The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-15

children has ceased to exist. NOW tp9 intent and purpose is to make the prop erty of the State educate the ehudreu of the State. That is the policy. buS let us provide for the necessary expen- ditures to run our S.atc G0veFnment, and to meet and provide for those char- ities that are overwhelming In their claims. In any event, let them all De provided for. and then let your Legfs- iature, consisting of patriots and men who desire to see our educational irl- stitutions flourish, provide for our schools, and point to the record of the Legislature on that subject for vindication of it's action and point the people to 1t. to which they can 1ustiy look with the expectation Of having every dollar, that can be spared from other necessary and indispensable ap- propriations, to run the schools, and would prefer to any amendment that has been offered, the provision in the present Constitution thae fixes the ni1- imum. If you want to, fix minimum a little higher than that, but # don't seem from legislative action in the past to be necessary. as they always appro- priate all the money that can be spared over and above the necessary expenses. to these public schools. That is safe. That is wise. That is proper basis upon which this Convention ought To act, In my judgment.
 Mir. Bulger-Mr. President, I have been very much interested In many of the articles that have been adopted by this Convention, but I am free to con- fess that am more interested In this one than in any of them. I like the latter part of the amendment offered by the gentleman from LauderdAle. be- cause 1t protects the honor of the State. We are all agreed on one proposition. and that is that the prosperity and well fare of our governmental institutions depends upon the intelligence and in- tegrity of our people. IL Is the expe. rience of all the States of the Union that the appropriation from the Treas ury for the support of the public schools is money we'll spent. We are all agreed on that proposition. Then the question with which we are confrorit- ed Is ways and means. How shall it be done?
 If this appropriation remains in the Constitution, 1t will be q realisation and guarantee to the people of Alabsma, ir: ny humble judgment of their fond est hopes. If f. is stricken out 1t will carry disappointment and depression to the people of the State. This Commit- tee IS composed of nineteen conserva- liNC anu EtHtiCUiCHs tA~y come from every section of this State. They have spent sixty days in thorough investigation of this question, and they stand united. They stsnd unanimous for this part of this report that leaves the three mills in the Constitution for the support of the schools. It Is urged that it is not proper subject to be in the Constitution that 1t properly belongs to the Legislature. l am surprised at some of the gentlemen who argued that way. and yet yet am gratihed, even at this late hour. that they have some confidence left in the Legislature. have faith in this Convention, the rep resentatives of the people, and so far as have seen. I desire to say that this Convention is superior to the Leglsla- ture in only one particular, and that is numbers.
 Now should it be left in the Consti- tuition is the question? We only disa- gree as to whether 1t should be put in the fundamental law of the State, or whether it should be left to the wisdom of the Legislature. We have precedent, gentlemen, to leave it In the constitu- tion. The fathers that made the Consti- tuition of 1875 put it in the Constitution. It is now in the old Constitution, that we are revising and amending. and I fail to hear any gentleman give any reason that Is plausible why we should strike 1t out in this day of progress and educational interest in Alabama. Now is 1t too much? The appropria- tion now, under the law of this State, Is $1,100,000 to the public school fund. We have $550,000 appropriation out of the general fund. We have $e5o. 900 which is appropriated under the one mill ia NVn oR kn. and then we have the Sixteenth Sec tion fund of about s1sO0Oo. which makes N,100,000. The people of Alabama are interested. 1t is true, In the suffrage question, but If you will go among the people in the country. you will ind that they are no less interested in the well fare of the schools in which they must of necessity educate their children. Now is 1t safe to leave th!s appropria- ton in the Constitution? Is there a possibility of the panic that my friend from Montgomery ((Mr. Oates) suggests. The taxable values of this. S:ats from 1875, when the old Constttu- ton was made. until 1901. when the new Constitution is made. has more than doubled. and in the past four years, since 1S96, $2i,000,000 have been added 10 the tax value of our State. I sub init, my friends, that 1t Is unnecessary alarm that these gentlemen sound to this Convection. believe that the taxable values in the next twenty-five years will increase much more rapidly than they have in the past twenty-five years. 1 have faith In the Judgment and the foresight of my distinguished friend from Randolph, (Mr. Handiey), and he says 1t is so.
 Now this is like appropriatng the surplus in the Treasury to the support or the common schools in the state. The history of the finances Of Alabama for twenty-five years has shown. that with the present rate of taxation. we are doing nothing more nor less than appropriating the surplus in the treasury to the support of the public schools in the State. Last year on the 3Oth of September we had about Il half million dollar surplus in the treasury. That does not look like a scarcity of money. notwithstanding the extravaganza of the legislature two years ago, that made more appropria- tons out of the treasury than any legislature since the war, except the one of last year. Those appropriations were met and paid off promptly, and still when they wound up on the s0th of September. 1900, they lad a half a million dollar surplus in the treasury.
 ]. for one, am opposed to its lying there. l am in favor as early as poS- sible, of payiES h out, to what I con- ceive to be the most laudable purpose
 that can be imagined. to the support of the public schools in the State, The Asylum at Tuscaloosa Is In no dan- ger They get all the money they need