The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-09
OFFICERS STILL
 SEEK OFFENDER
Mysterious Leakage In EduCa-
 tionaI Department
MIR. GUNNELS' STATEMENT I
Is Glad That Young MayfieId Was Able To Prove Innocence of the Charge Against Him-SoI-
 diers Return,

Montgomery, August 9.-(Special. )-The fight to ferret out the men guilty of stealing questions of the educational de- partment and thereby inducing and lead ing negroes into fraudulent use of the questions will in no sense be let up The department officers have determined to keep on trying, with more time and more money, until they are able to discover who the original offender is. When this is done 1t will be the policy of those behind the investigation to push every case.
 Up to this time there have been about 300 negroes put under arrest for traffic in or using questions to which they had no legal right. However, with the failure to find the first man guilty, the one who took the question first from the envel- opes, it is hard to make out cases that will put the real punishment where it belongs. Along this line H. c. Gunnels, state superintendent of education, has is sued the following statement, referring to the acquittal of MT. Mayfeld, charged with giving out the questions at Selma:
 T am glad, of course, that MT. May field was able to convince the solicitor of his innocence. 1 should regret to believe that any white man in any trusted place would commit so great a crime against the negro children of the state. MT. May field was not arrested on the basis of any direct evidence obtained by the depart ment of education, but rather on the ad- vice of officials of the Southern Express company, who had been at work on the case for several days, and, by the way, the express company has been unusually kind in assisting in the effort to find the party who first opened the package The negro, Walker, who first implicated MT. Mayfield, by stating that he was in the room with Mayfield when the questions were opened, now says that he opened the package himself and extracted the ques- tions. I am candid to confess that I put but small faith in this last confession. The department of education however, is determined, if there is possible way, to find where the leakage was and punish the guilty party"
 Soldiers Return.
 Members of the two local companies of the Second regiment, Alabama National Guaru, nave returned from Chickamauga and seem to have had a fine time The boys are pretty well Jagged out, and will be glad of the rest that will be given them. None of them was sick and all are ready to respond to a call to the strike district if one is made.
 Library Workers.
 Miss Laura Elmore, librarian at the Carnegie library at Montgomery, will have charge of the library class at the capitol next week. Miss Annie O. Shiv- CTS, who was with the class for the past week, has returned to her work at Au- burn, where $40, 900 building is just about completed and is being put in shape for the next term of the Alabama Polytech- nic institute.
 "Jonah" Negro, This.
 Roman Talley, who killed his own brother a short time since, and was &C., quilted on a plea of self-defense, has been the cause of the death of another negro, a man named Houston Jackson in the country. He was felling tree when Jackson was passing and his tree struck a dead tree which was thrown to the ground and struck Jackson, killing him at once.
 County Boards Elected.
 Today was given over among the school people to the election of county boards of education. These boards are the final schools of the various counties The out look is that the schools of the state will be in better shape this year than ever