davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The age-herald., 1901-02-15
Text Books In Both Houses.

The education committee of the on the adverse calendar by a vote of g to 4, and tho House took it from that calendar by vote of 45 to 28. Three fifths of the committee are opposed to the bill, and three-fiffiths of the House are in favor of it.
 In other words, the committee on education does not represent the House, and it stands censured by it. When the bill was taken from the ad- verse calendar and placed on the cal endar of the House, this was equiva- lent to vote of censure of the com mittee that placed it on the adverse calendar.
 The bill in question is a test of the honor and reputation of the Legis1a- ture. It is known that powerful trust is opposing the bill. It is further known that no valid grounds exist for such opposition-that it is based sim ply and solely on cupidity and greed, to use an apt phrase of Governor Sam ford's timely message.
 Let us hope that both Houses will act up to their convictions on this sub ject. The bill is an useful one. It is not basic, as is the Gunnells bill now tied up in the Senate, but it is very helpful and valuable bill, and in a State that is ambitious to establish an excellent public school system to the purpose that illiteracy in the State Nmay be materially reduced, it is very timely and desirable measure. It is equivalent to more education, for it reduces the cost in every household.
The age-herald., 1901-02-15
Two Distinuuished Visitors.

MT. M " Richards, the general immi- grafton, industrial and commercial agent of the Southern Railway Company, the most successful and widely known man in that all-important class of railroad work in America, Is in Birmingham It has been said that MT. Richards Is per- sonally acquainted with more men of consequence in the South than any other man in this country. Certainly he en- joys extraordinary popularity and Is ex- traordinarily successful in inducing im- migrants to settle, capitalists to invest pleasure-seekers to travel in the immense territory served by the great system of railway which he represents.
 MT. George A. BoisSard, the city editor of the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, and one of the ablest and most widely honored newspaper workers of the near West, was in Birmingham yesterday and last night. He said that he had been greatly astonished by the industrial de- velopment of the Carolinas, but the Bir- mingham district had amazed him when he had seen all its main points of inter- est and growth.
 You have got it all here,' he said. What I see amazes me; I had not dream ed that great Birmingham was so truly great The evidences of growth I have seen on my rounds of the city and dis trict exceed anything industrial ever heard of!'
The age-herald., 1901-02-15
Books at Reasonable Prices.

The Johnston-B -Bulger bill is a very long bill, but it is no longer than the importance of the subject calls for. There were many things to be pro- vided for, and it Is difficult to see how the bill can be shortened without in- jury to it.
 Among it's many excellent provisions is one that requires the sub-commis- sion to critically inspect every book submitted to it, and report upon each book must be submitted to the commits sion. The particular book must be de- clared to be good, bad or indifferent. There can be no sighting of any book, no refusal to consider any one.
 No trust-made book is to be accept ed, however, and no book is to be sold to the State at price higher than it is elsewhere sold by the same con- tractor. On the back of each book there shall be printed by the contract. or it's contract price, as wen as it's ex- change price, which is to be a. least one-half of the former.
 The State would incur no liability whatever under the operations of the bill, for all expenses named in it are to be borne by the contractor, who is to
The age-herald., 1901-02-15
UNIFORM TEXT BOOKS.
the Editor of the Age-Herald.

To the Editor of the Age-Herald.
 Allow me, as one of the teachers of the State to thank you for advocating uniform series of text books for the public schools of Alabama"
 I hope the bill before the Legislature will become a law. I do not know its provisions. It may have it's defects; but I am anxious to see 1t tried. Any change from the present condition will be well comed by the teacher who has the in- terest of his pupils at heart
 I will not dwell upon the saving to pa- irons of our schools that will result from State adoption. While this saving may not be great as some advocates of the measure claim, yet there are other req sons why wish to sec State uniformity.
 i. Any Board of Education composed of live teachers will give us better text books than those now used in many of our pub the hands of pupils of this school a gram a geography in which there was no Bir- mingham, and in which Alabama was not mentioned among the states that produce coal and iron, and an arithmetic that de- voted much space to changing Georgia currency and New York currency" etc., to United States money.
 Tn behalf of the children who are plod- ding over these out of date hoods, I ask our legislators to give us a uniform se- ries of modern text books for our com
The age-herald., 1901-02-15

From the Mountain Eagle of Jasper.
 The bill to add hundred thousand dol lars more to the Confederate pension fund of the State is one of the most mer itorious measures in the way of appro- priations that has come before the pres ent session of the Legislature. There are thousands of old veterans and wid- ows of old veterans in the State who are badly in need of help, and if their wants are not attended to now it will be too late-for many it will be too late to await the next session of the Legislature. These old heroes have the same proud spirit in their breasts that they possessed from '61 to '65, and they would die before they would ask or receive anything in the nature of alms' But a pension from the State is different. They feel that they are getting what Is justly due them, earned by hardships and Restitution borne and endured in that bloody strug- gle which ended thirty-six years ago. They will soon be beyond our help, as they are fast passing away. The amount they are now receiving Is a disgrace to the State and its people. The House has done its duty in promptly passing the bill, and it is now left with the Senate and the Governor to do theirs. The Montgomery Journal seems to think that the Governor will veto the bill if it goes to him, but we will never believe it un- til he does it.
The age-herald., 1901-02-15
HE ONLY DAIlY AEwspApEa IN ALABAMA
Negroes in C0nqress.

