The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-09
STATES PROSPERITY AND
 OTHER GOSSIP OF CAPITAL
BY HERVEY w. LAIRD.

i Montgomery. December S-(Special)- 1 Though there are many notable achieve
 ments to the credit of the state admins
 tration now drawing to a close, Governor William D. Jelks, nearly six years in the i chair of the chief executive. regards these
 three as the greatest of the entire collec- tion: Better observance of law humane treatment of the convicts and the adop- tion of the uniform text book law. The
 correspondent of this paper gathered this
 much from a conversation with the gov-
 ernor in his office recently
 The better observance of the law has
 centered largely about efforts to prevent
 the crime of lynching and punish for par ticipation in offenses of this character.
 Governor Jelks has not hesitated to throw
 the weight of his office in the effort to
 indict and punish men who take the law
 into their own hands, and he is known
 to be fully committed to the task of dis
 couraging and dlscounting lynching in
 every way possible. The working out of
 humanitarian ideals has been confined practically to the state convict depart ment, where the mortality rate has been reduced from 10 to 20 per cent to less than
 per cent. Remarkable as has been the work of this department from a financial standpoint, that of the health feature has been more so, the governor thinks.
 By the operation of the school book law, Governor Jelks estimates that not less than $S0,00O annually have been saved to the parents of the state. In addition
 there has been great many other advan- tages not so easily figured out. The law is held in highest esteem by the executive.
 who threw the weight of his influence and
 work to its passage.
 To be sure the constitutional convention is a product of the Jelks regime, and is to
 be credited to it; also number of other
 betterments directly or indirectly result ant upon the adoption of new organic law Among these Is the reduction of the tax from 712 to 6A mills Of this latter
 amount only 2la mills go to the expense of the government, the other 1 going to schools, which get 3, and the old soldiers 1 mill.
 Increase in Valuations.
 At the beginning of the present ad- ministration the taxable values of the
 state were placed by the assessment
 books at s266, ,s93. .2ss. Last year this had
 grown to $374671,9 ,927, an increase for five years of s107, ,77S.639 It Is interesting to note that the increase in values of 1906
 over 1905 was c27,443,45S, as compared to $21 0o4, ,S06 for 1905 over l904. The Increase of 1905 and 1906 may be credited to a large extent to instructions from the governor to the state examiners of pub lie accounts. by which they were forced in the examination of the books of county officers to insist on the values being kept up This, with the splendid work done by the tax commissioners. has had the effect of arousing new interest in the question of taxable values.
 With all this, however, it is we'll known fact that Alabama property as a whole is not given in at half its value, which would make the actual valuation on a commercial basis run well over a billion dollars. Thousands of acres of farm lands are assessed way below what they were twenty years ago and much of the valuable mineral holdings could not be bought for five times what they are held at by the tax officers
 The Public Schools.
 In addition to the law providing for uni- | form text books out of which good is reputed in generous measure, the state | funds for schools have grown wonder | fully in the years since 1900. This year 1t Is 3l l228, ,393 or, compared to sl,123 7s1 So
 In 1905 and $S20s72.s1 six years ago. For