Birmingham age-herald., 1895-02-20

the bill to this house, and held itin com
 mittee till only eight or nine legislative days remained for it's consideration in the two houses.
 Upon it's being reported to the house a bitter factional fight was made against it. Filibustering and motions for delay were freely and constantly resorted to till late in the day of the forty-seventh legislative cay, when for the fifth tune a determined effort was made to defeat the bill, which Jailed. Whereupon the friends of the measure demanded the previous question, and on the passage of the bill every op- | ponent 0. the democratic party, with the | single exception of the representative from Chiffon county, and the champions of tho moneyed interests and tax skulkers de. | feated the bill.
 Ia this dire extremity the speaker, by | almost superhumau efforts aud personal | appeals, obtained reconsideration of the | vote and reference of the bill to a special I committee of three friends of the bill and | three opponents; this was all that could be done.
 1hs committee, in order to secure any increase whatever in the revenue for the l state, was forced to strike out the provi- | sions of the bill which, if enacted, would l have required corporate capital, for the | first time, 10 bear some part of the public 1 burden; and would also have made the l money lenders, who enjoy the protection of
  | part of the cost of maintaining the govern | ment.
 | They were also forced to allow q tax | payer to deduct the amount of his indebt- edness rom the amount of solvent credits | owned by him, and return only the excess 1 for taxution for the year 1S95-a special ] privilege, favor, shown to no other class, | thus opening wide the door for frauds anu | perjuries and the escape of millions of property from taxation.
 They were forced to submit tO have the | section of the bill repeating section 1128 of | the code stricken out. This section has for | many years been a blot on our statute books. It has enabled the persons operat- 1 ing railroads in this state to claim that they l paid the salary and expenses of the railroad | commission, aud therefore the legislature should not reduce said salaries, and it also l gave them cover to protect them from | paying an excise tax, which nearly every stale levies. It has for years, ever since Commissioners Bragg, Crook and Ball made such plain recommendations for leg | islation looking to the protection of the l people from the unjust discrim nations and hard extortions by persons operating rail roads, been held as rod of terror over the | legislature and commissioners to effect | ualy exempt the railroads from just, fair | control by the state.
 | They were also forced to allow share- l holders in banks to deduct from the just l value of their shares the assessed value of | the real property of the bank, thus al- 1 lowing class of persons to deduct from | the value of their property the value of an- l others property, an undue advantage, | wholly inexcusa ble and not allowed any I other class Of our people, and of which our l supreme court has said:
 "1,o hold that a shareholder in a na- l tional bank Is entitled to have his assess ment reduced because some part of the
 capital stock is invested in property and | taxed as such would be to accord to him a | double discount, while no other tax payer l is favored so much.p
 | h addition, they have required that the | shares be assessed to the bank. which does l not and cannot own them, for the sole pur- l pose of enabling the bank to fight off taxa tion in manner t an honest man can not do.
 For these reasons, and many others that | can easily be given, do most earnestly and | solemnly protest against any such unjust, unconstitutional action, and this utter dis regard oi the rights of the people, whereby
 the single tax system, in it's most odious | and unjust form, is fastened upon indi l vIduals owning small amounts of real l property. SAM WILL JOHN. | BROUGHT FORTH oRAToRY. | Speaker Clark called MT. Ward to the | chair and was recognized. He said with respect to the protest of the gentleman | from Jefferson on the revenue bill that l since 1t contained direct It aection upon | many of the democrats of the house, of 1 which he was one, he could not let 1t pass | without something in justification of those l at whom it was directed. This legislature | from it's beginning did what it thought to | be to the best interest of the people whom | it served, he said, aud he was not at all | satisf ed that tue gentleman from Jefferson should besmirch the reputation of this l people by such serious charges.
 MT. John said he implied nothing, nor 1 did he besmirch the reputation of auy one the protest is there for itself.
 MT. Clark said he protested in the name | of the legislature against the slander under l the cover of a constitutional right against | the members of the house.
 | MT. Graham entered protest, holding l that all have right to protest, but he | thought it had been abused in this in- | stance. He cited it's effects upon the delay | in transacting the business of the house; besides, 1t loaded down the journal pages. | The house had acted upon the revenue | questions, and were the members to be l called to taw?
 Mir. Davis had the protest read and wig orously protested against it's entry upon | the journal. He did not deny the right of l the gentleman to enter protest, but he 1 did not think this was such a protest as Is | contemplated by the constitution to be al- | lowed upon the journal He held that the house had the right to say whether such a document could Dc spread upon the jour- nal.
 At this point Speaker Clark, who had re- | turned to the chair, said that he would
 hold that the house had supreme control of | what should go upon the journal. | MT. Davis resumed by moving that the | house refuse to allow the protest to go upon | the journal. He held thati was the duty l of every member to see that nothing should | go upon the journal that should disrespect | 1t or the members of the body. He charged | that the author sought to hide behind the | constitution iu order to shoot his venom at those who opposed him and cut of his ex- | alted ambition. He further charged that | parts of the protest were untrue, especially 1 that part where he says 'sfriends of the
 measure called for the previous question: l on the revenue debate. He said he voted against the bill because it was one of the worst that could be framed. He arose as a