The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-14

tional schools certain classes oi
 4 men, or rather classifictaions oi men. We have West Point and Annapo- lis, where we teach Americans how tc kill any other people that may deserve death at American hands. We have schools to teach the headers and schools to teach the lawyers and the farmers and the skilled in art and mechanics.
 Alas we have neither academic educa- ton nor literary facilities for the training of the men who must sit in the legisla- ture.
 Why not treat the legislators as fairly as we do the lawyers and doctors-pass upon their qualifications in open examina- ton. before swearing them into theii seats?
 To illustrate, how many members oi the present legislature of Alabama have correct information of the history oi revenue laws in this state-what the con ditions were, what the effect of the oper- ation of the statutes, what changes have been found necessary, and why?
 Practice-practice of hand heart and mind-makes perfect. The trained legis- lative mind is necessary to grapple with the energies of this age. What has made Oscar Underwood? Where are the trained statesmen of Alabama? Echo answers where? We have cut off the training given by the legislature itself We have quadrennial session rather than bien' nial. Why? Because our constitutional or sovereign convention, composed of 15i men, untrained as to most of them, knew not what they were doing.
 The new president of Princeton ex- claimed the other day. upon taking up his task: Let me make the educated mind the man will go out and find his true place.
 I wish we could be always assured that lives of great men tend to high purpose.
 I want to say word about two gov ernors of Alabama that represented two types of men and two spheres of political sentiment in the old regime One of these, John Gill Shorter, was reared in affluence and was of the highest ideal of the southern gentleman. The elegance of his manners had descended to him and was shared by his brothers, of whom there was more than one.
 The other was Thomas H. Watts. Watts could not be termed a man of polished manners. His distinction was in his com parative intellectual vigor his indomita- ble energy of mind and body. his direct and conscientious method of considering all questions and of treating all men. He could plead causes in more than one court the same day and sit up until midnight to prepare for the next day. He was a great ease lawyer" It is related that two landholders met in Montgomery and there renewed a controversy they had on hand about land titles. They agreed to leave the dispute to Watts to determine. Watts was at his desk, hard at work. He heard the matter as given to him and answered in a single word on the spot, ''Is there fee?''
 "One hundred dollars" The client stood aghast but paid up for a word only.
 Shorter was high on the roll of circuit judges. He was so amiable and so in- telligent that his popularity came natlir- ally as the favoring breezes. The old Shorter home, where his parents lived, at Eufaula, was just like him. Governor Jellxs owns it by inheritance.
 Shorter was states right democrat of the straightest sect. He was a deputy in the provisional congress of the Confed- eracy at Richmond, when he was elected governor. All the membership of this Congress had been chosen by the respec- tive secession state conventions. Shorter and Watts, both members of the Alabama convention. weer both classed as Yancey men, Watts until then was always a whis and unionist. He voted the whig presi- dential ticket even in lSs0. Shorter was Breckinridge man, in the issue of that campaign. Yancey and Watts were the delegates from the county of Montgomery to the secession convention of 1861. When the ordinance was spread before the Presidents desk to be signed by counties, at the call. Montgomery" Yancey and Watts walked up, arm and arm, to at tach their names. The convention broke out in loud applause, the galleries rang with applause. No other delegates so went forward. and none were thus hon ored. Watts had left the unionists the moment Lincoln was found to have car