The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-22
To the Editor of The Age-Herald.

| To the Editor of The Age-Herald.
 The relation of a public schol system 10 the social and political structure of the state is always matter of importance. In Alabama, under prevailing tendencies, it has assumed proportions of such mag ntude as to demand a degree of consid- eration not hitherto given to it by even the educated and thoughtful classes of our people
 Legislation on this subject in recent | ears appears to have proceeded on the
 assumption that academic learning for
 the masses is per SC public blessing, and
 that there should be no limit to state-paid
 instruction save that imposed by the constitution on the taxing power. Appro- priaions have grown rapidly state expen- ditures for schools have increased both absolutely and relatively; and today the state government is employing new and cXpensive agencies of taxation to gather from tie people large sums of money for
 which an elaborated system of state | schools furnishes the chief item of de-
 mand. The education idea appears to nave gained such complete ascendancy
 that school appropriations grow with
 equal disregard to the condition of the treasury and to the probable necessity foi | expanded taxation. In behalf of the ap' | propriations passed for schools in the first
 year of the Conner administration, 1t may
 be. said that there was then in the treas
 ury substantial surplus, the fruit oi previous economies and sacrifices, ant l that the devotion of this to the schools
 was the most equitable use that could be
 made of 1t; but unless the press has
 greatly misled us, the condition and pros
 poets of the treasury are now quite diff
 eerent from what they were four years ago. so that any enlargement of the school | funds, or even the maintenance of the amounts that have prevailed, will prob ably involve an increased pressure of the | taxing power upon the property, enter prise and industry of the public. It was therefore most commendable in Governor O'Neal 10 attach conditions to the biz special appropriatiR for schools made at the recent session of the legislature. Whether he ought to have gone further may be fairly called an open question. Such discussions as have taken place in the legislature on this subject have. as already stated, assumed the entire benefi- cence of free schools. The debates have been little more than contentious over d division of funds among the several | classes of institutions to be affected. The | fundamentals of the matter-whether the youth of the state are really so Hitter ate or their parents so poor, as to re | otre an ever increasing expenditure of uh n h. lie instruction on its intended benefl- cjaries have been so altogether good as to | justify an unusual exerton of the taxing power in it's behalf-are consideration which appear to have largely, if not en- trely, escaped legislative notice.
 It is mot amiss to remind the public that there are two sides to the question. Disadvanta ges, which ought not to be lost sight of, arise from public instruction. especially when it undertakes to go be- yond the rudiments of knowledge. l quote from one. of the foremost British authors:
 The old tory doctrine that national ed ucation may be easily carried to point which units men for the manual toll in which the great majority must pass then | lives was certainly not without founda- tiun. Formerly, the best workman was
 usually content to remain In his class and
 to bring his children up in it. He took | a pride in his work and by doing so he | greatly raised its standard and its char acter. His first desire Is now much more l frequently to leave 1t, or at least to edu-
 cate his children in the tastes and habits | of a class which he considers little 1 bigher than his own. That a man born | in the humber stages of society, who pos
 sesses the power of playing considerable
 rart in the world, should be helped to do l so is very desirable; but it is by no means desirable that the flower of the working class. or their children. should learn to despise manual labor and the simple, in owpensive habits of their parents, in or
 der to become very commonplace doctors, attorneys, clerks, etc. That Is what Is continually happening, and while it de- prives the working classes of their best | elements, it is one great cause of the ex- | aggerated competition which falls with crushing weight on the lower levels of the intellectual professions"
 We have heard much in Alabama re- gently of the drift of population from tho country districts to the towns. The causes of this change are partly econom- ical but every one who has much practi- cal acquaintance with country life will