The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-12
NEW YORK IS PROUD
 0F SCHOOL SYSTEM
Interesting Facts In Commis-
 sioner Draper's Report
ARE OTHER PLACES
What Gotham Does Is Important, But Things of Financial Interest Are Also Stirring in the Mid
 dle West
BY ROBERT LEE CARTER

BY ROBERT LEE CARTER
 New York. February n.-(special.)- New York has good reason to be proud of her rublic school system. Some time ago wrote something about the scope of | this great institution. Some other in- teresting facts have just been made pub lie in the annual report of Or. Andrew s. Draper, state commissioner of edaca- ton.
 The total number of students in att tendance at the public schools of the state during the past year was 1,s6s.16o. an increase of 25.251 There were 59,075 teachers employed during the past year, an increase of 12S7. Of this number g were in the trade schools The number of graduates increased 11Ss Tho net value of property increased s15. .475,11O. The total expenditures for the year were s14, 423,S25.14. decrease of s2,272. Ss2.24 over the year preceding.
 These figures are almost past compre- hension. The schools themselves are marvels of convenience. Every appli- ance for making the work of the pupils | easier aud more thorough Is provided and | | he very latest methods of teaching are | employed.
 To one who received his schooling .n a little log country school house in Ala bama just after the war, 1t is all very wonderful to go through one of the big city schools with Its 200O or 25OO pupils. One thing find we had in the old days, however, which is lacking in the New York schools, and that is the old-fash- toned hickory sapling, which could al- most have been considered the badge of office of the schoomaster of my time. am not at all sure its abolition is llto- gether a good thing.
 Talking about the New York schools, my old friend Maj. w. c. F. Price, form erly of Georgia, was wearing a broad smile when I met him the other day. His son, a sturdy young cracker of 13, had just graduated from public school as salutatorian of his class of 126 boys. Young Price, about the youngest lad In the class, came within very few points of getting the valdictory. He comes hon estly by his aptitude for study as among his forbears were some of the best known educators in the south. His great grand father. Dr. John Darby. was for many years at Wesleyan, in Macon, Ga, Au- burn, Ala, and Hopkinsville, Ky. another of standard text books on botany and
 
 (. Price, was a clerk of the first seces- sion convention at Montgomery, and was we'll known in Alabama as scientist of distinction. An uncle, Dr. G. F. Price, was president of Colleges for Women at Tuskegee and Huntsville, Ala, and Nash vile, Tenn, for many years and his ma ternal grandfather, Prof. R. w. B. iiun- TO, was one of the best known educa- tors in Georgia generation ago
 What New York does Is important very important. But there are other pacles insthe United States whose doings are not without financial interest. From a high official of one of the best known industrial companies in the middle west comes the following contributions: T fave just returned from two wee ks trip throughout Arkansas and Louisiana, very much impressed with the pocsipii- ties that lie before these two states as their resorces are developed. I cane .nto intimate contact with all sorts and cordi- tions of people in large and small to 4ns. and was much struck with the hopeful spirit prevailing everywhere as with the material facts. I learned to my great interest that these two states have quite a large proportion of the remaining un- cut hardwood-yellow pine and cypress timber-in this country, particularly the latter, that they are annually producing many million dollars, worth of rice, which am inclined to think is going to become more and more a staple food in this country because of its cheapness and nutrition; that Louisiana, particularly the western portion and especially the northwestern section, is developing into one of the great oil and gas fields of the country; that there are vast coal mines in the Ozark regions of Arkansas which are just beginning to be developed, and which supply coal of most excellen: quail ity, and that there Is every reason to be- lieye that the Ozark regions of Arkansas contain lead and zinc in at least as good quantities as those of Missouri.
 The Agricultural college Is abroad in both states doing excellent work and steadily teaching the farmers the value of intensified and scientific land cu;i.va- tion. There is realization in both of these commonwealths that they hayc all the facilities for very extensive dairy and live stock interests. and they have oth started on the right road, raising more corn than ever before in their history and more than they can consume within their own borders. To my mind the greatest of all improvements is the steady drainage of swamp lands into some of the richest land of the world, capable of raising anything. Of course, this means largely the elimination of malarial diseases and the utilization of what before has simply been menace to public health and of no utility to any one.
 My trip has more than ever convinced me of che fact that within the next ten years the greatest industrial and agri- cultural development will be in that sec ton of our country south of Mas,n and DixOns line. The people themselves are awakening to the realization of the .,os- abilities that lie before them al d are confident as to the future"
 ''The father of William Jennings Bryan was wise old farmer, said l.. J Har- rison of Atlanta, Ga. Once inc had sev- cral hams stolen from his smokehouse He missed them at once, but said noth- ing abo 1t the loss-not even to any incm- Der of his family. few days aftcrwarG a neighbor farmer came to him and said
 So. MT. Bryan. heard tell that some of your hams was stole t'other night
 Yes I had several fine hams stolen said MT. Bryan in low whisper: but please cont tell anyone. You and I are the only ones that know about It..
 ''The boil weevil has not left Texas, notwithstanding the reports of some per- sons n'erested in the production of cot ton," said Otto Townsend, a cotton grow not so destructive as it formerly WIS, but there are just as many of the pcsky critters left az there were some years ago. Cotton growers have learned to get the best of the boil weevil, however, and that Is the reason we are producing