The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-14
Johnston Bill Passed by
 Upper House.
Session Was Extended Until Late in the Afternoon--Mr. Smith With drew His Bill for coun-
 ty Uniformity.

Not a voice was raised in opposition when the vote came yesterday afternoon on Senator Johnston's uniform text book bill. The whole Senate was apparently a unit in it's favor. This state of things was perhaps surprising to many, but not to those who had closely watched the trend of events in the upper house during the past few days
 The fight against the measure, or rather,a the attempt to defeat 1t, was made in the morning session, and 1t was clear when this ended that the bill was going to be passed. The final vote was "A to Q. but the vote on an amendment, regarded as a Test of strength was IS to 15.
 When the vote came those who had been expected to oppose it, almost to man. were absent from the Senate cham ber. Senator Goldsby of Mobile Mor- row of Jefferson, Blachmon of Calhoun, Hall of Baldwin. Lynne of Morgan and Arlington of Coffee were among the absentees. Senator Rodgers of Sumter was present, but did not vote, being paired with Senator Blackmon. He ex- plained. however, that were he vdtng he would have favored the measure. Provisions of Bill.
 The bill as k was passed provides for uniform system of text books for the public schools of Alabama, and provides for the machinery with which to carry the law into effect. The original meas ure was considerably amended before 1t passed. but not one of the provisions ad- ded or eliminated weakened the force of the original in any respect, one amend ment. in fact. giving the bill greater strength than 1t had on being introduced. An amendment offered by Senator Smith and adopted forces uniformity in text books in the case of certain cities where graded schools are maintained, while the original bill left this to some extent discretionary with those cities The Text Book Commission fixed by the bill is to consist of the Governor, the State Superintendent of Education and three eminent educators to be named by the Governor.
 An interesting incident, and one which hastened the passage of Senator John ston's bill was the withdrawal by Sena- tor Smith of his bin providing for county uniformity in the matter of text books. This was done as soon as the amendment offered by the Senator from Clay making
 uniformity apply to all the public schools | of the State was adopted
 Senator Smith introduced his measure
 in order that in the event Senator John ston's bill should be defeated there might be some chance for county uniformity. | The withdrawal of Senator Smiths bill left the opposition nothing to fight for, nothing to oppose except uniformity it. self. and this was seen to be hopeless. The fight against the measure, if fight | 1t could be called, was made in the morn | ing session when the bill was called up for consideration by its author.
 Senator Goldsby of Mobile placed him.
 self on record against State uniformity
 in vigorous speech He was an ad- vocate of county uniformity in text books
 and as such supported the measure in- l troduced by Senator Smith The session was opened with prayer by | Rev. O. A. Stakely of Montgomery. Twenty-nine members were present, Sena- l tors Morrow and Jones being given leave | of absence.
 l The call by districts brought half a dozen new bills. Nine previously present. | ed were reported favorably and sent to I the calendar. f
 Girls School Appropriation.
 The special order of the morning ses- sion was Senator Divers bill providing
 for an appropriation of &1D,OOO to defray
 the expenses for the current year of the Girls Industrial School at Montevallp.
 This was 8 substitute for another bill
 that had been introduced some time be-
 fore carrying an appropriation of 25.DO0 for the same purpose, but since it was found that the general appropriation bill
 had provided a grant of S15,000 for the
 school the committee decided to ask for
 only $10.OO0 in the special appropriation.
 The substitute as reported by the com
 mittee met the approval of all members
 of the upper house present, with the ex- ception of Senators Arlington of Coffee and Bullock of Franklin
 There was practically no debate, the
 speeches. and there were many. being ai- most wholly in favor of the appropriation
 asked for, and commenting the work
 that was being done by the school in question.
 Among the speakers were Senators Dunn of Clarke. Norman of Chambers
 Jones of Wilcox, Johnston of Tuscaloosa,
 Olivor of Shelby, Powell of Butler, Smith of Clay and Hogue of Perry.
 On reqnest of Senator Norwood oi
 Lowndes. Senate tiil 1e0 was called up
 It provides for the establishment of e dispensary in Lowndes County. The measure was passed without opposition
 Senator Arrington's bill authorizing tht
 issue of bonds by the town of Enterprise | he af okoA