The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-07
EIGHT GOVERNORS OF ALABAMA
 1S74-1901
No. 132-First Electi on of Senator Pettus
 William c. Oates, Governor

did not want a per cent l5-year bond, so the scheme fell
 Had the governor taken wider ob- servation of conditions in Alabama. he
 riust have seen-that the proposed small
 state bonds. as investment, must com rete with the growing coal and iron business and with the cotton mill en- terprise and that the bonds could not stand up against such competition If the act had established a 50-year X lper cent bond on condition that 1t would Day interest only to an owner liyine. permanently in Alabama, the gover- nor's scheme might have been made operative and if so assuredly 1t must
 have been profitable to the state. as compared with the prevailing practice of semi-annual remittances of interest | to New York on upwards of a 80 000. .00O debt.
 Governor Oates devoted profound
 thought to the matter Of improving the finances and the tax laws. The fierce
 panic of 1893 had greatly depressed Values while upon this calamity came the fad of the legislature for reducing g the tax rate. Consequently Governor Jones of the preceding term had been forced to borrow s500,000. payable in monthly installments after the expira- tion of his term.
 Governor Oates traced the fact of de- ficiency of state income. after the res tcration of the tax rate to nsufficiency Of method of assessment and collection Of taxes As practical remedy in part he would discontinue the elected county assessors office. He would require the governor to appoint the county as-
 sessor and to appoint a state board of equalization of taxes. The state board | or equalization would classify all the lands of the'state by fixed rate. This recourse had been tried in other states bringing satisfaction.
 The governor found six mill rate
 in force. He was we'll convinced that a | five mill rate was sufficient if the
 method proposed should be adopted. The governor in his parting message at the close of the self-imposed one term, renewed a former recommenda . ton that the school fund be segrega ted. County superintendents .of schools should be possessed of Some ascer-
 tained degree of education themselves. | If the patrons of the school desired the superintendent should be woman. in
 that case. the office should be filled by appointment from the governor and l not by election! It was not until this year. 1896. that either great national party had declared for woman's enfran- ch1sement. The late republican quad rcnnial national convention at Mime apolis took that position, but the de-
 mooracy at Chicago was silent on the subject
 | Recurring to the indefinite methods | or keeping public accounts in tho counties. Governor Oates recommended
 a large increase in the corps of state examiners of public accounts He would assign one examiner to every congressional district.
 The retiring governor would have radical reform in prison management. Every county jail should be reduced to the direct management of the con vict bureau, The prison system would thus he placed under the same respon- sible head. To effect this end the convict bureau should be enlarged to | Tour officers from three and the func-