The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-10

 tions, temporarily using tn, Senat Chamber for a historical gallery .ant the Senate cloak room for ar office.
 The plan of the Department, as means or agency for meeting the dut! which the State owes to Its archlve; and It's history. has met general faVor It has the endorsement of the, Amerl, can Historical Association body ol more than 2.000 representative histori' cal students from all parts of the Uni'
 ted States. Inc States of Mississlpp and West Virginia ts hags eTea5fd Geadna ha. created History Commission. substan- tially following our plan. and It mas been endorsed in Florida. Arkansas congratulation @ that Alabama should lead in the establishment and develop ment of this new 9nase or state rtsnt ihst,. !. serves well at your hands
 Yellow Fever.
 In the summer of 1904 New orleans and the State of Louisiana ana MisSIs- siDpi were visited by terrible yefioW fever scoufge. There were three cases and two deaths in Alabama, but SC ex, celiently was the quarantine managed that beyond these cases. and the great expense and confusion to munics. pa !irles and counties and to the State I.self we were unharmed. The statute provioes slO.ooO year to fight these epidemicis uiar ahs fisht fa't s42.soo. the money bsing sunplIed in August and September from the fund allowable for the flScal year 1904. and in October fr3m the lunu sr,ifh itn advanced $10000 on an agreement that the Auditor would October l, l9uo. is- sue his warrant to the State healtn Officer that officer agreeing to hand II immedjate,y over to the Treasurer. You will observe that this accounts TOT the S1O.O00 for each of three years The balance of the total expenditure was airc n n- ders. on the last day of the fiscal year, 1905, what was left of the Governors contingent fund for that year to the amount of $2.200, and by pr. sanders borrowing the remainder, $S. 125, on his personal note which. however, l and others signed with him. You Will be asked to appropriate this money with interest to the holders of the note. The few dollars you will be called upon to disburse, as interest on this money, is much cheaper than would have been a session of the Legislature to provide for the deficiency. While $42.OO0 is a large sum 1t was well spent in keep ing the disease practically out of this very greatly disturbed. The victory was very cheap at the price. In this connection l desire to say that l in- terested myself and procured the inter bama in a general maritime quaran- tine. which I believe is now effective. I think 1t will not be possible again to have the State disturbed over this disease.
 Uniform school Books.
 The uniform school box law which was passed at your last session, was made effective in the summer of 1903 It has been the law of the State for more than three years. The law pro- vlded that the Governor and the Su- perintendent of Education, together yGyt nTni irnn tna aC1n nfnf fnI C h1 Governor, should form a State Text Book Commission. The Governor ap- pointed. under the law. Dr. F. M. Peter School: Dr. c. c. Thach. President of of the Polytechnic Institute Dr. J. W. Abercrombie. President of the Univer- sity. These three with the Governor posed the School Book Commission. As provided in the bill the Governor ap- pointed the. following gentlemen to Wilson. President Florence Normal School: Prof H. J. Willingham. Pres ident of the Fifth District Agricultural School: pr. J. H. Phillips, Superinten- the Tuscaloosa Public Schools. and Prof. W. ". Benson. representing the a great deal of work. It's members were given ample opportunity to study and compare all the books in competi- tion.. At joint sessions of the two com missions opportunity was given the agents of the publishers to appear be- fore the body In advocacy of their pub iications. This public hearing ran mission after some weeks. reported its findings and the main commission then selected the books to be used. I think the members of the commission agreed that one mistake at least was made in their selections-that one superior and more teachabe text book might have been secured. @ No member of the com mission will say that the books se- higher value than the average books taught in the schools of the State be- fore. the adoption of the law. The work of the commission was honestly and unselfishly done. and I desire here to bear testimony to the faithfulness with which it's members served the was within the s2.00O ap- propriated for the purpose. and no men more nearly earned their per diem than did those. eight appointed members of the board.
 Saving From Its Operation.
 In maiy city stores in the State school books were sold at retail at what was known as list" price, In other city stores and throughout the State in the smaller communities books were sold at an advance of twenty to forty per cent on list price The con tract with the publishers required that the books should be sold in a number of places in each county at contract figures which were below what was known as list price. To those persons who were fortunate enough to live hard by store that sold the books at list the reduction under the new law would represent saving to them of about thirty per cent. If they were situated, as four -fifths of the patrons were. ar distance from the list price store they had to pay twenty to forty per cent above list" These also find their books now at hardly above one-half of the old rate The aggregate sale in the State on the basis of the new price list average something like $20o,000 a year. The saving for five years 10 the people of this State cannot hardly be less than forty per, cent, or an az gregate of $400,000. There Is added to this argument in favor of the new law the great saving, which comes from avoiding repeated changes and the an- noyance. which parents and guardians suffer from such changes. Moreover the average boy and girl now has a better bo9k to tgdY tn than they haze t1e you to provide for a new book com mission to continue the operation of this most wholesome and profitable de- parture.
 That brings me 10 a discussion of our schools. The University. the Polytech- nlc and the Girls Industrial School are having the most successful wear in all their history. The University is much in need of funds with which to erect and equip additional buildings. It has been twenty years or more since the school has had any funds to put into buildings. The growing necessity for large appropriations for tho common ] |AE%913z 13z5seM.,. !