. In 1900, out of a class of 178 boys and 23
girls, two boys and four girls took the highest honors.

The State Industrial School for Girls, at Montevallo, was established
in 1896. There are two co-educational Normal Schools at Florence and
Troy.

The colored men and women have excellent advantages in several Normal
Schools and Colleges. The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute,
under the presidency of Booker T. Washington, has a national
reputation. Colored children have also their full share of public
schools.

There are in the public schools 2,262 men and 5,041 women teachers.
The average monthly salary of the men is $32; of the women, $25.35.

* * * * *

The most progressive movement in the State is that of the Federation
of Women's Clubs, formed in 1895, and including at present fifty-eight
clubs. Its work has been extremely practical in the line of education
and philanthropy. The most important achievement is the Boys'
Industrial Farm, located at East Lake near Birmingham. This is managed
by a board of women and has a charter which secures its control to
women, even if it become entirely a State institution. The club women
have for three years sustained five scholarships for girls, two at
Tuscaloosa and three at Montevallo. They have organized also a free
traveling library, and in four cities free kindergartens.

In conclusion it may be noted that the strength of the woman movement
in the State has been wonderfully developed in all directions during
the last five years.

FOOTNOTES:

[158] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Ellen Stephens
Hildreth of New Decatur, the first president of the State Woman
Suffrage Association.

[159] In the Constitutional Convention of 1901, an amendment providing
that any woman paying taxes on $500 worth of property might vote on
all bond propositions was adopted with great enthusiasm, but the next
day, under the influence of the argument that "it would be an entering
wedge for full suffrage," it was reconsidered and voted down. U. S.
Senator John T. Morgan urged this amendment. The new constitution did
contain a clause, however, providing that if a wife paid taxes on $500
worth of property her husband should be entitled to this vote.

CHAPTER XXVI.

ARIZONA.[160]

The Territory having elected delegates to a convention to be held in
Phoenix in August and September, 1891, to prepare a constitution for
Statehood