The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-17

.sectjon -. After theeratiflcati0n of this Constitution there shall be paid out of the Treasury of this State at the lime and in the manner provided by law, the sum of not less than $36,0 900 per annum, as interest on the funds of the University of Alabama hereto fore converted into the Treasury, for the maintenance and support of sad institution; provided that the Trustees of said University at any time they may deem it proper for the best inter ests of the University may abolish the military system or reduce said system to a department of instruction, and that said action on the part of said Trustees shall not cause any diminu- ton of the amount oNthe annual inter- est payable out of the Treasury for the support and maintenance of said Uni versity.
 Mr.. Lomax-I desire to say to the Convention that the purpose of this Section is to fix in the Constitution the minimum income Of the |. University The Section provides that there shall be paid annually not less than $36,000. Under the law, as 1t stands today, the University receives and has received since 1896, $34, 900 from the State, $24.000 being the interest on the debt that the State acknowledges that 1t owes the
 
 in the annual appropriation bill since that year. making $34,o0O. and the pur- pose of thls amendment is to make 1t so that here after the University shall not have | to come to this Capitol every two years | CT every four years. as the case may be, | and beg and lobby for an appropriation
 of $1O,O00 in order to prevent two or three chairs of that institution from
 being destroyed by reason of the with | drawal of that appropriation. For sevI 1 enty years in Alabama the State Uni
 versity has been the shutAlc-corko pf legislation. anG the time has come, ,bas We believe who love the University,
 ttat it should be removed from that rosition and placed upon a. permanen.
 and firm foundation. I desire to ex-
 plain to this Convention, although
 most of them are perhaps familiar with | 1t, and do not ask this thing to be done on behalf of that institution of | charity. If any man will study the
 history of the University, the origin of its endowment, he will see at once that
 it ough: not to be the subject of leg
 islative caprice. When the State If
 Georgia ceded to the United States the
 territory of Mississippi, there was re-
 served in the act of cession one entire
 township of land to be devoted to the
 erection of a seminary of learning. | When tb,, State of Alabama was ad-
 mitted into the Union. the enabling act
 of Congress which permitted her ad-
 miseion, reserved not only the town | ship which the territorial grant had re- l served, but another township of land | to be devoted to the erection Of seminary of learning. Two entire town ships. seventy-tWo sections. In round numbers. forty-siS thousand acres of | land. were reserved for the establish Ident of what Is now the University of | Alabama. The State of Alabama. in | it's Constitution accepted this provi | sion of the act of Congress and pre- | scribed that two townships of land should be reserved for the establish ment of that institution and by an act of the Legislature thereafter. these lands were authorized to he sold at the price of $17 per acre. A simple call tula ton will show to thls Convention l that if that forty-six thousand acres of land had been sold at $l7 an acre (and
 much of it was sold tor .nors) there | would have been realized from that sale the enormous sum of seven hun dred thousand dollars. After that vas cone. after this land had been granted. after 1t had been reserved and the res ervation accepted by the people of this State and the attempt made to sell 1t. the men who bought the land, many of them, failed to meet their deferred payments. Under any rule of law which has ever existed, the payments | which had been made upon the land and the land itself would have reverted to the sellc~, hut under acts of the Leg islature of Alabama. those men who had purchased that land and had failed
 to make their payments. were excused from the payment of the deferred pay ments, an1 the laQd was authorized to be revaiued, and was revalued at $ an, acre, end more than $15o0 taken from the funds of the University.
 After that had been done; after this fund had been sealed down by that means, the State went into the bank ing business. It had no capital to es- tabish bank. It authorized books Of subscription to be opened n every prominent town in Alabama. and the people of Alabama refused 70 sub- scribe to the stock of that bank, but the State had the money Of the Uri- yersity in it's hands. and by the use of more than one hundred thousand dollars of the funds of the Unive 's.ty they established their bank. FJ" number of years that bank pr osp cred and grew rich. It earned .nore than l2 per cent. upon it's invested capital
 but by an act If the General Asse llhly of Alabama only per cent of shat what was earned by the bank was paid to the University and 6 per cent. of
 what was earned on the University money was charged to the credit and loss account of the bank.
 Mir. Fitts-I move that the time of the gentleman from Montgomery he eX- hour in all to make his argument, which will require some time.
 The President-lt Is moved that the time of the gentleman from Montgom- cry be extended twenty minutes.
 Upon d vote being taken the motion was carried.
 tMr, Lomax-Now, MT. President. I am not without authority in making that statement. 1 desire to say to this Convention that subsequently to the appointment of the commission % in- vestigate the condition of affairs be- tween the University anu the State. Dr. Wyman, the President of the UnNer- sity, rt gently found among some old
 papets in a deserted building in Tus- caIoosa a report of the President of the State bank, nnd that Gepnrt ,th3Ws (and 1 have a copy Of, 1t here) Saat during one of the years that hanK prospcreA and during several years prior to it's dissolution, while the funds of tiie University earned twelve per cent, only six per cent. of the amour. was paid to the trustees thereof. Tax