The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-27
LETTERS TO EDITOR
University of Alabama and Justice

To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 As a citizen, taxpayer and as one stren- uously and successfully engaged for more than a quarter of a century in teaching boys of this city and state, I beg the privilege, through your columns, of sub- hitting to fair-mindec citizens of Ala bama my earnest protest against the ar- tificial, arbitrary, unjust and tyrannous regulation set up and maintained at the University of Alabama, whereby Starke's University school and possibly other pri- vate schools of this state, are wrong fully denied certain rights and privileges that are freely granted to 107 other schools in the state; most of them doing work certainly no better than Starke s school is doing, and doubtless many of them on account of their crowded condi- ton, their young and inexperienced teachers, doing work by no means equal to that of Starke's school.
 In effect, the University of Alabama has decreed that the certificates of some teachers in the state shall admit their students to the University of Alabama without examination, and that the certlil- cates of other teachers, equally as com pctent, equally as successful and equally as reliable. shall not entitle their holders to this same privilege of admission with out examination.
 The schools that enjoy the certificating rryilege and special favor of the Univer- sity of Alabama, must have at least three teachers professing to devote their whole time to high school subjects. It matters not how crowded their classes may be- nor how young and inexperienced the teachers, provided only that these teach- CTS attempt nothing but high school sub- jects.
 The University of Alabama knows noth- ing of the fitness for college work or the applicants coming from these arbitrarily favored schools; and yet, without so much as an effort to ascertain their ht- ness or unfitness, the University of Ala bama admits to the freshman class With out examination applicants who present certificates of alleged preparation, fs- sued by any one of the university's arbl- trarly favored schools
 On the other hand, better prepared ap- plcants coming from non-affiliated schools. having been taught in small classes, by scholarly and experienced teachers. are required to undergo exam ira tion before admission to the freshman A--sN ~-O--
 class. -
 I deny that the University has either legal or moral right to enforce this arr bitrary, unjust and tyrannous discrimi- nation, which deprives some schools ana some citizens of their rights at the state university.
 To this unrighteous course, the Unlver- sity of Alabama seems to be prompted by three motives. These are:
 l. An inordinate desire for numbers, which can be more easily secured under a system of alleged preparation than un- der a system that requires applicants to give proof of their fitness for college work by standing fair examinations.
 2 The University of Alabama is at- tempting to conform to foreign standards prescribed by the Carnegie foundation. And it may be also that the university is seeking further favors from the Pea- body fund and from the general education board of New York. from which sources the university even now draws in large part the salaries of two of it's professors, namely, Prof. J. J. Doster and Prof. James s. Thomas of the school of educa- ton. who, together with Dr. Charles H. Barnwell, seem to be chief factors in de- -termining what schools in Alabama shall have certifcating privileges and what schools shall be denied these priv ileges.
 1. pose to discredit, and, if possible to kill these schools whose principals are un- able or unwilling to conform to the ab- surd three-teacher requirement.; whose principals dare to criticize the univer- sity and to condemn in unmeasured terms the present system of admission to the University of Alabama-a fraud-fostering system, though system, it must be ad- mitted, admirably adapted to furnishing the university with boys, while at the same time hiding the unfitness of these boys for college work. and concealing the inefficiency of the affiliated schools.
 A striking illustration of the injustice and tyranny of the university's discrimi- nation and of the fraud-fostering ten dency of the university-s affiliated sys- tenn, may be seen in the fact that one of the university s arbitrarily favored schools had seven of it's representatives to fail at the university in a single year, and still that school is arbitrarily retained on the university's list of favored schools.
 Another illustration of the university's