The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-30

tion recently. the reduction of the tag tax upon fertilizers. and argument was made against the adoption of that pro vision, that it was one that should be cared for by the General Assembly. Ac- cording to my recollection, the chair man of the committee who now offers this reduction, stated in an argument against 1t, that if he was a member Of the General Assembly, he would vote for the reduction, saying he was in sympathy with the movement. but took the position that 1t was matter that should not be incorporated in Const- tuition, but should be relegated to the General Assembly for action. You were told upon that occasion, by member of the General Assembly, that a bill passed the lower House at It's last session, looking to reduction or the tag tax, but it died in the Senate. We'll. gentlemen, in this estimate that is furnished by the Committee on Taxa tion, $75, 900 is placed as coming into the Treasury annually from this tag tax; $20,000 from the sale of school lands, and I state it to be a fact that the General Assembly and Governor John ston raked this State with fine tooth comb to find things upon which they e uld place a license tax, in order to meet the requirements of the State. Well. gentlemen, if we are to have a tax. let it be a direct tax that a man can see, rather than an indirect tax about which he may not be so we'll ln- formed.
 Now, MT. President, believing as I do. that there was danger ahead, voted against the reduction of this tax, by the Constitution, to six and one half mills, but out of respect to the opinion of many gentlemen who are on that committee, and who believe that re- duction can be had, I have introduced this resolution, that the tax limit shall be seven mills instead of seven and half. So far as the latter part of the amendment which I have offered Is concerned, will not discuss it, because whether We fix the limit at six and a half mills or whether 1t be fixed at seven mills, I am satisfied that every member of this Convention would de- sire to require the General Assembly to set aside, out of the taxes levied. a sufficient amount of money to meet the interest accruing upon the bonded in- debtedness of the State of Alabama.
 MT. Malone-Mr. President. I wish to say a few words against the amend ment. wish to state from prac- tical business standpoint. and as school man. do not think any gentle man on this floor has done more for the common schools than have. l be- lieve that I am as familiar with their needs and their requirements as any one. I have been not only on the Board of Trustees of the city schools. but the country schools as well. wish to speak, not as coming from county or from section of the coun- try that possibly would be affected iess hxy hf0I1nr vat of faxattnn hIlf [ wish to discuss 1t from practically the same point that the gentleman from Talla- dega Mir. Graham. discussed 1t.
 As I understand the working of the sixty-five cent rate I believe 1t will give more money to the common schools of the country than under the seventy-five cent plan. If I did not believe that I certainly would not fa- vor it. Under the proposition submit ted to Us by the Committee on Taxa tion, there may be a provision in the article on taxation, do not know whether 1t will carry or not, and do not wish to be considered as favoring it in it's entirety. but I believe on a sixty-five cent rate, that possibly we would be allowed the ten cents under the working of that proposition. the entire ten cents if adopted to be de- voted to the school fund. My county would not be affected, because we would work it out and we would get just as much one way as the other, but wish to rise above local position. Ten cents on the hundred of course would bring more in some counties, but 1t Is preposterous to suppose that the entire ten cents paid into the State fund will find it's way back into the school fund. I was inclined to oprose xuvftH gating 1t, upon the ground that I was not familiar with the figures, but I am assured by member of the sub committee, who is practical business man, that he has maze a careful in- veetigation of the facts, as fully as he would upon any business proposition coming before him, and that there would be a margin at sixty-five cents of nearly ten cents to cover any def1- ciency. He assures me that 1t would actually be safe to reduce it half as much more, but this additional amount is left to cover any danger.
 Now I will not argue 1t except right square out on the school question. I come from a county, from a section. that has more children than any sec ton of the State in the counties west of here, where triplets are born, and it Is almost an exception there are not twins in the family. Therefore we get more money out of 1t than anybody else. We are interested in fl, but so far ss the schools are concerned, am as confident as anything in the world that this will put the money into the schools When it gets into the Legis- lature, some of 1t will go there, and some will not go there.
 But the practical workings of it are what I propose to consider. The spe- cial taxation, if adopted in a proper form. will lead to an increased assess ment of values. There is no question about that. I will not argue that long CT. Nobody will deny that when we get to values at home, we will bring are not interested in them. The gen. tleman who gives me these figures Is from a community that voluntarily allows itself to be taxed, and the tax ia paid without protest, 25 cents on the $100 for school purposes when only protest would prevent the tax from being collected. That shows he is not prejudiced against schools but Is look ing at 1t from the standpoint of a cool business proposition. Now as to our promises I propose to stand by the promises we made not only because we made them but because they are right and I still insist that every one oi them is right. It was demanded of us to do something for the schools, 1 mean the common public schools that the people of a community are obliged to go to. The larger schools will take care of themselves and there is no use