ALABAMA. 



Teachers are required to keep records and 

 make reports. Every child between the ages 

 of 7 and 21 years is " entitled to admission 

 into, and instruction in, any public school 

 of its own race or color in the township 

 in which he or she resides, or to any public 

 school of its own race or color in the State of 

 Alabama." Separate schools, separate records, 

 and a separate distribution of the poll-tax, for 

 *the education of white and colored children, 

 are provided for. The provisions of this act 

 do not apply to cities and incorporated towns 

 which are provided for by local school-laws. 

 At the time of the passage of this act, a pro- 



Some amendments, of no great importance, 

 to the registration and election laws were 

 adopted. An act was passed for the more 

 efficient organization of the volunteer militia 

 of the State. It is made subject to the orders 

 of the Governor and to the discipline of the 

 United States Army when in actual service. 

 An act was passed authorizing the appoint- 

 ment of a commissioner of swamp and over- 

 flowed lands. An act to regulate the practice 

 of medicine requires a diploma or certificate of 

 qualification from some authorized board of 

 medical examiners. The boards of censors of 

 the medical association of the State, and of the 



test was recorded against it by several mem- county associations in affiliation with it, are 

 bers of the Assembly, because it so restricted constituted authorized boards of medical ex- 

 aminers. The standard 

 of qualifications for the 

 practice of medicine, 

 and the rules govern- 

 ing the boards of ex- 

 aminers, are to be de- 

 termined by the State 

 medical association. 

 The diploma or certifi- 

 cate required for the 

 practice of medicine 

 must receive the in- 

 dorsement of the pro- 

 bate judge of the coun- 

 ty, and be recorded in a 

 book kept for the pur- 

 pose. Any person prac- 

 tising without such di- 

 ploma or certificate is 

 made liable to a fine, 

 and to imprisonment in 

 default of payment of 

 the fine. 



An act providing for 

 the payment of the 



obligations of the State, issued under the act 

 of December 19, 1873, entitled " An act to pro- 

 vide for the funding of the domestic debt of 

 the State," authorizes the Governor to issue 7 

 per cent. 20-years' bonds, not exceeding $1,000,- 

 000 in amount, for the purpose of taking up 

 such obligations. Another act authorized the 

 funding of the debts of municipal corporations, 

 city, town, and county, in bonds running not 



STATE CAPITOL, MONTGOMERY. 



the powers and duties of county superinten- 

 dents, and provided for the payment of teach- 

 ers only once a year, and then not by a fixed 

 compensation, but a pro-rata of the school- 

 fund, and for other reasons. The protest said : 

 " It will be such a retrogression as will place 

 our State, which now has a better educational 

 system than many, and a larger fund than some 

 of the States, behind them all, and even behind 



all the organized territories but one, in this more than 30 years, and bearing interest at 

 important interest. This, I am satisfied, is not more than 6 per cent. The existing in- 

 not in accordance with the spirit of our new debtedness must not be increased by the pro- 



constitution nor the genius of our people. 

 Our mineral wealth, our fertile soil and di- 

 versified products, and our genial climate, when 

 combined with general intelligence among the 

 people, will afford every element of State 

 wealth and happiness. If we would utilize 



cess, and the tax for the payment of interest 

 and principal of the bonds is limited to one- 

 half of 1 per cent, on the value of taxable 

 property. Among the other acts of the session 

 was one forming a new county, called Cull- 

 man, out of portions of Blount, Winston, and 



these elements and reap the benefits, we must Morgan, and providing for its organization, 



keep pace with the spirit of the age in the A joint resolution authorized the Governor 



matter of public education. It is mistaken to negotiate with the State of Georgia for the 



economy which would suffer us to go backward purpose of ascertaining and defining the bound- 



npfc^ Ignorance and its offsprings indolence, ary-line between the two States, "so that all 



ice, and crime are too costly to be encour- doubt may be removed as to the jurisdiction 



of the State of Alabama along the western 



