The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-30

We consider here the sudden, arbitrary and revengeful transfer of government In Alabama from higher to lower plano. Prior to the events following the success sion of the republican party to control of the federal government, in 1861 the structure of society in Alabama was un- surpassed in the security 1t offered to peace and the acquisition of stable pros perity. Let us point the fact with some examples. The population of the city or Mobile. census of 1s6o was 29,95S. showing an increase exceeding F per cent In the decade. At the session of the biennial legislature 1859, the merchants of Mo- bile made application for new bank, with a capital stock of s25oo,ooo. Let them have their bank" spoke Samuel F. Price. representative from Montgomery "let them have their bank, but let the charter require that every subscription to the bank must include one-third stock in the Alabama Central railroad later known as the South and North railroad. The Rice proviso was intended to expe- dite the rail connection between Mobile and the mineral counties. MT. Rice went on to speak of the abundance of capital awaiting investment in Alabama. He said: ''I know at this moment where In the little town of Montgomery S,9oO0O0, the cash of cotton planters, awaits in- vestment." The statecraft apparent was to empty the mineral commerce upon the one seaport of the state and thus to add to the wealth of that port in cotton com- merce.
 In conjunction with this class of legis- lation, the city of Mobile applied for per mission to issue its bonds to the amount of $SOo,00O to be sold at par, bearing high interest, the proceeds to be devoted to harbor improvement under the govern ment engineers and their rules and regu- lations The commerce in cotton grown and marketed and exported in the state boundaries left interest, commission sand profits in the state The little city was rich. It was contended by Rice that even more profitable results would follow when the land locked mineral wealth should be omptied by railroads upon the city wharves.
 The value of the export commerce of Mobile, in 1S59-60, was more than six times that of the port of Philadelphia. Rev. Basil Manly, one time president of
  cer of the Southern Baptist Theological seminary of Louisville, made compila- ton with great labor, showing that in 1880 the list of churches of all denomina- tions and creeds were more numerous in the south than in the north, and church membership in the south was greater in proportion to aggregate population or whites and blacks than in the north. A very large proportion of the slaves on the plantations were professors of the Christian religion. As to education, Yale did not exceed in reputation the South Carolina college; Harvard did not sur pass the University of Virginia. The public school system of Alabama had been developed in parallel lines with that of Indiana, both states about the same age and both beneficiaries of the same acts of Congress to promote public education,
 After 1860. the northern states were and are still the beneficiaries of disastrous in equality of disbursements of federal tax ation. For example, a vast sum of public money was taken generation ago from the treasury at Washington and deposited in New York banks, where it remains without interest charges, subject to the ordinary uses of those institutions as if of their commercial deposits. Vast and ever increasing pensions are distributed.