The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-06

bama, before the United States govern ment attacked it and drove 1t by ten per cent tax out of existence, founded directly and mainly on agricultural lands. I refer to the currency of private banks of issue commonly called state banks. The currency was largely responsible for the increase of farming lands 300 per cent in ten years, from 1850 to 1860. Con gress discriminated against every acre of farming land in Nebraska when it taxed the local currency out of cirou- lation and more than that, prohibited the national bank of issue from discountlng paper secured by land This new theory of finance does not so much injure the northern farming business for to it's sup port the pension money goes and tariff tax goes for disbursement and succor in time of trial. But the credit of the cotton states is founded on farming lands and their products. When this mighty government ignorantly or viciously re- nounces the natural relation between the cotton plantations and the credit inhe- rent, it does in it's might taboo the negro; drives him from his normal atti- tude toward society as d valuable cot- ton producer and invites him to vaga- bondism, crime and misery In town. One other illustration of the fiscal enor- mity of the southern situation. Business consists of three clements profit, interest and commissions. Under the influence Of 1 the Walker tariff of 1S46 the profits Of 1 cotton production remained with the pro- ducers Now, as l have shown, the l Dingley tariff collects revenue so far in excess of the wants of the government l that a few favored banks in the single emporium of New York receive from the surplus revenue, half as much cash on deposit without interest, as the total 1 assessed values of the state of Alabama. In this fact is further evidence of the discouragement of land owners in Ala bama to build costly negro cabins.
 Under the Walker tariff and in en- joyment of the numberless advantages Of local currency, the port of Mobile had an export commerce nine times as great as the port of Philadelphia. The ele- ments of interest and commission Ala | bama commerce remained in Alabama at Mobile and were returned to the land | The port of New Orleans had an export l trade more than one-third greater than l the port of New York What constitutes 1 the strength of New York as financial l center? The interest and commissions on commerce attracted there in great part by the destruction of state banks of issue and by other acts of partial legislation tending to concentrate there the banking l power.
 I am unable to demonstrate my faith by figures, but I have long suspected that the state of Alabama would have done a good business if, forty years ago she had resolved to pay the ten per cent tax on her private bank circulation anc maintained it. The debt commission oi 1876 reported that the assets of 1860 wer' $725, ,000. .OO0. In 1904 with double the popu lation the assets of all the people ar' less than half that great sum- It woul' have been worth more to the whites
 hnV fAra moi cent. on private bank currency to hav' kept up Mobile as a distributing center of our commerce.
 Professor Washington insists "nothnl is clearer than that crime is rarely com mitted by the colored man who Is edu cated and owns property" visit to th' penitentiary would suggest that educated negroes are not so successful in escaping that institution as educated white men Mental power per SC Is with the negro slave or free. That being fixed in thu problem, we cannot resist the public ne cessity of negro education. When l wa a lad one of the most notably effcien negro foremen in the region of cottoi plantations was "Esau" jet black, i'm ported when a child from the wilds o Africa. The professor solves the propo sition in his own great school, physica labor, the doing of things as the basis o culture in letter. Education in letters i dependency. Language itself is al acouisition accruing from necessity. has long been my contention that negr public schools in Alabama should b placed under the immediate direction o Professor Washington to be systematize' and managed as under a bureau. off t. themselves
 Outlawry will disappear when the gen eral political conditions adjust themselye to the logical relations of races to eacl other and when tax burdens are consist ent with justice to the agricultural toll | CTS.
 JOHN WITHERsPoON DuBosE.
 Montgomery, Ala.