The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-20

of education to abandon legislative sub. | terfuges. and to try amendments to ths IConstltution. The Birmingham amend
 ment and the Hundley Amendment were successively submitted, and. all
 though no apparent opposition was en- countered by either. they failed to re- ceive the majority of the whole mum. | Der of votes cast for the legislative
 ticket. Other expedients have been | tried from time to time, but all have
 proved abortive--all have succumbed to the blighting power of & State Consti- tuition which inhfbits educational prog- ress and development, by denying ia
 the people of every community, in their organized capacity, the right to main- tain a public school--the one essential
 of modern government--the one condi- tion of enlightened citizenship.
 The subject assigned to me by the committee Is therefore an old one in this association. and shall confine myself to a restatement of facts al-
 ready familiar to most of my hearers. The term Local Option as gener-
 ally used. has a definite significance,
 It is almost exclusively associated with
 the so-cailed privilege granted a lim-
 tied district. or a minor political di-
 vision. to control the traffic in intoxi-
 cants within It's borders. Local option.
 as thus defined, is based upon two es-
 ssntial facts, recognized as funda-
 mental principles in democratic gov ernment:
 "First-The right of local self-goy- ernment. not merely in name. but in fact. That the people have an inherent right to govern themselves is the fun damentai assumption of our theory of government. This assumption involves the right of the majority to control in purely local affairs, directly, without the interpretation of the representative system.
 ''Second-Local option involves the further principle that the diversity of conditions in the varioifs localities of the State. may render restriction that is desirable in one community. a posi- tive injustice in another community, where the conditions are different.
 The application of local option to school maintenance requires the con- sideration of these two principles. Lo- cal self-governmet is admittedly a righ~ inherlng in the people, it is fun damental to our entire fabric of gov- ernnent. and ante-dates all eonstitu- tions. The recognized units of govern ment are the State. the county and the district, or the city. The distribution of the functions of government should pS sucH aS to leaVe the smaller units untrammeled. except as to matters af- fecting the larger units. The theory that the State has right to interfere in the local affairs of the county. the city and the district. because these mil nor divisions are created by the State, is calculated to suppress spontaneous development, to check local initiative and to reduce all the communities Of the State to one dead level of uniform ity. t-,.
 People Bread Taxation.
 ''It Is natural that the people of AL abama should have a wholesome dread of taxation. The burnt child always dreads the fire. In despotic govern ments. taxation has been. used almost invariably as an instrument of oppres- sion and injustice. Those who were taxed were not consulted as to the pur- pose or the amount of the taxes lev jed. and the revenues thus raised were rsed to gratify the ambitions of the strong and to cypress and ensIave the