The age-herald., 1897-12-24

around us, which teach us that the evil grows worse each year. and calls for | prompt and heroic remedies
 Almost any sacrifice which would remove | this aff1iction from us would be cheap. It is said that the times are not pro- ] pitious for a=convention, and l am com | pelled to admit that they are not as 1 would wish them, but we let the halcyon l days go by, and each year since 1888 has l been worse. When, l ask, my conserva- | tive friends, will the happy day come, when ws may safely call this long-hoped | for and much-needed convention? There are so many things that cry out l for change that l could easily fill much l more of your space than either your pa- l tience or my desire will permit, and so l l shall content myself with a few. As affecting us here particularly is the limitation upon the power of taxation by cities and towns. Every sane man knows that no town can be built and maintained on the present basis of taxation fixed by our constitution.
 Our city schools justly the pride of ey- cry citizen of Birmingham, and which should be the object of our solicitude, are on the verge of collapse, because the city authorities are unable to raise the means necessary to maintain them.
 From the same cause we suffer from dirty streets and other inconveniences, and complain of the city authorities, whose hands are tied by the fundamental law It is now said, however. and has been heretofore said so effectually by Birming- ham people. that they were unwilling to trust the city authorities with the addi- tional power of taxation, that all efforts at amendment have been defeated. The objection really comes from an indisposi- tion to help bear the public burdens.
 The people of Birmingham might learn something to their advantage flHm the un- pretentious mining camps in this county where the public schools are kept open several months each year by the volun- tary contributions of the miners from the hard-earned wages of their sweat and toil Our judicial system needs oVerhauling We are now thirty years behind eonserva- tive England in our methods of procedure and I shall never forget that wonderful revelation which appeared at the Bar As sociation at Huntsville several years ago, when the then Chief Justice Stone and the present Chief Justice Bricsell, both ven erable in years, profound in learning, and justly distinguished as lawyers each in turn urged the reform of our judicial sys- tenn. It was truly refreshing to see these atism was well known, actually leading in the effort to create public sentiment in favor of reform
 I should greatly distrust my own judg- ment on this matter, decided as it Is. but I feel safe in following my convictions which are in the foot steps of these two great judges, who have made an impress sion upon the jurisdiction of the state as indelible as it is creditable
 The curse of local legislation Is upon us until no man--lawyer though he be- knows the statute law outside of his own beat. The last statute book contains ff- teen hundred pages and I feel safe in saying that not more than one-tenth of Ii should ever have been enacted or print ed. One would hardly believe that in this state no uniform jury law exists; that who will determine your right to life, lib- erty or property depends on the county you may be sued in, yet such is the fact and the books are full of cases where just convictions have been reversed because some provision of local jury law has not been observed in drawing the jury out of the box.
 The incongruities, in constituencies and folly of this local legislation could be null tiplied indefinitely ad nauseam.
 There can be no question about the greatness of the state of Alabama. I doubt if any equal area of the world pos sesses so much of so many things that can be made to minister to the mainten- ance and comfort of man, as we have here. But we cannot continue, content to say "Here we Rest" we must not rest but must labor without ceasing until we have put ourselves in a position where can look at the future without dread and ap prehension and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing we have made an honest effort to relieve those who are to come after us of evils, the creation, in large part, of this generation.
 ALEX. T. LONDON.