stated. There is every reason to believe that if such resolutions
 had been offered the! day before. when
 A larger attendance was on hand and
 when MT. Rhodes could have added the weight of his presence in it's support, 1t
 would have been passed by even larger proportionate vote.
 These resolutions are quite slgnifi- cant, and will certainly have an im- portant influence upon the action of | the Constitutional Convention. The declaration is that the press believes the members of the Convention are un- der a more solemn obligation to do their duty to the State than to redeem any Party pledges; that they should not feel hampered in the proper dis charge of their duty by any Party ac- tion that may be thrown across their
 path as an obstruction. The declara-
 tion of the press is further, that it will
 support the Convention in ignoring any pledges that may have been made has,
 tily or inconsiderately, and the mem
 bers are urged to formulate the very
 best instrument in their power. in the
 assurance that the people will endorse
 1t.
 The resolutions do not make any
 concrete suggestion to the Convention ito do ono thing or not to do another
 They simply advise a principle of ac-
 tion. a method of reaching q result. a
 general end to be attained. They do
 not assert that members of the Con-
 vention are not under obligations to parties, but maintain that these oblt-
 gations are secondary to the higher
 considerations of patriotism. citizen
 ship and official duty. They do not ad-