The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-26
(Communicated.)

Should the Thompson Bill House Bill "A, which was adversed by the Com mittee on Local Legislation, and on Wednesday night placed on the regu- lar calendar, be passed by the Legis- lature, very great wrong and injustice wpuld be done. not only the Tuskegee Iirstitute. but also the State of Ala b&ma.
 sWhat does the Bill provide? It sim- ply repeals that part of the Act which e3empts the property of the school fr1m taxation. The bill does not say tltat lands hereafter bought by the sdhool shall be taxed for County pur- ]. poses. or that the houses, etc. situated . on the given area of land shall be taxed and the other exempt. and since the most valuable and costly buildings are placed here and there in systematic oIder over near 200 acres the passage o2 this tax measure, as it now reads, wSuld' cause no end of confusion and injustice on that point alone.
 Based on Wrong Premises.
 fhe reasons urged by the author of the measure, and by his friends for It's enactment into law, arebased upon in correct information.
 The school is not buying up the County. either to hold or speculate up- on- The facts are these:
 Here is a school founded by the OI tos experiment in the largest possible manner in working out among the ne- gHoes of the South, the question of in dlistrial education. It was located over west of the town of Tuskegee where no white people lived. At first, about hundred acres or so of miser- ably poor ground were bought. then, la3er. adjoining that another small trhct was bought at tax sale by a white citizen, and by him sold to the school Out of this last tract nearly all ofs the brick of which the present buildings were made were dug. Very close to the first purchase lay some 500 acres of poor. sandy, gravelly land covered with scrubby oaks and small pines. The owner told the school that if. the trustees would pay the taxes. they could have that land. At his death his heirs. for small payment. decided the land to the school. In an- other direction. and partly adjoining this land and further back from Tus- kagee. was a body of poor worn-out, sahdy land. known as the Griffis tract. Tfiis place was so worthless that only a small quantity of it was rented It changed hands several times. finally falling into the hands of a white citi- zen of Tuskegee for about S4 or s an acre. This purchaser sold the wood off of the place to Tuskegee School for almost enough to reimburse him for his outlay in buying it couple of years later when the school decided to en- large and make more varied its agri- cultural department. and to make more experiments in raising grasses and oth- CT forage crops. and in raising and fattening for the use of the school. beef cattle. hogs. horses, mules. etc, then at a very high price. the Grffis and other tracts adjoining it were pur- chased and thrown into the farm.
 Scattered here and there among these tracts were quite a number of small lots owned almost entirely by negroes, ana in order to further body up the farm most of these lots were bought. Of course. exhorbitant prices had to be paid, and in many cases. the school went elsewhere and bought several acres and swapped for a lot of not over an acre or so. These latter transac- tons explain why in a couple of years so many deeds were made to the school.
 How Much Land:
 In all, the school simply owns 2,4oo acres, and every bit of it, except 130 acres given it. sixteen miles away, lies out west, of the town of Tuskegee, and where no white people live or have lived for g to 40 years. The owners of those lands could not make living on them, ana moved away. me ldct is, the location of this principal farm for fifty years had been called Big Hungry"
 As already said. the buildings, shops. barns and campus cover about 200 acres About 2.oO0 are in farms, pas lures and orchards.
 How Speculating:
 The charge is made that the school is buying lands for speculation.
 Just south of the school grounds, ad joining the farm. a part of 130 acres of land has been laid out in different sized lots for the purpose of allowing < the teachers and others connected with the school or those who desire to get