The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12


 solid doors, matched floors. glass win dows and flowers in the front yard. On the inside you will find hard wood bed steads, bureaus and washstands, pictures on the walls, carpet on the floor and sitting in rocking chairs the sweetest girls that God ever made. Stoves and sewing machines are like the blessed babies, to be found in every house. Pianos and organs have taken the place of jews harps and mouth organs.
 OK teams have mostly gone to Tennes- see, and the young man who cannot ride in buggy to church will not set up housekeeping soon. Saloons have moved to Sheffield and as consequence swear CTS are scarce in Lauderdale county.
 Ladies and gentlemen, 1t is my privilege and pleasure to say to you that drinking and swearing are not now considered re- speetable. Our court house and jail, If the improvement continues, bid fair to be changed into church and school houses We have telephones to every beat in the | county and railroads builded and building.
 Think of the Improvements that have taken place in the hills as well as in the bends of Lauderdale couety. Roller pro- cess flour mills, saw nef,s, staVe mills, | hoop pole factories, chair factories, corn
 mills. cotton gins where steam has knock ed out the hamper basket and saved the , poor mans back and turned tow-headed mules loose to graze. Think of rural free delivery that brings your mall to your 1 gate every day; of the improved tools ] with which you cultivate your lands; l doing with mules more than men, women l and children could formerly do; of the 1 improved stock which surrounds your I home; of the increased value and prod 1 ucts of your lands; how the lands have 1 doubled and doubled in value within the | md hnr. fha "a 1 that few years ago made a bale to | every four acres has this year made two l bales to the acre. Rejoice In the fact l that you live upon land when in vir- | gin state was pronounced by the great 1 German scientist and traveller, Baron von 1 Humboldt, as earth's nearest approach to l the Garden of Eden, and later by the
 no less distinguished Commodore Maury,
 The path finder of the seas," as the section between the 34th and 35th par | allels of latitude, where more grains and
 fruit can be brought to perfection than
 any other spot on earth Recall all this
 and thank God you are alive and feel
 the very ground swell under your feet | Think of our manufactories; Instead of
 the two little cotton factories whose run 1 hing depended upon whether the creek 1 was high or low, we now have two im- | mense steam factories that run six days 1 In week, an iron furnace, a wagon fac
 tory that makes 12,000 wagons year,
 system of water works, a stove foun-
 dry stave factory, a Touring mill, a | fertilizer factory two machine shops two
 blaming mills, a cotton seed oil mill. a | sewerage system, coal oil tanks an ice
 factory, steam laundry, a pantaloons factory gas works and a whisky law
 which if properly executed, will empty
 our courthouse and jail and fill our
 churches and schools. My friends, and 0 nnn ntlArr A.t1
 whether you wish your child to attend
 the jail and court house or school and
 church house, since upon this decision your future happiness or misery depends.
 Now for our third and last picture: The powerful old Tennessee still re-
 ceives it's tributaries as If they were
 the silver streams of poets dreams , changing colors to silver and gold as the
 sun rolls high and the sun rolls low Like
 Rip Van Winkle we go to sleep in the present and like a scroll unrolled, we | awake to what the future must bring us, What will the future bring to us? Be- fore this century closes there will be none | ignorant, none uneducated, except idiots from birth. Go where you will, talk to | whom you please and you will find and you will hear discussed upon every hand
 the subject of education. There is a | great demand heard everywhere that ig- norance shall cease to exist and a belief that compulsory education will furnish | the necessary remedy
 l What does compulsory education mean |?
 It means nothing more nor less that
 every child of school age shall attend
 every school day unless 1t has a lawful
 excuse. If it fails without lawful ex- | cuse the parent or guardian is punished by fine, or imprisonment in jail, or both. l l am in favor of compulsory education 1 but only in favor of it when it can be
 put into force by a law that Is fair and
 square. that does not favor the rich nor
 harass the poor.
 Compulsory education before it can be- ] come law that Is fair and square must 1 have some compulsory requirements. Now | what are they and how many have we? l. Compulsory school house.
 9 Compulsory teachers
 l B. Compulsory play grounds.
 f. Compulsory furniture.
 ] 5. Compulsory stoves.
 l 6. Compulsory books.
 1 '. Compulsory clothes.
 | 8. Compulsory food.
 1 The answer to my question is that we need eight compulsorles and of this eight | we claim to have less than half of one, namely-the teachers leaving 7Ha totally | unprovided for.
 ! Understand me distinctly. I am not | speaking of this beat only but of every beat in Lauderdale county, including Florence. Now, let us take our compu- sories by number, all of which I claim | should be had before compulsory edu- | cation should be even thought of. 1 1. School houses. Florence has 1429 white school children and the daily at- tendance between 800 and 500 fills them to