There are many men living who can remember when Selma, if not Mobile, sent Jere Haralson and Ben Gee to Congress, and back in the days of the Forty-second Congress Florida and Mississippi and South Carolina and Louisiana had negroes in Congress, as /well as Alabama. Mississippi recon structionists were not content with representatives, for they elected, first, Hiram Revels to the Senate, and then B. K. Bruce, who served full term, and who was probably the best of the entire series of reconstruction negroes in Congressional life. No other State sent a negro to the Senate except Louisiana, whose reconstructors put forward HOW and then the notorious Pinchback, who is still living.
 In the House Elliott and Ramey and Small came from the coast districts of South Carolina, and Long and Lodge from Louisiana, and perhaps dozen others have fingered along in the years that have elapsed since the war. Virginia and North Carolina occasion ally contributed negro member, and today Representative White of the latter State is the sole negro in Con- gross. He goes out of office on March 4, and he will have no successor in the Fifty-seventh Congress. There are no signs now that he will ever have a successor. The passing of the negro Congressman is an event of national significance, standing as it does for the rule of the most intelligent and the. flttest. The negro of reconstruc- tion stood for the very opposite. He was not so corrupt, however, as were those who stood behind him and made him their tool
The age-herald., 1901-02-15

get his money from the sales ol books in the State. He is given a monopoly in that respect in order to let him cell books at low prices, and yet gain reasonable profit.
 The bill further provides that all books now in use in the public schools shall be taken in exchange for books selected by the textbook commission. These books are to be received at not less than 50 per cent. of the contract prices for new ones.
 The commission may accept manu- script and may publish books, but the owner ol the manuscript is to bear all the expenses of publication, and these expenses are to be secured by the de- posit of sum sufficient to cover them, not exceeding $25O0.
 The contractor is to maintain two Repositories in the State and three agencies In each county, all or which are to be located by the textbook con- mission, but these means of distribu- tion will not prevent the contractor from selling through a merchant school books at the retail contract price.
 The act is carefully drawn, and the State will never have a better oppor- tunity to get out of the hands of the book trust, and at the same time se- cure to the children of the State school books at reasonable prices. Governor Sanford has stated the case in forci- ble and plain terms, and it remains to be seen whether the Legislature will prefer the people or the book trust in this matter.
The age-herald., 1901-02-15
MIR, BABcOcK'S ALARM BELL.
From the New York World.

From the New York World.
 Representative Babcock's bill to repeal that section of the Dingley tariff act which covers the products of steel is the first unmistakable sign of recoil within the Republican party itself from the pol icy which has made the billion-dollar steel trust possible.
 It shows that the formation of the bil- lion-dollar steel trust, in spite of the as- surance of it's promoters that it is mot to be a monopoly but only an arrange ment for securing perfect harmony in the trade, is not looked upon even py high protectionists as an event that promises any benefit to the people. It shows also that among the Republican politicians who helped to make the Din gley tariff a law there is a growing fear of revolt by the masses who voted for high protection on the theory that it's main purpose was to give higher wages to labor What it actually gives is high CT dividends to mightier consultations of incorporated capital than were ever before possible, and at the same time im- poses higher prices on American than on foreign consumers of their productions.
 New evidence is furnished almost daily that the steel manufacturers of this country are not only in no danger of for eign competiton-which was the pretext on which the Dingley worse than war duties were justifed-but are actually un- derselling their British competitors in all the British colonies and in the United Kingdom itself. They are selling their steel rails to the Australian and South African governments, and exporting their steel manufactures of nearly every de- scription to all the markets of the world. Only yesterday the papers reported the award to the American Bridge Company of a contract for steel bridges for the Uganda (East Africa) Railway at $51.50 per ton, which was $25 per ton below the lowest English bid.
 Well may Mir Babcock think the time has come to sound the alarm-bell and tell his party that the Dingley duties of T.S4 ton on steel rails, $4 ton on pig iron, and all the other duties by which the American people are being made to pay more than the foreigner for the same goods. must be repealed as matter of political safety.
The age-herald., 1901-02-15
THE NEGRO IN THE COTTON MILL.

