The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-12

neering, it's school of education. and its , school of law-all combined. The bal ance of it's income to maintain these great departments of study, amounting in all
 to only $100,0O0 per annum, comes from l students fees, from endowments, and
 from the constitutional provision (gener- ally conceded to be less than one-third ot
 the amount equitably due) in settlement l of certain old claims of the University Of l Alabama against the state. Not a dollar I is received from the federal government. | The University of Alabama has lived and prospered under financial conditions that would have brought to the very verge Of destruction any ordinary institution or 1 learning.
 "There are only two things connected | with the administration of public edu- | cation in Alabama which, in my judg- ment, involve waste: one is the excessive | duplication of work in certain directions 1 and under widely differing standards, in | the field of higher education; and the | other is the attempt to maintain, at the expense of the state, too many instftu- | tions of certain types, each struggling Tor | existence, instead of smaller number of such institutions equipped in a standard way These two leaks do exist, and l am persuaded that the remedy will be found to meet the situation. It must be met If Alabama is to build up modern institu- tions of higher learning equipped to rem der the highest service to the youth of l this state.
 Lack of Correlation
 "2 Another criticism of public educa- ton in Alabama, which, l think. has a sounder basis is the criticism that there | is a certain lack of articulation, or corre- lation, in certain parts of the system-for example. the existence of a great twilight zone between the high school and the college I have previously referred to the excessive duplication of work in CO., ordinate colleges This is largely her | itage of past conditions, as we have al 1 ready indicated. There also exists cer- | tain indefensible kind of duplication of work in the high school, the normal school and the college. This kind of du- | plication involves something more im- portant than the mere question of econo-
 my and efficiency. It involves the very
 existence of the high school in many lo- I caities. it involves, too, the well being of the boy or girl who, at an immature age, is drawn away from home and the l high school, and totally unfitted for the freedom of college life and the severe tests of college discipline is thrust into | it's temptations and responsibilities.
 ] "The public high school is an infant in-
 
 American usage, needs protection. I have already intimated that in some instances our tax supported schools are hybrid in stitutions. I now say without hesitation | that our colleges cannot do standard col | lege work, maintain standard college ad-
 mission requirements. and at the same l time educate Alabama boys until we can | have a sufficient number of standard | four year high schools. We can educate | A few of the more favored class of people | who live in the more favored communities | or who have the money and the ambi- 1 tion to migrate to other communities for
 standard high school training; but the average Alabama boy of slender means, l in one-half of our communities simply cannot. under present conditions, except l in isolated cases. find the training neces-
 sary for admission to a standard college unless we provide a complete chain oi standard public high schools, and we can not provide such chain of high schools until the colleges, and in certain phases of the situation the normal schools Ike wise, cease to competetwith them. l make l this further statement: that our colleges having now solved the problem of num- bers, do not at this time so much need larger numbers as they need candidates l for admission who are equipped for stu
 dent life and the scholars goal. 1 make
 this further statement: that there is nc
 amount of money likely to be spent in | standardizing higher education in Ala bama that will help the average Ala bama boy of slender means until he Is given a chance to equip himself at homo
 to take advantage of standard college
 course
 What we need, therefore, is rational
 coordination of all tax supported eff
 fort in the field of higher education; and
 we should not chafe under any fair crit
 icism that is designed to bring to pass
 this essential reform. Then, and not
 until then. win the various divisions of
 our education army cease to be, in this
 particular direction, a kind of mob adopt
 ing guerilla tactics, rather than an or
 ganized. disciplined force marching on