The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-04

thion for is0l, which includes the la test available statistics. Asbama is now. and for several years has been. ita for the maintsnace of its public Schools and the sducsticn of its chill dren than any other State or territory in the Unicn While q few osssrs s,ns, are sIe
 issraoy isasy every every T State pSaa' pSna T.rrsorx above us in the work being done throusn th the guolic .rsasury s to oovs r.%oys bama. Is Si.ss. Georgia ss.7S. Fiorida s5,2o. Tennessee sa.o4 Mississippi 3s:5s ksw M.co sss NGrss srs saSth csrS1s s s2.57. I have thus included every State which surrounds Alabama: norths south. east or west, and every State which ts lower either in total or in white iilit' eracy.
 Some Comparative Figures.
 It will be observed that the average amount raised in these States Is about larger. Now compare these figures with some of the Western States hay ing larger rural population like our we have. and depending even more upon agriculture for livelihood Oklahoma oss,ts nes sxen Kansas Ess s.Rsnd' @ sis70; North Dakota, s1s.ss; or a gem eral average of about eight times our expenditures for this purpose. com % snow wn an sWsn 0s entire nd Union is sials Der capita. or nearly seven times as much as Ala bama.
 veiopment where desirable white im- migration is no longer an advantage; diaily favor the passage of bin creat- ing a bureau of immigration with ann pie funds and power for this purpose. But do we not all realize that the best the same stock which settled this country in colonial days. and can. we afford to ignore the fact that these snd shs hsssss dse.s 0s' cf efficiency in the world? Can we right iy expect in ample volume immigration from the best school countries in the contents itself with the poorest?
 Developments of Assets.
 But as I have remarked many times the world today is the uneducatsd or inadequately educated hundreds of thousandss even millions of wi ite men and women. and boys and girls, who inhabft the hills and mountains of the South. One hundred and four thousand total white iIliterates, over ten years of age. inhabit the State of Alabama iy iiterates whose education is SO slight as to be of almost no advantage. Over ral. having none of the advantages of exists today to challenge the consid- eration of those charged with the re- sponsibility of legislation? l am quite mands upon the considerafioa of the Legislature. The bureau of tmmigra. ton already referred to should be es- tablished Judicial d salaries diaries should S be by the ~a-.- platform but by the high: est considerations of public duty and patriotism to do more for our Confed- the higher educational institutions are needing and clamoring for heln.
 But with a million six hundred creasing at a rate of over half a mil- Hon dollars annually every just demand upon the treasury can be met and still or more annually available for our public schools. This use of our public funds Is not only mandate of the 9uired by existing conditions if we do
 But the appropriation of such sum should be coupled with bill increasing the minimum free term to six months. anxious to spend the last available doi- lar for the public school system, but 1t of the increased appropriations It Is impossible to adequately educate a people. more than ha'- of -.om are scholastic months leaving q vacation of eight months in which to forget what they learned in term time. Neither is six months sufficient but 1t Is progress. and in this matter wo have to so for- ward a step at a time.