12 



ALABAMA. 



With increasing prosperity and population the 

 assessments continually diminish, and this con- 

 dition of affairs is attributed to some radical 

 defect in the revenue laws. 



The school statistics of 1879, compiled by 

 the Superintendent, give the number of per- 

 sons of school age as follows : 



Whites 214.093 



Colored 162,551 



Total, 



Those in attendance in public schools : 



Whites 106,950 



Colored 67,635 



Total 174,585 



The number of children at colleges and pri- 

 vate schools is about equal to that in the free 

 schools. Of colleges in the State there are the 

 State University, the Agricultural and Mechan- 

 ical College, the Normal (white) at Florence, 

 and also one at Huntsville and the other at 

 Marion, both colored. Besides these, there 

 are male colleges at Greensboro, at Mobile, at 

 Marion, and at Oxford. There are female col- 

 leges at Tuskegee and Eufaula, at Montgom- 

 ery two, at Marion two, at Huntsville two, at 

 Athens, Florence, and Tuscaloosa two, and 

 in almost every city, town, and village in the 

 State are flourishing private schools. There 

 has never been before such an interest in 

 schools and education generally in Alabama 

 as now exists. 



While comparatively little has been expend- 

 ed in schoolhouses, salaries, printing, and books, 

 a large proportion of the children are edu- 

 cated in log structures bnilt by neighbor- 

 hoods. The people have cheerfully paid the 

 tax for free schools in sums relatively larger 

 than the amounts paid by the populations ot 

 richer States. The following statistics show 

 the improvement in public schools within a 

 few years : 



In 1874-75, 145,797 pupils were taught in 

 3,898 schools an average of about sixty days, at 

 a cost of $562,437.50. 



In 1875-76, 126,891 pupils were taught in 

 3,632 schools an average of eighty days, at a 

 cost of $351,496.64. 



In 1876-77, 143,571 pupils were taught in 

 4,175 schools an average of eighty-one and one 

 halt' days, at a cost of about $370,000. 



In 1877-78, 160,713 pupils were taught in 

 4,796 schools an average of eighty-four and 

 two-thirds days, at a cost of $377,634.38. 



In 1878-79 not including Fayette and Win- 

 ston Counties, from which no reports have been 

 made, and not including the unreported negro 

 schools of Blount 172,540 pupils were taught 

 in 4,582 schools an average of eighty -four davs, 

 at a cost of $381,884.35. 



The Hoard of Health for the State differs with 

 the National Board of Health about the ex- 

 pediency of intrusting the administration of 

 quarantine to any other health authorities than 

 those of its own people and appointment. The 

 State Board objects to the several bills before 



Congress for increasing the efficiency of the 

 National Board, as interfering with State and 

 local quarantine. It argues that no uniform 

 system of quarantine regulations is suitable at 

 all times and places ; but that one which is ap- 

 plicable to one place will often prove unsuited 

 to another, and that in different seasons even 

 the same place will require different regula- 

 tions. It holds also that the circumstantial 

 details of quarantine present the important 

 problems of quarantine administration, and 

 that only by experts, intimately acquainted 

 with the local conditions, can these be wisely 

 ordered and managed. The State Board also 

 objects to the rule established in 1879 by the 

 National Board, to the effect that assistance 

 should be extended only to such State and mu- 

 nicipal boards as had first adopted the national 

 rules and regulations, and it contends that such 

 State and municipal boards as desire the as- 

 sistance of the National Board should be re- 

 quired to submit their local regulations to the 

 National Board for examination, and if these 

 are found sufficient the needed assistance should 

 be granted; that the National Board ought 

 properly to have the general direction and con- 

 trol of quarantines against foreign countries, 

 but that even these international quarantines 

 could be most wisely administered through the 

 agency of State and municipal boards having 

 local jurisdiction in the seaport cities. The 

 Alabama Board disclaims any antagonism to 

 the National Board; on the contrary, admits 

 for it a wide and important field of usefulness 

 within which State and municipal boards have 

 no jurisdiction, and that its existence should be 

 maintained by the appropriations for which it 

 has made application, as necessary for the suc- 

 cessful continuance of scientific investigations, 

 sanitary surveys, and other works of sanitary 

 administration and research that have been 

 auspiciously begun. 



The commissioners representing the late cor- 

 poration of Mobile, in October, 1880, decided 

 with the bondholders on a basis of adjustment 

 in the payment of three per cent, for five years, 

 four per cent, for fifteen years, and five per 

 cent, for five years. Under the terms of the 

 act annulling the charter of the late city, the 

 commissioners are required to report to the 

 Governor of the State the result of their com- 

 promise with the bondholders. The attorney 

 of the commissioners will at the same time 

 submit to the Legislature a draft of such an 

 act for their consideration as, in the judgment 

 of the commissioners, may be required to carry 

 into effect the scheme of adjustment agreed 

 upon. On the passage of such act the com- 

 missioners are to apply to the Chancery Court 

 at Mobile for such orders and decrees as may 

 be necessary to secure the application of the 

 assets under its jurisdiction to the uses and 

 purposes agreed upon. 



A decision by the United States Supreme 

 Court in several cases arising from the repeal 

 of the Memphis charter follows the decision 



