The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-02
GOVERNOR URGES LECISL AZURE < TO ADDRESS ITSELF TO MATTERS
 WHICH CANNOT WAIT FOUR YEARS

1 the loss will not be so great A decent farm, however, with the same help, wisely managed, would have made money for the State in any one of the years | named.
 The cost of such a place as the State needs and Its permanent equipment, hav- ing a capacity for the care of maybe thousand convicts would require the ex- penditure of very large sum of money, but l have a fixed belief that such an expenditure would be cheap if in order | to make the change the State even had to give away the present separated properties. If you care to. you might authorize the appointment of the chair man of your respective committees on agriculture or any other committee of farmers to investigate the character of the States holdings and advise you. take 1t no member of any committee you would appoint would himself undertake under conditions which confront the State on his own account, to occupy and cultivate these divided lands.
 The Public Schools.
 Some radical changes can be profitab.y made in our present school methods. The old towlehip lines should no longer necessarily furnish boundaries for school districts. They do not furnish such boundaries in any other State. A more natural method would be one based on centers of population and natural bar riers. The redlstricting of the counties might be advantageously left to county school boards, which will be proposed. and they would be able to place per manent school within less than three miles of every child in the State, at the same time greatly reducing the number of schools. securing more effective teach CTS at better salaries and for longer terms. MT. Superintendent Hill will. probably have before you bill providing this and other radical changes. I give my hearty support to the measure to be proposed. l am sure you will be greatly interested in the effort to secure for our boys and girls the most efficient use of every dollar of the States meagre a!lot- ment.
 You will be called upon to make a formal appropriation for the public schools. The three mill tax rate, pro- vided by the Constitution and the laws, while collectable this winter, will not be available for distribution until the be- ginning of the fiscal year. October, 1904 The schools have been getting one mill special, and s55o.0o0 out of the general fund. The special is effective the first of the coming October, and you will be
  900.
 I renew a suggestion made to you be- fore, looking to placing the agricultural schools of the State under one board, which would Insure each of them the same curriculum and provide similar agricultural requirements while avoiding local troubles so fruitful of disouganiza- ton in the past. The same treatment would be good for the Normal Schools.
 t,.,srA aN1.- Ls ing the question of primaries and cleo tions. am not thoroughly familiar with it's provisions. but it's passage or the pas- sage of some other like measure is im- perative. The subject of a primary should not be less comprehensively treated than the election itself. I am certain you will give both propositions the attention they demand. You will not have matter before you of greater im- portance.
 The Textbook Act.
 I appointed under the authority of the act to create a Text Book Commission, John w. Abercrombie. President of the State University; Charles c. Thach, President of the Alabama Polytechnic In- stitute and F. M. Peterson. President of the Industrial School for Girls who, with Superintendent Hill and myself, made up the Commission. On the sub-Commission, I appointed J. H. Phillips. Superintendent of the City Schools of Birmingham; M. c. Wilson, President of the Florence Normal School; H. J. Willingham, Presi- dent of the Fifth District Agricultural School; J. H. Foster of the Tuscaloosa Schools and W. w. Benson of Fort Deposit. Nine of the men making up the commission and the sub-commission were experienced teachers. The commis- sion and the sub-commission were in ses. sion. together and apart. several weeks Besides the labor of the session, each member was called upon and did perform prodigious amount of work at home.
 have issued proclamation, called for by the statute, embracing the result of their labors. I think the State has req son to congratulate itself. The hooks were selected without regard to the price at which they were offered. The commits sion was unanimous in the determination to adopt the best obtainable text books as the children of Alabama cannot afford an inferior book at any price. The read mess with which the cities of the State agreed to the adoption is proof that they met the endorsement of the leading teach CTS. The cities. under the statute, might have made application for relief from it's operation, but I believe no one lid so. Several asked the indulgence of the com mission. in order that they might pre- pare their classes for some of the changes. This was readily granted to fol- low an understanding to be had with the Superintendent of Education. They. are at liberty under this indulgence. for a year. to use books at some variance from the general order.
 A Saving to Pupils.
 I am sure that the books adopted are a material advance in every way on the character of those now in use. hardly think any certain school can be injured, and it is certain the vast majority will be unified by the change.
 While the best books, in the opinion of the Commission. were selected. we did not neglect to secure them at the lowest possible price. I have no hesitancy in saying that the saving in cash will amount to at least 40 per cent on the av- craze price heretofore paid. This means much to all of our people and will be a special relief to the poorer classes. Be- sides this large saving the additional and great loss growing out of constant changes are avoided as well as the an- noyance which the changes provoke. You may feel assured that the children of the State will be uplifted by the operation of the law and the burdens of their par ents made materially lighter.
 I might express here the appreciation feel for my co-laborers in this work. The nine teachers gave 1t about sixty days of the most strenuous of their lives and did it with a patriotic devotion and a sin gleness of purpose worthy of all praise.