The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1912-10-18

| N6"e WI bniS IHSdsuTc, ana leu 1tb ad
vocacy before the legislature to a sue.
cessful conclusion.
IL Is very noticeable that Governor
McMlllin's modesty has not increased
with age.
Inspection of State Banks.
My platform again declares in favor
OF law for the rigid inspection of state
banks, SO that both depostors and stock.
holders may be better protected Ten.
nessee is one of only three states which
have no bank inspection law, and, the
Federal government has declined to
make postal deposits in our state for
that reason. The people of this state
have suffered enough from banks looted
from the inside to cause the law-making
power to take steps for their protection
Two years ago the the platforms OF
all parties in the state favored bank
inspection law. This year the McMrilin
platform omts all reference to the mat.
ter. Perhaps they have backslidden on
this subject.
The Divorce Evil.
One of the greatest evils in Tennessee
today is the lax administration of liber.
al divorce laws. This condition is under.
mining the social morals of the state,
and converting marriage into the mock
cry OF temporary convenience.
| Public sentiment all over the nation,
under the leadership of thought4ul and
far-seeing men, is becoming aroused to
the necessity of reformation of the
| divorce laws, and the enactment of uni
form laws upon this subject by the vari-
GUS states.
believe it safe to say that three out
| of -four of the divorces obtained in Ten
nessee are the result of collision between
the parties, are therefore in violation of
the law, and are an imposition ON the
trial courts and the public.
Anything that impairs the sacredness
of the marriage, contract and cheapens
it in the eyes of the people is of meal
| culable detriment to society, and the
state should, therefore, intervene and
prevent the abuses of the divorce system
so far as possible.
Public Education.
Both Governor McMillln's platform
| and mine contain strong declarations in
favor of public education. More money
is being spent in Tennessee today than
ever before for the support of the public
school system, and yet Tennessee, ac-
cording to the statistics, ranks third
from the bottom on the list of all the
states in point of illiteracy. She also
ranks badly in point of amount spent
by the state for the education of each
child. The qaestion of how to raise more
money for the common schools is one of
very great difficulty. The amount be-
ing spent now, along with one or two
more meritorious appropriations, has
rendered it necessary for the state to
suspend payments ON its bonded indebt-
edness.
/ will continue to advocate rigid econ.
omy in other expenditures of the State
Government and the utmost liberality
for the common schools.
Just as our love for our children
stands in advance of every private and
personal feeling, so does public educa-
ton outweigh every other public con-
sideration. Some of the obligations of
the state might, perhaps, be honorably
deferred, but the obligation of the state
to its boys and girls must be discharged
now or never.
The unused power of the streams tina:
leap down our mountains and hills to
the sea is not hopelessly lost, for the
sun and wind may some day bring the
water back to where it may yet turn
the wheels of modern industry. Not so
with the wasted energies of men. The
boy who is compelled to pass through
life with an undeveloped brain, unframed
hand and mcultured soul, is but the
shrunken image of what he might have
been. His personal deprivation is deplor-
able and the loss to the world is great.
Therefore | say we must educate, edu-
cate, even if we are forced to feel the
hard PRESSURE of rigid economy.
Our university and normal schools
must be maintained, but above all the
country schools, beyond which the null
titude of our children never go, must be
fostered, encouraged and built up with
out delay. We need consolidated schools,
longer schools, better school houses, bet
ter paid teachers, more practical course
of study and uetter facilities for teach
ing it.
Having furnished these facilities, the
state should see that no helpless child
is deprived of them by the negligence
of parents or the greed of employers.
The public school system must be TAX
en- out of politics and kept out, both in
the state and county. The granting of
certificates of qualification to candidates
for county superintendent must be upon
merit and not upon political favoritism.
The State Board of Education must not
be political machine. The public school
funds and the interests of the little chill
dren are too sacred to be prostituted to
such ends.
Compulsory Primaries.
AS all the platforms declare in favor
of compulsory primaries for the nompa-
ton of candidates for public office, tRS
much-needed legislation ought to be en-
acted. The thoroughly discredited mob
convention and soap-box primary should
be discarded and thrown into the scrap
heap, and the people should be given the
opportunity to vote directly for their
party candidate, under all restrictions
and safeguards that surround regular
elections. The Patterson-McMillin crowd
gave free, public demonstration of the
need of legislative primary down in
Shelby county in August. The argu-
ment will be clinched in November. Such
few Patterson MeMillin candidates as
succeed in getting elected to the legis-
lature may then proceed to carry out