From the New York Sun
 The dawning in the Southern States of the almost limitless possibilities of that portion of our country as a land of man. ufacturing and of general industrial en- terprise, lends great interest to all ex- periments in the use of colored people as factory hands or generally as employ ees in shops. It has often been said that colored people could not be made efficient in these new occupations. Recently there has been a great deal of comment in the South over the result of the test of negro cotton mill labor at the large Vesta cot ton factory in Charleston The Vesta mill was built in 1882, and has over 74S looms; over a million dollars has been spent on it altogether. Efforts to run the mill with white labor and colored labor separately have failed, and it is now announced that the building will be abandoned and the machinery removed to Gainesville, Ga, in the Piedmont or hill section, where man. ufacturing will be again started. It has been declared that the failure of the Yes ta mill demonstrated the unfitness of the colored people for work in cotton fac tory.
 The head of the Vesta mill is Capt. John H. Montgomery, manager of very superior ability. He states that it is his conviction that the failure of the Vesta mill in no way showed that colored peo- pie could not work in factory, and that the mill went under simply because the manager of it had no control of the op- eratives outside of the property. The ex- pertinent showed that even under exist ing conditions over half of the negroes employed were trustworthy operatives Tn every sense of the word, but that the other half could not be made to do con- tinuous work. When beans and straw berries were ripe pickers were in demand, and a great number of the mill hands would leave the factory and go at this work. Moreover, in Charleston it was easy to live, fish, oysters and other food being cheaply procured. In the hill sec ton of the South, however, farming is much more difficult, and 1t is not so easy to obtain a livelihood from the soil as it is in the low country. Captain Mont gomery declares that if his mill had been well supplied with tenement houses he believes that he could have succeeded with the negroes He could then have controlled his hands as the farmer does.
 We are bound to say that we see no cause for lamentation in the South over the failure of the Vesta mill at Charles ton.
The age-herald., 1901-02-15

Washington, Fob. 14--(SpeciaD-There Is evidently to he a very hard fight in conference oyer the war reduction bill. The conferccs do not meet until the Ath, because Senator Aldrlch was called to Providence The Senate conferees arc Senators Aldrich. Allison and Jones of Arkansas, and the House conferees are Representatives Payne, Dalzel and Rich ardson Of Tennessee. Each house has placed It's best men on the conference and every conferee Is thoroughly experienced in conference work, though the Senate has the advantage in as much as Messrs. Allison and Aldrlch have had more ex- periences on conferences by reason of their longer public service
 Senate confe-ees are noted for their tenacity and this is especially the case with the present Senate conferees. They will stick out for their bill until the last moment The House conferees, particu- larly Payne, have been called stubborn" by their senate colleagues, but in most measures on which those gentlemen have served together the Senate has won most points. So for Senators Aldrich and AL lison to refer to Payne and Dalzell as stubborn is something similar to the twelfth juror who insisted the eleven oth- CT jurors were obstinate because they would not agree with him.
 The House conferees enter the confer ence with stronger backbone than usual The House is unhappy because the Senate substituted an entirely new bill for the house measure and, then, they have re- ceived hundreds of telegrams and letters from all parts of the country insisting that the Senate bill is objectionable and the House bill much preferable. The talk about the House always yielding to the Senate has made them more determined. This means that the House conferees will stand firm for a iong time against the Senate and disagreements will be report ed to each house once, if not several times. The Senate, however has a habit of insisting that it's conferces stand out while the House ordinarily gets tired af- ter a struggle, and no mater how the conferees may plead, finally instructs demand. Thls would seem to be the probable result this time but the House is unusually firm just now If the House does not yield the prospest is for the failure CT the reduction bill this ses- sion.
The age-herald., 1901-02-15
Indiscriminate LeuisIation.

The veto of the Country Club bill goes to show that Governor Sanford intends to put an end to careless and thoughtless legislation. It is plain that he does not propose to sign bill un- less he knows what is in it-what it's effect will be-what it's consonance with the constitution is. He has call ed very distinct and positive halt in all loose-jointed legislation.
 There are probably scores of other charters outstanding that are open to all the objections named in the veto message. Ana some of these charters are held and enjoyed by people who lack tne standing and the good inten- tions of the Country Club. But how ever held, it is plain tnere are to be no more of such charters or of any other ill-considered legislation. This is a distinct gain, and it is gain that will inure to the benefit of the State
 The members of the Country Club do not deserve blame in any respect. No social organization is conducted on a higher plane. It is a commendable in stitution in every respect, but the bill presented by it's. friends was much too large and liberal in it's scope, and it was open to constitutional objections.
The age-herald., 1901-02-15

mon schools. Such books are now used because children have them in their homes, handed down from former gem 'erations," or can buy them cheap at the second hand book stores and because teachers who studied them as pupils find it less laborious to use them in their classes
 ?. A change of teachers or the moving of the family to another neighborhood will work less harm to pupils, if our schools are using the same text books. Tn this part of the State, where people are constantly moving from place to place, a uniform series of books will he a great convenience to pupil and teacher as well as saving to the parent. Classi- flcation will be easier and progress more uniform and rapid.
 For these reasons, I contend that aside from the matter of expense, the interests of the pupils of our public schools demand a uniform series of text books for the State. JOSEPH M. DILL,
 New Castle, Ala Icahrt1arv 1g01
The age-herald., 1901-02-15
Rivers and Harbors Jill.

