The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-12
Conner Hall Largest College
 Building In South
MADE TRIP TO CLEVELAND
Presented Name of pr. ]. H. Phillips for President of National Educa-
 tona Assoclation-out-
 look for Coming Town.

University of Alabama was in the city yesterday in the interest of the institu- ton. He reports the current session of the Summer school as a great success, 300 teachers being in attendance, and is elated over the prospect of an increased ing in September.
 He reports also that the construction of the two buildings now being erected at the university is progressing rapidly, and that the engineering building (Co- mer halD will be ready for use in Octo- Der. This will be the largest college building in the south and it's equipment will not be excelled in completeness by that of any other institution in the land. It will accommodate the departments of civil, electrical, mechanical and mining engineering the department of physics, and the power plant.
 President Abercrombie, backed by the support of the board of trustees, is mak- ing every effort necessary to place the university in the front rank of Ameri- can institutions. He takes advantage of every opportunity to study educational conditions elsewhere, and to that end attended the annual meeting of the Ma tional Educational association, recently held at Cleveland, O. At that meeting he was elected to membership on the board of directors and also in the Ma tional Council of Education, two of the most important divisions of the associa- tion.
 The candidacy of Dr. J. H. Phillips for the presidency of the National Educa- tional association at the Cleveland meet ing was in the hands of President Aber- crombie as chairman of the committee of teachers appointed by the Alabama Educational association to present his name. In placing the name of Dr. Phil lips before the nominating committee, which was composed of one member from each state, President Abercrombie spoke as folows
 MT Chairman:-I am commissioned by the teachers of Alabama, in annual con- vention assembled, to present Dr. John Herbert Phillips, superintendent of the public schools of Birmingham, for cleo ton to the presidency of the National Education association. In making this presentation I am commissioned also, in their behalf, to bear testimony to his high character, to his thorough scholar ship to his broad culture, to his long, faithful and efficient services in the cause of education, to his unbounded patriotism and to his exalted conceptions of duty.
 ''Born in Kentucky, reared and edu- cated in Ohio, for a quarter of a century a resident of Alabama, extensively trav- eled, a student by inclination, training and profession, Dr. Phillips is man of the broadest outlook and of the widest and deepest sympathy
 ''For 25 years superintendent of the Birmingham schools, he has seen that system grow from an ungraded village school of 300 pupils and seven teachers, to a well organized and thoroughly equipped system with 200 teachers and nearly 10000 pupils. Beginning with the next session under an expansion author ized by the legislature, the teaching force will number 400 and the enrolment will approximate 10000. The Birmingham High school with an enrolment of 1000 students and a material equipment valued at a quarter of million dollars, is the pride of Alabamians and the admiration and model of that entire section.
 "As superintendent of the public schools of Birmingham, as president of the Ala bama Educational association, as editor from time to time of the Alabama Edu- cational Exchange, as president of the Southern Educationa association, as vice president of the department of superin- tendence of the National Educational as- sociation, as president of the National Council of Education, and as student, writer and speaker, Dr. Phillips has wrought ably and most effectively for his city, for his state, for his section, and for his country. l know no man who has excelled him in great and lasting achievement.
 '.In the effort being made to solve the perplexing educational problems peculiar to the section in which he lives he has ever been a recognized leader, wise in counsel, sympathetic in spirit, and cour- ageous in action. In the wonderful edu- cational awakening manifesting itself In Alabama and each of the other states of the south, no man has performed a more active or influential service. In- deed, he has been among the foremost in that great work.
 '.But MT. Chairman, we do not pre- sent Dr. Phillips as the candidate of state or section. The patriotism back of his candidacy is not a patriotism bound ed by state or sectional lines. It is, rather, a patriotism that knows no state that recognizes no section-save it be for the common good.
 "As an American educator, competent, worthy and deserving-we present pr. Phillips and ask your favorable consid- eration of his candidacy
 President Abercrombie will be at the Hillman hotel tomorrow where, from 10 to 12 o'clock, a. m,. he will be pleased to meet those desiring information con- cerning the university.
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