The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1907-05-24
BY WILL It. sHEEHAN.

Great plans are shaping for the fu-
ture of the Girls School at Montevallo
.-plsns which will assemble in it, alone,
for the girls OF Alabama the benefits
that Tuscaloosa and Auburn hold out
FOR the boys of the State. Such are
the plans Of the new president, with
3 willing Board of Trustees at his
back, a big building fund at hand and
. large appropriation for the college
and last but not least the friendly
sentiment of the entire State for the
school.
Thoughtful men Of Alabama-educa-
tors and State officials-believe that a
serious mistake was made when the
Alabama Polytechnic Institute was To-
Gated at Auburn. and not combined
with the State University at Tusca-
loopa. They believe that the history OF
education in Alabama would have in
e brighter chapters than those which
make 1t now and they believe that
united the two institutions would
have exerted an influence and wrought
q good, which separately with all the
splendid results they have achieved
they have not attained. But the mis-
take, II mistake 1t was. is of the past
and each institution is filling its own
sphere, and filing it well. What is
written Is written and what is done is
done. The present Is the time.
Plans of palmer.
President T. w. Palmer has assum-
cd charge of the Montevallo school
with the expressed purpose of making
the school for the girls of the State
the boys of Alabama. He has a splen-
did foundation on which TO work. The
school has been prosperous Its tone
has been good, it's character has been
high and most of all popular senti-
ment goes out to it and Is ready to
help A member of the Board as he
went into the meeting of the Trustees
which meant so much to the school
said:
Il believe firmly that the presidency
Of this school is the finest educational
opportunity in the South l believe that
with conditions as they now exist the
school can be made one of the greatest
institutions of it's kind in the South.
The people are behind 1t. And the
school has the money now to go for
ward"
The Board as a whole believed that
its commencement meeting marked a
crisis in the history of the institution.
II believed that fortune was at It's
flood tide-that the hour had struck
for the school The presidency was a
place that any educator whatever his
BntS anu his TcputdtiOIi, HhlBhL well
covet. The Board believed and justly,
that the Presidency of the Montevallo
School was one of the big places in
education in the South.
The Board had wide field from
which to select. Some of the ablest
teachers in the South would have
gladly taken the place. But the Board
never hesitated in its choice. The
place was rendered Prof. Thomas p.
Palmer without the semblance of a
contest He was no experiment The
trustees knew him He had proved
what he could do. His character had
been shown in other places and in
other relations. His election was not
a step in the dark. but a march for
ward in the light.
IL Practical Man
The Board found at the University of
Alabama a rare and unusual combina-
ton, the thoughtful student and the
practical man of affairs. The scholar
too often lives his life aloof from prac-
teal affairs. The shades of a college