The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-31

be better. and that she. like North Carolina, will speedily reduce her pro- portion of illiteracy,
 Then Alabama and South Carolina for it, with a battle royal for the tail end of the procession.
 Our percent of ilIiteracy Is far from being wholly due to the number of ne- groes in Alabama. We have the ne-
 groes but they are making Hercu1ean efforts toward education and are de- creasing their illiteracy faster than the poorer class of white people.
 There are 153 white children to ev- cry thousand totally illiterate be- tween the ages of ten and fourteen. not counting the white illiterates that are
 over that age. You may think all of this ignorance is In the back woods dis tricts, but 1t Is not. In the largest city in our State there are 412 white boys
 growing into citizenship totally illit- crate,
 These facts make unpleasant reading, but with an election for members of the legislature coming on, 1t is time Tor us to Hear the sound of going in the mulberry trees and bestir ourselves. for there is but one remedy, as l see 1t. to escape the disgrace of being the most illiterate State In the Union. ana that will be In a constitutional amend ment allowing each school district to tax itself, for school purposes as It seems best to them.
 Now I don't want to dip my little "Institute paper" Into politics, Tor will never in all this world understand politics To me 1t is Hydra-headed Monster Each head a Cobra or some other member of the reptile family. I think some long-headed wise-acre or politician planned the Franchise part of our new constitution. 6O.o00 Of Ala bama's voters gone already and our constitution in its baby longclothes.
 The question is, why did not the framers of our New Constitution" see the needs of our country schoolsT
 They said, "Noi We are not educated I'D to local taxation and we must not make laws in advance of the people" What a mistake and now we all see if. The law educates. Suppose Moses had told his God that the ten com vnandments" were too far ahead of the peopIe, the children of Israel would have had a new leader. But there was m mistake there Moses was the right man in the right place, and when God gave him the laws he went down the mountain and began educating the peo- pie up to them.
 good class of people. then the others follow through fear of the penalty, Look at Harvey Jordan. What faith full Moses he is to the Southern cot ton growers.
 Q. for some man big enough and broad enough to lead our country peo- pie from this dark Egypt of short term "one horse" schools. guiding them Tn, to the Promised Land of consolidated graded schools, and permitting each school district to be the judge of its own needs and allowing them to sup ply those needs by local taxation.
 My own county of Chambers. with 900 voters, subject to poll tax. had only 75O who paid their poll tax Our sister county, Tallapoosa. had 1,S0O vo- ters who disqualified themselves by re- fusing to pay their poll tax.
 What does this point to? Soon our voters will be confined to the towns the school laws that are made will fay- or the town schools. Our country men were just fooled up the New Consti- tuition" tree and now they are out on the poll tax limbs, chopping 1t off be- tween themselves and the tree. Great will be the fall and there'll be wailings and gnashing of teeth but 1t will De too late, too late. The door will be shut and barred. Ye cannot enter in. Even now our country schools are be- Ing discriminated against. The very | first county to hold a primary for the | coming election has "dispensary. Now there were two candidates for the | one of them favored divid- | Ing the revenue from this "dispensary" | equally between all the schools in the | county, and the other candidate said: l Give all the revenue to just one school | located In the county seat" Who won | the fight? Why the man that said | give all the money to the town school.
 You might say look at your own | county. Isn't that what she does? Yes. 1 Well, l do look and so do all the other | folk, but we look. with our | hands tied and they will remain tied | with so many of our country voters | aisfranchising themselves by refusing | to pay their poll tax.
 Possibly we will follow Mississippi's | cruel example and send some man to | the Legislature who will introduce a Dill to exclude from the public schools 1 all children whose fathers have re- | fused to pay their poll tax.
 Oh this woeful thing called politics. | Look at our sister state. Her 'ofhce | writhe and sduirm and bite | each other, but the bites don'tS seem to | lurt much. Guess they keep plenty of | snake medicine and know how to cure snake biteg