The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-15

the rural district move into the villages
and towns for the purpose of educating
their children. This is entirely wrong;
you sisouid establish such school condi-
tons and such school facilities in the
country that the people would move from
the congested towns and cities to the
country for the purpose of securing an
education for their children, thus en-
abling them to secure the high moral
condition and the healthy atmosphere Of
the country in the up-growing of their
children. We should assure the country
schools of the highest and best keep
of the state. l am advocating direct
and increased appropriation of 100000 per
annum, and | think to this Will be added
more than 100000. which will come II
proper tax values are secured. The SUI
perintendent of education tells me that
these amounts will meet the pressing
necessities of the country schools, and
I want to say to you and to say 10
Them that so far as l am concerned, I
would divide the last dollar in the treas
ury to give them the proper care and
the proper development There should be
no jealouses between the country school
and any other school, because from the
country schools come the upbAilding Of
every other school, and we could give
no healthier atmosphere to this state
than to establish in the midst of every
rural community a first class school.
Your normal schools, where your
teachers are prepared, should be given
the very best attention. The character
of the teachers of the state i'm large
measure make the character of the pu-
pills of the state.
This state is not what 1t was: in the
oden days our girls were cultivated as
the choicest flower, and that was we'll. At
the present time these same girls meet
ing with their parents the stern necessi-
ties of life, many of them have entered
the industrial occupations of life The
Girls Industrial school fits them peculiar
ly for this, and that school has sent out
many young lady TO take up the occu-
pations of life to share with her family.
not only her own expense, but the eXpen-
ses of the family. This should be en-
couraged to the very extent of their ne
cessites.
The Deaf, Dumb and Blind school, one
of our great benevolent institutes for the
care of the afflicted of our people, should
be made adequate to the growing de-
mands upon it. so should the Asylum for
the Insane.
The tag tax fund belongs to the ten ag-
ricultural schools, not a dollar of 1t should
be taken for any other purpose, and when
| say ten agricultural schools. | mean
the nine in the congressional districts and
then il you want soil surveys. or lectures,
farmers institute, you have got the
channel for them, and they should come
through the great Polytechnic institute.
The little jealousies should not be allowed
TO exist II matters little in your school de-
Velopment whether thousand dollars aid
to the rural schools comes from the gen
eral fund of the state or comes by spe-
cial allotment from the tag tax, or con-
fat ~.
of the state belongs to the people of the
state, and there can be no higher claim
on the funds of the state than that of
education.
The tag tax fund was established years
ago While many of us may question
the wisdom of the tax, no one can ques-
ton the wisdom Of the application of the
tax. With 1t you have built up nino great
agricultural schools in the nine congress
sional districts, and the Polytechnic insti-
tute, and they stand a living monument
to the wisdom of the fund. Many have
charged that dog fennels grow in their
experimental fields, nobody has ever
charged that dog fennels grow in the
heads of their graduates, and If these
schools continue to send out manly men,
which they will do, then there can be no
higher charge on the care of the state
than their upbuildng. Many have charged
that these schools have not sent their
graduates back home to SOW guano, to
push a plow. What man among us would
attempt to crcumvent the ambition of
any graduates of any school whatever?
There were six boys raised by a widowed
mother at a little cross-road place in Bar
bour county, and every dollar necessary
was sacrificed to give them an education.
The plan was that they should be farm
ers; the fact is. one died the president
of a great railroad company, one now
a lawyer in Eufaula, once the president
of the great Baptist association, one
prominent lime manufacturer at Admission,
one farmer in Bullock county one
prominent cotton manufacturer and bus
mess man in Georgia, and the other [
make my bow before you. Can anyone
say that was a failure in the education
of a farmers boys, and If these things
be true and they are, then in God S
name give us many failures Give your
farmers boy a chance, and If with that
chance he can make a railroad president,
a merchant banker. or with that chanee
he can go to the towns and cities and
take hold of the helm of business mer-
chant or what not, can come to your state
capitol as a law maker. or governor ELECT
give him a chance and critclse him not
If he sees proper to depart from the cot
ton row and goes into channels of other
business. These farmers boys. the towns
and cities need them. the country needs
them; let the current go wherever II
will but let it he a current and make It
carry something; the death to the state
is the stagnant conditions of the lands
which come from improper qualification.
Alabama must move up from Its foot
position in education and advance among
the first; ! mean being the first on the
roll of states. Alabama should be the
first on the roll eff education We have
one Of the very best foundation systems
for higher and still higher education. Of
any state that I know; the normal
schools, the common or rural schools, the
agricultural schools. the Polytechnic in
stitute, the Girls Industrial school and
the University. Gentlemen, let's all
cement the hands of these great divisions,
not in prejudice not in Jealousy, but
let's cement the hands of these systems
and carry them all to success for the
benefit of our people. Let them all be our
greatest care. and you should do every
thing that you can for their success.
even to the division of everything that
we have. so that they can take up this
inherited work, carrying It from gener-
alton to generation of success. Alabama.
could have no fairer sky in the great fu-
ture than to set that >uiure with the da-
dems of education.
University.
There is some criticism on the work be-
ing done by the alumni of the University
to secure from the state what I conceive
to be their just demands for the upbuld-
ing of that great school. I can conceive
of no higher patriotic duty which the
alumni gould discharge for their alma