The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-17

Florida. .. 40c 100 per cent 4Oc
 Georgia .. .50c 100 per cent soc
 Arkansas. STAG 50 per cent Ac
 Louisiana 2oc 100 per cent 2oc
 Tn no southern state is the cost of operating the state as low as it is in Alabama and it is well known that the cost of government in the south is lower than in other sections. Tn fact, the cheapest thing going in Alabama is the state government
 THE PENSION FUND.
 Since the tax payers money is used solely to pay teachers and pensions and since the hire of convicts and licenses from foreign corporations pay other in- cidental expenses of the state govern ment, it follows naturally that a reduc- tion in taxes must force a corresponding reduction in the school and pension funds A loss can be made up in no other way.
 q wonder how many of the members os the Tax Dodgers league will vote to ask the legislature to reduce the school and pension funds Of course, no one will advocate the taking of one penny from the pittance which is now used to sustain the lives of Confederate veterans and widows of veterans. I fancy that even political microbe would run from his own image reflected in the placid waters of a lake after making such . suggestion.
 ''Only the educational funds are left for attack. Let us consider for mo- nent how Alabama stands educationally Annual reports of the various school of ficers of the state for the school year 19l9-1920 show that there are employed ir all the schools 10,sS5 white and 2,67o coIored school teachers, total of 13.065 The average salary is $44S per year less than the pay ofga common laborer. Will the Tax Dodgers league recommend that 1t be reduced to the level of the pay of a bootblack? ~
 "The longest term for the white schools of any county in Alabama last year was l70 days and there was only one such county. In eight counties the terms were less than 100 days. The average term for all the counties was 123 days. Will the Tax Dodgers league recommend that the terms be shortened? The university, Auburn, Montevallo and all the normal schools are in dire need of funds to carry on the work for which they were created. At the university approximately 20 per cent of the work is being done in the military shacks erected during the s. A. T. e. days.s These shacks are mere shells and there. is constant danger from fires A distressing condition exists at Auburn, where the agricultural building was recently burned. The insurance money will not replace the building and the college is without funds to supple ment it. Would it not be more com mendable for the Tax Dodgers league to help sustain these, institutions rather than further cripple them?
 OTHER REDUCTIONS
 ''If the Tax Dodgers league keeps it's hands off the old soldiers and widows of soldiers and the school teachers and school children, where will it turn for victims to satisfy it's personal greed. which it is pleased to term It's desire for retrenchment? There is one alternative. It@can demand reduction of the funds for the maintenance of the unfortunate wards of the stateNt the insane at the two hospitals, the little fellows at the Boys Industrial school, the little girls at the Girls Training school. the boys and girls at the Deaf. Dumb and Blind school. Or perhaps it might try to abolish the child welfare department, which is doing such a wonderful work for the poor and neg leeted children of the state. The bene- fits to accrue from a proper support and development of this. work are incalcu- lable fWill the Tax Dodgers league at tempt to strike it down?
 T wish every right-thinking citizen of Aiabama might hold the scales of state within his fingers for one short hour. wish, he might see piled on the left the dollars which represent only little more than one-half of the amount he and his neighbogs are rightfully due. wish he might see piled on the right the bright faced children who are pleading only for that half a chance which the state IS now attempting to give. and above them the old men and women who ask for nothing more than bread and water to sustain life in repayment for the broken lbodies which they threw between this generation and the dangerssof the years gone by. wish he might see with his own eyes the. balance as it becomes un' steady and then slowly Elves way under the weight which the state is carrying in order that in the years to come it's men and women may be better prepared