The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-04-28

046,143.49 upon the education of 2SS, 713 children. We spent about quarter of a million dollars in college education. We levied local taxes in more than seventy five districts, making a total of nearly 400 out of 1886 districts In the state. may add in this connection that, by spe- cial act of the legislature, twenty dis tricts voted to issue bonds. and several excellent public school buildings have been built and are now being built, rang ing in cost from $s00O to $42000. Nearly $200,- eco was raised in this way. In many ooun- ties there has been consolidation of dis tricts, but our work along this line has been directed chiefly to the consolidation of schools within the district: because according to our law, district may con tain as much as forty-nine square miles, We have had siXty-five consultations of schools doing away with nearly 200 schools; and we have built 124 new school houses this year.
 Clemson College.
 "Our last legislature established PA scholarships especially for farmer boys at Clemson college, our great industrial institution for men; and they increased the 124 scholarships at Winthrop, our great normal and industrial college for women, from $H to $1O0 each. They es- tablished eighty-two normal scholar SillDSs NoItu 0tU tdGDf III tilt HlSlOT1G South Carolina College, making a total increase in the appropriations for schol- arshlps SEGA They also Increased our appropriation for summer schools More than 2500 teachers attended summer schools last year. About 2i0O attended our state and county schools, and more than 200 went to Knoxville, Chicago. Hampton, Tuskegee, and elsewhere. This same legislature enacted a rural library h axu ual tsrnf1 h9 pfDf int1a T. e been available about a month more than 250 schools have already applied for it's benefits, many of them raising more than the amount required. We confidently ex- pect 10 establish 300 libraries in the coun- try districts by the close of the year, and 10 eXpend $20,000 in so doing; and to cap the climax the legislature put a cap- itation tax on canines. Every owner of a dog-whether it be cur collie, flee or hound-shall pay an annual tax of 5O cents on each one and the proceeds of this shall be devoted to the school fund Do you wonder, therefore, that one of our leading educators wrote to the daily papers after the adjournment, and re- marked that we had ian educational leg islature as well as an educational gover- nor?'
 Inspired by Committee.
 "It is but simple justice to say that
  sasm has been inspired by this confer ence and the boards which work in har- mony with it. Our conferences of coun- ty superintendents and leading educators have been followed by an active cam paign which has consisted of rallies in all parts of the state in which all man. ner of public men have participated, con- ferenees at various pivotal points, careful study of our conditions by teach are vpb travelled tNniaal ties and made helpful suggestions and formed working organizations, and a generous distribution of pamphlets. booklets and brochures to the uttermost parts of the state
 What we have done Is but an earnest of what we will do. In connection with the work which was done last year. and as an index to the great work which lies before Us. I want to quote from the re- ports of our young ladies who were ap- pointed under the auspices of the South