The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-27

! SV uo SO. ne SentleulAHs to ny iclt' | (DP. Winn) and MT. Greer and Mir. Opp. asked me specially to withdraw SO
 that they can speak. If that is in order
 l am willing to do 1t.
 | The President-The gentleman from | Washington can withdraw his motion MT. Palmer7-For those three men. if
 they will renew 1t. I think every man
 in the House has his mind made up on | this matter.
 MT. Bulger-I rise to a point of or l der. The gentleman from Washington
 has the power to withdraw the motion
 to lay cn the table. but he has not the | power to say who shall or shall not | speak on the subject.
 | The President-The point is well l taken.
 The delegate from Washington with
 drew his motion to table.
 MT. Winn-I rise to support the
 amendment of the gentleman from Pike. | l shall have to do this in the manner l I am accustomed to doing in my pro- | tession. I know of but one way to
 examine a question. It is Ike exam i ming a patient that Is wounded. The | first thing you must do where there
 is serious sickness Is to remove all the clothing and get next to your patient.
 There have been great many dress
 ings of eloquence put on this but 1t
 has all been in the line of obscur.ng | the question that Is involved in this. | Those who have opposed the amend ment have consistently discussed, what will be the effects on these communi- | ties and schools that have benefited | by the tax If we withdraw it? That | is not the question. The question is | simply one of justice. Is the tax just. | Let us look at it and see who it taxes
 It taxes simply one class of the citizen-
 ship of the State. The tax Is imposed directly and only upon the farming in- | terests of the country. Nobody else. 1 And what becomes of the money? Is
 it expended solely in the interest of | the farmer? Not at all. No one has | coiltended that is true. Is 1t expended 1 for the good of the public generally. | Now here are $96,000 this year. l got | this memorandum from the Depart
 ment of Agriculture. The expense of the Agricultural Department according
 to the statement of that Department,
 $96, 900, That leaves $87, 900 to be heard from. Now let us see what becomes of that. Twenty-seven thousand live hun-
 dred dellars goes to the Agricultural | Schools, these nine wonderful schools | we hear of The gentleman from
 Washington told us what a wonderful
 school one of them was. He visited 1t.
 Then where is the balance of this
 money? Sixteen thousand dollars goes
 to the Agricultural and Mechanicai | College at Auburn. That leaves $4S 300. | What becomes of that? Converted into | a general fund. What position does that put the farmer in? It is simply
 collecting that much more tax, ss6 oOO' | out of him as class than you collect l out of the balance of the citizenship | of this State. Is that just? My friend from Henry has been accustomed to being gouged in this way So long that he simply begs the question oy sayins. | Don't gouge So much" That IS not right. If they have the right, if 1t is | inst that they can collect 10 cents | ion on fertilizers from us then If they need 1t they can take 50 cents or $1 l or any other amount. Remember that | all this time the farmer shtrks notn- | ing. There is nothing that he has that 1 is not listed and taxed as every other | citizen in the State. Then, why III the
 name of justice and common sense can vou turn upon the farmer and tax him | out of $96, 900 more? I cannot under | stand how 1t ever was done. There IS | certainly no semblance of justice or equity in this. and if I understand any | thing about the laws upon the oasls oL | which Alabama is grounded they are 1 equal justice and equal taxation 10 eV erv man and every citizen regardless oI | what his vocation in life Is. Is it pos
 sible that the proceeds, the wonaerIul l income and wonderful profits from az | riculture in this State so far exceed those of any other avocation in the | state that it is just? Is that where
 ycu get your justice? That Is not the | record of the farmers. With the vast majority of them. it Is a struggle frorp | veal to year to support their famlIles | In very Tumble way And l tell ycu if is not the struggling farmers mat get the bulk of the benent or these agricuItural schools, not a bit or It. If is that class of men who are able to send their children off to school and pay their bills
 Now some of the poor fellows who bannen to live close to the school house
 may be benefited some, but as gen eral thing it Is the class that IS oetter able to educate their children that IS enjoying the advantage Of thls uhJus' tax. tails us if is the negro mainly that pays
 ths tag tax.
 MT. Graham CTalladega)-1 said he paid a large part of 1t.
 MT. Winn-I stand corrected. And the gentleman said that he would stand | here always and see that the negro was not confined to the amount of tax he paid in for school purposes. Now l nropose to stand here always and see, | if that negro pays that tax, that he shall be treated more justly than he has been Treat the negro with jus 1 tice. take that tax off. Is not he poor hard working servant? Are you going to tax him with it because he ie negro and then stand up and say you will stay here always before he shall be confined for his education to the taxes that he pays into the State? Be l just before you are generous.
 The gentleman further says we gre ! under contract with these district schools Be just by all means and keep these contracts. On whose money?
 Money wrenched from the farmer un-
 justly. He says you would not tear down these schools. No. I would not tear them down, but if l have to keep
 them Up by an unjust ax upon a'y
 people of this State, then I say let
 them 20. We are not discussing wha-
 would be the result of doing an aat of
 justice. That is the question and let
 results take care of themselves. That
 Is our duty. We have the power and
 we have the means to support and sus- tain all the schools in this State of
 whatever character we determine to
 maintain, and to hesitate. to halt for
 one moment in doing this simple act
 of justice to the farmer is something I cannot comprehend. They say let this
 continue don't raise any disturbance. FT,A- ,f