A special tax for the benefit of all the higher educational institutions has been earnestly urged by the friends of public higher education. The constitution (art. 3, sec. 48) legalizes a tax for the support of the institutions, with the exception of the normals. It reads that the legislature shall have the right to levy taxes for "the support of public schools, in which shall be included colleges and universities established by the state; and the maintenance and support of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas." But the possible conflict between this provision and article 7, section 14, which prohibits the use of the funds of the general treasury for buildings for the University and the exclusion of the normals, makes a new constitutional grant of special taxation desirable to the University and the Agricultural and Mechanical College and the normals. An adequate special tax is pressingly needed in order that the institutions may be spared the biennial scramble for appropriations, and in order that they may plan an orderly development and with sureness work to the realization of their highest possibilities.