The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-19
A UNION MEETING.
Three Departments Held Interesting
 Session.

Session. The departments of elementary. sec ondary and college education combined l in a union meeting in the chapel of the Girls High School at 3 o'clock yester- day afternoon.
 Prof. c. c. Thach of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn presided as chairman and Superintendent Il. C.. Gilbert of the Florence City Schools was secretary. About one hundred and fifty teachers were present The pa pers were all good and the discussions animated.
 President Thach announced that all papers bearing on local taxation would be postponed until this afternoon at 4:30 o'clock.
 Professor Thach delivered an inter esting and instructive address upon "The Educational Outlook of the South."
 Professor Thach rapidly sketched the state of public education in the United States in 1899. Sixteen million pupils, he said, were under the instruction of the State and Federal Governments in that year, at an expense of over $780, O00, ,000. The population of the South in the last two and a half decades had increased 54 per cent, while the school population had increased over 130 per cent. Since the war over $1OO,OOO,OOO had been expended by the Southern States upon the education of the negro.
 In Alabama the enrolment of pupils in the public schools had increased steadily. In 1870. this enrolment had been Al, ,312; in 1S96-7, 9,526; in 1899, 433. .733, The last enrolment amounted to 6S per cent of the entire school pop ulation of the State. And yet, Ala bama is nearly the most illiterate State in the Union. It is very nearly at the foot of the ladder in intelligence, IS per cent of It's white population and 69 per cent of it's black population being un- able to read.
 The following significant figures were quoted from the recent Federal Edu- cational Report:
 Expenditure in 1898 for common schools: Massachusetts, 1865, ,649; Ala bama. about 1000, 900; Tennessee, $1,- 6O0, ,OOO; Georgia, s1,75s,o0O Mississippi, $1, 1,165, ,0OO
 Expenditures for higher education- Technical Colleges:
 Auburn-TotaI annual income, in- cluding tuitions, incidental charges, etc. $67 900; State aid. $6,4S2.
 Armour Institute Technology (chi- cago, $125,000.
 Cornell, S6S0,22S.
 Lehigh (Penn.), $110,000.
 Massachusetts Institute Technology, $347. .576
 Michigan Agricultural College, $780, VI; Purdue dndian). s1SS.Os7; State aid. $6S. .15O. =:
 Ohio University and Polytechnic In- stitute, $268, ,006; State aid, $176,05S.
 Stevens Institute Technology. $194,OO0. Southern Colleges.
 Clemson (S. O A. and M. College, Ss7. 900: State aid, $57,O00.
 Mississippi A and NJ. College, $66.115.
 Texas Polytechnic Institute, $S5, 5,126; State aid, $1500O.
 Tennessee University and A. and M. College), $SS,S59.
 University of California, $4S5,00O.
 University of Illihois, $379.2S4.
 University of Chicago. s499173.
 University of Iowa, $151, 300.
 University of Kansas, $126.00O
 University of Harvard, $1,234,740.
 University of Michigan, $IS1.S52.
 University of Missouri, $171,s2l.
 University of Nebraska, s199.25O.
 University of Wisconsin. S379,S00.
 University of Minnesota. $373. .451.
 University of Alabama. $50. 900.
 The speaker closed with an earnest |