The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-13
Mobile Schools Suffer
 From, Prohibition Act

sales of goods and property sold by auctioneers and others where the price of the article is fixed by a sample portion or part actually sold or exhib- ited at any such public sale" A pen alty swas fixed in the sum of $500 for Iall failures to turn in this tax te the collector.
 But that was not all. What comes next breathes of the liberal spirit of Mobiles ancestors. It harks back to the customs of the De Soto followers and the Spanish stalwarts who trod the coast many years before. The next tax for the support of the Mobile schools was the licenses to authorize the "ex- hilton of feats of agility or strength not connected with c licensed circus or theatre, $25; licenses to authorize tse exhibition of any cock fight. bear fight, dog fight, or bull bait, or of any fight or contest between animals of any kind" $l0 for each day and night; to authorize the exhibition of any mu- scum of wax figures" $b; or for any I'm onster, prodigy or deformity. $zo each; licenses to authorize any con cert of vocal or instrumental music. except such as may be given in aid of the public churches, or by any regular musical society,"" 35 for each concert; then the license to give the broad au- thority to carry on any character or public amusement, and 1t was express ly provided that while the tax would be nominally fixed at $5 for each amusement occasion. the tax may be reduced by the said board of school commissioners at its discretion.'
 Then followed the authority to col lect for the schools license taxes on the retailing of spirituous liquors in the | city of Mobile, the use of nine or ten | pin alleys pool tables, baggatelle or | billiard tables or any other gaming | tables.
 Exceptional School system.
 If one reads in full this act. one can- | not doubt the sincerty of the Legis- | lature in trying to erect an exception al system of the Mobile schools. IL was then and was for many years | thereafter the only semblance of a l school system in the State. There | were parochial schools in Mobile as there are parochial and private schools | in the city at present. But the vast majority of children were being edu- cated in the public buildings. It was a distinct fostering of the schools and 1 the citizens of Mobile appreciated the favorable leverage accorded them as 1 they afterwards resented interference | from the same source with their con- | duct. Is there a school board In exist | ence today that has the right to fix the amount of license tax on any business 1 or amusement? It would be hard to find If there were but that right was given the board of ante bellum Mobile. | What were the consequences. then. of prohibition in Mobile?
 Prohibition, without doubt, antag- onized the material welfare of the system. By taking away 40 per cent of the annual revenue. the Legislature crippled badly the machinery with which the educational grind was run. It pinched very badly and the squeal is yet heard. Here are some of the squeals and they call upon the shades of the kind" legislators of ante-bel- lum years:
 The salaries of all public school teachers were cut 20 per cent. The man or woman who was getting $50 per month Is now geiing $40. The | teacher who earned S75 a month a year ago is now making with his or her improved talents only $60. The result has been that the patrons of the schools have missed some good in' structors who have been forced to go elsewhere for higher salaries Many are teaching here now.who are offered more money in other cities and towns but are only retained in Mobile be- cause they are already domiciled here.
 It was sore disappointment to many families who are said To nave domiciled in Mobile, having come here from other counties. for the main pur. pose of putting the best high school and elementary school advantages In the reach of their children.
 A Monthly Tuition Fee.
 Rut that is not. all the disturbance. The high school pupils are now charged a monthly tuition fee of $2. In the elementary and grammar divisions or the schools, an incidental fee of s1'6o per annum Is charged each pupils. III the county grammar and elementary schools the pupils are charged a term fee of 50 cents and the high school nunils are assessed fee of $1 a month. That this assessment has kept many a child from the precincts of the schools Is admitted by the teachers on duty her%. It may seem easy enough. they say, for some pa rents to come across with the VI or s2, but 1t gets big dimensions when 1t looms in the eyes of the penurlous ramiIies. And 1t especially caused prf- vations when the fees came on the heels of buying the new text books.
 But speaking of textbooks, there was one which the children have not been required to buy. It Is that Ia nous History of Alabama which was the cause of much talk when IL caine . from the press for use In the pupNc sahno1s of Alabama. It was the book which layished several pages or Ia vorable comment on the present GOV arnor's administration and gave much iass snace to preceding pilots Of the old shin of State. It did not suit tne | taste of the school authoti'les and the patrons have all .nahos on' They are learning history by ear any hearsay. They are using no DOCK a. all this session. It Is another snow os the exclusiveness of Mobile eouea' tional machinery. .hows
 The school board treasury sno~s "n that there was a balance or slo'oVo with which the present year began | hut 1t is pretty certain that the co.n ing fall will find the Treasury Wttn- l out A surplus. It Is not impossio'S that A further cut In teachers sal- aries may be made. It would mean more dearth of proficient talent It IS also said that many parents who rear ad the retrenchment would take away the talent which they wished theii children to get have turned 10 th' private and parochial schools. SUI pArintendent Murphy says that the en- rollment, when made up for the cur rent school year. may point to par with last year It should have shown a marked increase under normal con ditions.
 The School Census.
 The enrolment last year in th' county was 6.996 whites and 3,6s' blacks The census showed in tho county 12.277 whites and s.544 blacks There are 103 teachers in the white | coIup,r In the negro