Birmingham age-herald., 1895-03-10

came to see me in tho senate and said he
 heard l would not rass the bill. re-
 marked, 'Not yet, Joe.n The next or the same day, my colleagues in the house asked conference on Jefferson bills. This bill
 was the only one discussed. as you know. l gave you all no satisfaction and you pro- ceeded to church me. The next day the mayor, in response to my telegram, came down, certain amendments satisfactory, as MT. Montgomery stated, to the delegation were agreed upon by Mayor
 VanHoose and MT. McCartin and the bill was passed a few minutes thereafter. I cannot see for my life how any man who
 knew the facts could find room to criticise my action on this court bill. If did not
 vote according to the wishes of majority of my constituents on the alien railroad
 bill it may have been because the senate heard only one side of the question, as
 Mir. London or no one else opposed 10 1t
 ever appeared before the senate committee.
 MT. London defeated this bill. In my judgment you will see this will have no
 more weight in determining the ownership of the Alabama Great Southern railroad than "gnat on bulls horn.' l ap- pend here letter from Hon. J. II. Mont gouery, which ought to satisfy every
 thin king man as to my collusion with any one in the matter, and satisfy all your h. situations:
 BIRMINGHAM, Ala. March 2, 1895.
 Hon John T. Mllner, Newcastle, Ala.- My DEAR SIR: I beg to state in regard lO JIo hti6u TdllIOHu Dlll duQ tuO iui0tAoA court bill that you never authorized me or anyone else, so far ss l know, to make any
 deal through the court bill for votes for the alien railroad bill. And 1 am sure l did not know how you would vote on the court bill until you required Mir. Van Hoose end MT. McCartin on the part of Birmingham
 and me on the part of the house to sign the agreement consenting to it's passage. Yours very truly,
 Jos. II. MONTGOMERY. -YOu further say: stkl6ior O'Brien here- with puts a few questions 10 the gray
 haired senator, which he hopes he will enlighten his suffering constituents on while he is making statemeuts.'
 will answer them, not in the order they come, however. l will take up first the laborers' lein bill. This bill (house bill No. 155) was placed on the calendar on the 18th Of February as follows from the judi ciary adversely:
 'sHouse bill 155-To secure the wage earners employed in the business of min
 ing, manufacturing, transportation, mer- chandise, hotels or other industries priority over other creditors in case of 1n- solvency.o Any one can see from the reading of the title to tbis bill that 1t was
 not Jefferson county local bill, but ap- piled to every county in the state, and was
 Q general bill, and that senatorial courtesy
 did not and could not apply. When it
 came over from the house il was read only by it's title, and Jefferson not appearing in
 the title had no idea it was local bill, or
 Mr. O'Brien's bill. Nor did notics that
 such bill was on the calendar until called
 up by MT. ,Hundley, on an adverse report
 or the judiciary committee. on the night of the 10th, against rule of the senate passed on the morning of the 18th that bills ad-
 versed should not be considered. l append
 here the action taken iu the senate on this bill as appears in the Advertiser of the 18th: House bill 155-To secure the wage- earners employed in the business of min ing, etc., priority over other creditors in af iaar from judiciary committee.)
 Mir. Hundley favored the bill, and said it was in the interest of class of people
 who most needed it.
 Mir. Almon said it was in the interest of
 fraud and the bill was not good one. He
 did not think the bill ought to pass.
 MT. Sayre said this state and nearly all the states had adopted the policy of allow ing no preference to creditors. We have
 had statutes on our books for years looking to this very end, and notwithstanding that
 the evil has not been entirely cut off. The
 bill is step backward and ought not to become law.
 The adverse report was concurred in. It was almost unanimously defeated. I also append a letter from Senator Almon in
 reference to this and the two weeks pay bill.
 TUsCUMBIA. Ala, March 5, 1895.
 Col. John T. Miner, Newcastle, Aia.-
 DEAR CoLoNEL: Your favor of the 4th instant received and noted. Both bills of Mir. O Brien referred to by you, one being the two weeks pay roll bill anu the other to secure wage earn CTS, etc., priority over
 other creditors in case of insolvency, were
 reported adversely by the senate judiciary
 committee. The first named bill, to the best of my recollection, was never placed upon the senate calendar. The latter one
 was, and was called up by. MT. Hundley, and after some discussion the adverse re- port of the committee was concurred in. You did not appear before the judiciary committee in reference to these bills, and
 never, to my knowledge, had anything to say in opposition to either of said bills. With kind regards am yours very truly, ED B. ALMoN, It will be seen here that all of your suspi- cions about my opposition to this bill are groundless. l really favored the laborers' lien bill, and hoped it would be local bill for Jefferson county alone, and notwith- standing your statement that the gray haired senator was "sot against It, must state that you were mistaken. as have no recollection of the conversation whatever, and besides, on consultation
 with MT. Mason, chairman of our county executive committee, he advised me to vote for your local bills for political reasons. bad no idea that you had introduced this as general bill instead of a local bill. Com ing to the senate as 8 general bill, it was almost unanimously defeated. Whereas, if it had come up as local bill for Jefferson county alone, 1t would have been law now. As to your two weeks pay bill, 1t never came before the senate for action, as it was killed, as learn, by the senate judi ciary committee. The mistake you made was in introducing these two bills as gen. but yourself for their defeat in the senate
 judiciary committee. You say they passed the house by large majorities. How often
 does it happen that bills pass the house by large majorities to be defeated by equally as large majorities in the senate, and vice versa7 The house bill reducing the area of | counties to 400 square miles, or allowing three counties to be made out of Jefferson,