The chances af the passage of rivers and harbors bill this session grow daily less. The House bill was overladen with appropriations, the aggregate provided for being over sixty millions and the Senate commerce committee has already added over fifteen millions to it. total approaching eighty millions is regarded, even by the strongest advocates of public works, as unnecessarily extravagant. Then the commerce committee Is in se- rious disagreement regarding this bill The fight In committee is certainly not partisan, but each Senator Is trying to see that his rtate is not neglected. Just at present there is no prospect that the committee can agree upon the bill As the bill came from the House it was un- satisfactory to most members of the committee, and the additions. already made to it do not seem to have made 1t any more popular.
 Undoubtedly the bill has been held back
The age-herald., 1901-02-15
Aiabama's Oldest Preacher.

Some information from Athens, Ga., which appeared especially in the Atlanta Journal of last Wednesday, is of inter- est to a great many Alabamians, since it concerns the oldest preacher and oldest Methodist in Alabama, one well on toward his rounded century. A year or two ago there appeared in this place much gossip relating to the Rev. Dr. Mitchell, the venerable preacher and schoolmaster of Dallas County. Referring to the University of Georgia, a dispatch from Athens to the Journal says:
 'Mr. Archilus Mitchell of Summerfield Ala. is the oldest living alumnus of the university. He is 9S years old and gradu- ated in 1928. In writing to his nephew, Judge A. L. Mitchell, he says it is his in- tention to be present at the centennial commencement of tho university, and that he expects also to have some inter- esting historical facts in connection with the university at this time."
 This veteran is the Rev. Dr. Mitchell hereinbefore referred to, one of the very oldest and most honored of all Alabam- ians. He has taught school and for over seventy years preached, and has labored for the famous Methodist orphanage at Summerfield ever since it's foundation. He is a man of wonderful strength of char acter, noble intellect, noble heart, and is abundantly beloved by a great multitude of men and women who owe the peace and honor of beautiful lives to this great mans teaching And his mind is as clear now as ever it was.'
 Dr. Mitchell is the grandfather of MT. Fred M Jackson, the great developer and coalmaster of Birmingham, his mother, the wife of the widely known Dr. Jack son, having been born Mitchell. There are almost hundreds of good stories told on Dr. Mitchell, three or four of the best of which were repeated in this place sev- eral months ago.
The age-herald., 1901-02-15
THIS LEGISLATURE.

From the Athens (Ala.) Courier.
 As usual, the Legislature has given black eye to the newspaper fraternity of Alabama. They prefer to pander to the larger printing concerns that do business outside of the State than to foster and build up their own enterprises in the printing line in Alabama. If the news- papers were to do the correct thing they would see to it that the shortcomings of every man who opposed this just meas ure were exposed and published to the world that he might be forever retired from public life.
The age-herald., 1901-02-15
CLEON AND |.
Charles Mackay.

Charles Mackay. Cleon hath million acres: ne'er a one
 have l.; Cleon dweileth in palace, in cottage I; Cleon hath dozen fortunes, not a pen
 ny I; Yet the poorer of the twain is Cleon, and
 not l. Cleon, true, possesseth acres, but the
 landscape |; Half the charms to me it yieldeth money
 cannot buy. Cleon harbors sloth and dullness, fresh-
 ing Nigor 1; He in velvet, in fustian, richer man Cleon is a slave to grandeur, free as
 thought am l.; Cleon fees a score of doctors, need of
 none have I; Wealth-surrounded, care-environed, Cleon
 fears to die; Death may come; he'll find me ready
 happier man am l. Cleon sees no charms in nature, in a dali
 sy I; Cleon hears no anthems ringing in the
 sea and sky; Nature sings to me forever, earnest ns-
 ytener I: VA State for state, with all attendants. who K would change? NotI.
The age-herald., 1901-02-15
GENERAL WHEELER.
from the Nashville Banner.

Y INdSHV1lIt
 The report that Gen. Joseph Wheeler proposes to seek an election to Congress again from his old district does the Gen. eral injustice if 1t is not true, and does not especially commend him if 1t is true. General Wheeler held on to his Congress sional office an inordinately long time while enjoying new honors in the military field, and it would seem the proper thing for him to do to leave Congressional hon. ors to others, unless he be constrained by an overwhelming public pressure to again become candidate. He should not push himself forward for Congress.