The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-17

ceed.
 Mir. Cofer-The suggestion I desire
 to make Is. that If this amount Is to
 be appropriated and paid to the Unt-
 versity, it ought to be credited uoon the indebtedness of the State to the University. There ought to De some
 time in the history of the State when
 the state could pay that indebt-
 edness. x
 Mir. Fif.s-wiil the gentleman per
 init question: A
 | MT. Cofer-No, sir, the gentleman
 moved the previous question and re- fused to withdraw 1t. and l decline tn yield.
 MT. Long (walker)-Will the gentle man from Cullman answer one oues- | tion? MT. Cofer-Yes, sir.
 MT: Long (Walker)--Did not the rep | resentatives of the University agree | on three hundred thousand dollar oa- | sis, and eight per cent, or twenty-four | thousand dollars per annum, and did | not they agree to that and has not u been agreed on as an honest and sat- isfactory settlement of the indebtedness of the State of Alabama of the deot | due by the State to the University? MT. Fitts-No they did not. MT. Long (Walker)--Yes. they dld' Mir. Cofer-Tney did. MT. President, | and upon that agreement made Dy me | State they have drawn out the im- | mepsc sum of million and eiSht | thousand dollars in interest upon this agreed indebtedness. heard tcur years ago the distinguished gentleman | from Tuscaloosa (Mr. Fitts) in she | Legislature
 Mir Long CWalker)-1s 1t not Tact that there are many men who were rich before the war who lost taelr slaves and property and never got any pay for them, and is 1t not fact that the State University for all of the funds that it surrendered to the State Of AL abarna agreed to an honest compro- mise after the war, upon a pasls or three hundred thousand dollars. upon which was to be paid eight per cent---- MT. Cofer-That is my understand ing of the history of the affair. Know I was a member of the Legislature in 1896 when Mir. Fitts attempted to force this indebtedness up to two millions of dollars. It was then resisted ana commission was formed, and as has been stated a majority of that com mission reported that the State was not indebted to the University single cent over ana aCDNe tlc dAioui-I 'ho" !" they acknowledged.
 But, MT. President, to go back to this "smalr' amount of direct appropria- tion that they state they have to come here md receive year by year, and compare it. with the number of stu dents at that school. and then com pare with the appropriation made for common schools and the number Of children in Alabama. and you will find that there is wide difference. There was appropriated. on the basis of two hundred ana fifty students attending that school, each year since 1896, my recollection Is the first year. twenty thousand dollars. and since that time it has been ten thousand dollars year At ten thousand dollars. there was appropriated forty dollars 70 each student attending the school. Take that in connection with the twenty-'our thousand dollars appropriated, ani it makes the immense sum of one hundred and for.y-four dollars a year for each student attending that school. You come here and talk about it's Icing so poor that three chairs in the Eniver- sity must not be filled If voI cut down this appropriation, when Tn fact it Is the richest concern In the State of Alabama. They have got lands so val uable that they will not sell them, ana yet you are talking about putting fixed appropriation in the fun ia,n ,ntal law of Alabama, a gratuitous d>nation of thousands of dollars, without the State having an opportunity to re- ceive any benefit from 1t in .iq lid ation of the debt, because they say thay are poverty stricken and the University must go down unless these appropria- tions are made.
 Mir. Cunningham (Jefferson)-Dce the gentleman from Cullman believe in a higher education for inc poor boys of the State?
 MT. Cofer-No. sir. I believe in g'v- ing the poor boys of the State an or portunity to go to the common schools ofthe State and obtain a good education and poor boy that Is worth anything with such an education will make a man of himself without going to the University of Alabama.
 Mir. Reese-I rise to a point of CY6er. The gentleman is making the children cry in the gallery. CLaughterO
 MT. Long (Walker)-I ask the geI,- tleman to yield a minute. My object in that is this. have not more recple in Alabama children to send to the vil- lage and country schools than t;:ere are to send their children to the State University to wear brass buttons, the only brass buttons we have sen in this country since the Yankies were here.
 The President-The time of tLe SeI.-