The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-18
Letters to The Editor.
Our Schools.
Unique. Ala, Jan. 15. 1908

Unique, Ala, Jan. 15. 1908 Editor The Advertiser:
 of the State. against an injustice that IS being largely practieed upon them. Teaching has been, and is. my life work and hold a Life Certificate in the State. In the school of which I am principal, We get exclusive of poll tax, under contract s2.S5 and am required to teach for five months, turning. no pupil away during that time. I am required to furnish an assistant for that amount. Now let our lawmakers figure Q little and they will find we get about t2 cents per month for each pupil, on an enroll ment of no pupils. That A2 cents per pupil is the public pap for two teachers. It is true our people held mass meeting and voted to supplement, prefersing that to public school with the amOdnt of money attainable. But here is the point Men who are beating their way when and wherever possible. are demanding as a right five months public school. These same parties refuse to pay a conting snt fee, or any supplement- under ,he pcO.ec- ton of the law. In my school some twenty pupils are forced on us in this way. The parents of the pupils gre able to pay somethin@ They positively re- fuse to do so, because they have found out the protection the law affords. Is this just! Does the State allow any of- ficial Of the State imposed upon in this way? Are our lawmakers, and mana gers of the public school Sys.e If the State, willing for the men and women who give their lives to thlS work, to be longer imposed upon? It Is unjust in the extreme thus to place the burden of educating the children of the roor and indigent upon the teachers of the State. Besides 1t is an affliction upon thoss who are willing and do suppl snent. They must pay moro in order to 'un the school for nine months. Give the same class of people protection under the law, and they will demand as right bread to cat, and clothes to wear. and free medical at tentlon. This sentiment to some extent result of pandering, on the part of poli- tieians, to the selfish whims If a selfish and unjust constituency. As caches We ask our State Superint aldent ard lew makers to see to 1t, during the present legislature that the law is so amended as to relieve us of this unjust advantage that Is taken of us. If the State desires to educate the children of poor who can not, or will not pay anything. why put that duty upon one class, the teachers who are poorly paid at best.
 Teacher.
 A Strange Coincidence.
 The public is aware that MT. Gilbert, the Secretary of the Commercial and ln- dustrlal Association was among the first to voice the ripeness of time for a ',C,ivic Federation" Promptly the business ap- peal was taken up by the church, and Rabbi Messing made The Advertiser lunl- nous with argument and related facts on the subject. The words of Rev. o. F. Gregory, MT. Wallace Screws, Mir. Rob ert Tyler and the joint efforts of these and associate gentlemen to crystaiize the widely pervasive ideas into a corporate body will be readily recalled, and al ready its shadow Is cast before and we catch glimpses of It's outlines which make us less forlorn.
 In the beginning of the agitation A htgomery woman described 1t In a personal letter to a distant friend, once a resident here, as her parents and grand parents before her had been. In complI- ance with the request of one of the gen tlemen active and prominent In this noble movement for civic betterment, to whom part of the reply was Aread extracts are here given-all going to show that neither tune nor distance has power to divorce a true heart from childhoods home. and that the wireless telegraphy of attuned souls Is even more wonderful than that which Marconi is establishing between two worlds. Alabamians when patriots. are like od-time Virginians-''they may breathe in distant States but they I've at home in the commonwealth where they were born
 She says: II notice call in The Ad- Nertiser of recent date for ladies and gentlemen 10 meet tn the office of Mir Gerald to organize for the purpose of looking after the poor of the city--then comes your call for Cemetery League what Montgomery needs, and needs bad ly is Civic Federation. subdivided into departments whose names will suggest the lines of work
 "I. Prevalent Department-Work. se- curing wood, coal. food, and colthes for the poor of the town, and putting them in the way Of finding employment.
 I'll. Park and Avenue pepartment- Work looking into ways and means for beautitying the city. The work done by The Advertiser last summer in ofSering prizes for the prettiest yards is just the incentive needed
 III. Cemetery Department--WorlS, car ing for the city of the dead.
 'lN Education Dcpartment-Work looking after the needs of ali city public schools, ~the;r heating ventilation and entire sanitary conditions. sdornment of walls with uie- lures whose sentiment should be uplifting