The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-29
vx~w~eue.~xxx ywsxs
Letters to The Editor.
For Bstter School Houses.

S& NSWtb2k 9CAV0A A&SsS1Ss H.7a Editor The Adsertisep: e
 nave read with much interest your editorial in The Advertiser of the End on
 The Day of New Court Houses. In which you quote The Birmingham News as saying, there is now going on the building of new court houses in one-sixth of the counties of Alabama at an ex- pensc of half million dollars"
 Again you say. Our exchanges bring jails. building. or in contemplation. in all portions of the State. and we are proud of it: Few things add more to the at- tractiveness of q town than handsome public buildings" meaning court houses and tails, of course.
 Now am not objecting to good court houses and jails. but I am of the opin- ion that in some cases fairly good court houses are being torn down. or abandoned because 1t Is getting to be kind of fad to have fine court houses and jaiis. and when one county builds new Court House and jail. the adjoining counties must build them. too, or be stigmatized as non-progressive. Really this spirit of emulation Is commendable and am glad to see 1t, but have been thinking of one sixth of the counties Of the State, which Is eleven counties, spending half million dollars for court houses alone, without the jails, and eleven tails would cost hundred thousand dollars more.
 That would be s54,5i5 to each county, which would build one hundred school houses at cost of so45 each in each county, and in the eleven counties 1t would build eleven hundred school houses and in the whole State at the same rate of taxation 1t would build 6,60o comfort able school houses.
 Now. as an investment for the public good. which would be the better, eleven court houses and jais or eleven hundred co nfortable school houses?
 Many. nay, may say, most Of the rural school houses in the State are inadeouate, uncomfortable. .unequipped makeshifts. In such school houses the children of the State, whose parents build fine court houses. are expected to attend school five or six months in the year; many of whom never see Court House or jail until they come to their majority, and some of them see them for the first time when they are graduated from the miserable school houses as criminals, into the court houses and jails.
 Could not the same authority that al- lows the people to tax themselves to build fine court houses and jails, allow them to tax themselves to build school houses, where their children can be taught to shun court houses and jails? By being taxed to build school houses the people get the benefit of their taxes at their own homes in the intelligence, education and refinement of their children who will. in few more years. be the citizens and taxpayers of the State.
 Judges have great influence in promot- ing the building of court houses and tails, and in some cases they exert that infiu- to exert even more influence to build school houses for the purpose of so ele- vating the coming citizenship of the State, that it will not be satisfied with inferior public buildings?
 As 1t now Is, judges, county officials and newspapers press the matter of fine court houses and jails. As 1t should be. if the people were educated, they would demand these creditabe public buildings.
 The State proposes to appropriate $J0,000 for school houses for the whole State, less than one county is spending for court houses and jails, but as condition precedent, requires the people of the State to donate by private subscription to the State $50,000. In order to get the $50,000 appropriation, but it allows eleven coun- ties to use from taxes $600000 to build court houses and jails, and does not de- mand a single dollar of private contribu- ton to get it. Is that good statesman ship? Why not allow them to build school houses in the same way they build court houses and jails? Are they not as necessary? There Is an old saying that ''an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" By educating and preventing crime the demand for curing 1t will be diminished.
 I want to be understood as not oppos- ing good court houses and jails. for they are necessary but I am using the fact that so much public money Is being used in building these court houses and jalls as an object lesson to beget greater spirit of liberality in building the more necessary buildings for the education of the people for which not a cent of public money has yet been expended in the rural districts.
 do not know of public country school house in the State built by State or coun- ty funds, and under the control of public officials If there are such building l would be glad to be informed of their location and when they were built.
 There has been a marked improvement in school buildings in Escambia County in the last four years owing to the provisions of our local school system and a number of these are deeded to County Board of Education as county school property, but they are outright donations to the county by the citizens of their re- spective districts, and not a dollar of pub lie money was used in their erection. While these houses are much better than we have heretofore had, they are by no means as good as are needed. They are without suitable furniture and equip ments.
 The citizens of this county have asked that they be allowed to be taxed to build school houses. but they nave not been granted that privilege. They do not com plain at the local school tax, for they can see that they get back that tax Tn good schools, or better schools than they had before they paid such taxes. They would be equally willing to be taxed to build better school houses, and this Is the question we would like to have an- swered How are we to get public money l