The age-herald., 1898-11-20
WILL BE PRESENTED WITHIN THE WEEK Bill Which Hill Make or Kill Greater
 Birmingham. IT IS NOW BEING PREPARED Mayor Evans and Aldermen PearCe and Kerr Have the Work in Hand. FRIENDLY SUBURBANITES HEARD They Will Circulate Petition to Pre- sent to the Legislature to Offset
 \ the One Gotten Up by
 the "Antis."
FRIENDLY suBuRBANITEs HEARD

l The bill which is to make or kill the con- | soidation of Greater Birmingham for the l time being will be presented to the legis- i lature this week.
 l Mayor Evans, Alderman Pearce and AL I derman Kerr are now preparing it. They | have several rough plans drawn up accord ing to the outline of the resolution, and 1t l is expected that the bill will be completed | Monday.
 new issue was raised yesterday in the | Greater Birmingham controversy which l bids fair to develop some very interesting results within the next few weeks. Those I citizens of the suburban districts who favor annexation with Birmingham are going to l get together, it seems, and start a petition l favoring annexation, to offset the petition l now being obtained by the "anti-annexa- i tionists''
 We who favor annexation are not going l to sit idly by said von L. Thompson, of | Woodlawn, yesterday afternoon, "and see | these fellows send in petition to the leg | islature as if they composed the entire pop | ulation of the suburban districts. We will | get up counter petition setting forth to l the members of the legislat ture the advant- | ages of annexation, and I believe that we
 
 | most conservative citizens to sign it. never have believed that the men in charge of the anti-annexation movement in wood- 1 lawn represented the sentiments of the ma l jority of our people, and l am still of the 1 same opinion.
 Suburbs Get Everything q was not personally in favor of the Lane resolution, and think that very few l other people were; but annexation with l proper safeguards to the suburban districts 1 will be great benefit for all of us. I don't | see how any sensible man could object to | the proposal which the board of aldermen l of Birmingham made us at its last meet l ing. We get everything, and Birmingham | nothing but the credit of having our popu- | lation.
 l T suppose that I might say that those | citizens favoring annexation will form an l organization similar to the one of the anti | annexationists and if necessary make our | fight for annexation in unison. However, | I don't apprehend any more very serious | opposition, for I have every hope of the whole matter being equ!tably adjusted be- l tween the city of Birmingham and the sub l urbs. so that even the bitterest enemy to l annexation will be satisfied
 l During this week the special committee men, will hold conferences with similar l committees from each of the suburban dis I tricts. Mayor Evans has extended an in- vitation to each chairman of the suburban | committees, asking that he, together with l two other members of his committee, meet and confer with the Birmingham commit | tee on the question of annexation. The | Woodlawn committee was invited to meet 1 tomorrow, and the other committees on the days following. Chairman Kennedy, of the | Woodawn committee stated yesterday that l he had no doubt but that his committee, l and he thought the other committees, would l find no objecion to holding a conference with the Birmingham committee, even l though they might have no idea of coming to any settlement of the matter. "The proposition which the city made l the other night continued MT. Kennedy might look very favorable to the suburbs I on it's face, but there are several things ] in it which might be very ambiguously con- | strued
 Tn the first place, the resolution of the | Birmingham aldermen didn't say how all | the taxes which were collected, in Wood- lawn for instance, were to paid back to | that city. The aldermen of Greater Blr- | mingham might spend the money in Wood lawn in a manner entirely distaste- | full to the Woodlawn people, l should | think that the aldermen which we will have from Woodawn should say how this l money shall be spent.
 Question of Representation
  | of the board of education, and it is pro- posed to unite all the public schools of | Greater Birmingham under system. | The question of representation on the | board of aldermen must be more definitely understood. Birmingham now has eighteen aldermen, and I have seen calculations | where it was proposed to give Woodlawn | and Avondale four aldermen and Elyton and West End two. don't know whether | this is fair division according to popula- | tion or not.
 "The Birmingham people also made no allowances for the special license taxes which both Wodlawn and Avondale would lose, by annexation. I suppose that, of course, Woodlawn would keep all of the | license money derived from licenses issued | to merchants doing business in Woodlawn | but there are other licenses we would lose. | For instance the two electric railroads l each pay us $50 year. If Woodawn was 1 annexed. the one license issued to the com | panies by the city of Birmingham proper | would have to suffice Woodlawn and all l other suburban towns. This would also be
 | the case With grocers, laundries, real es-
 tate agents and other Birmingham firms
 who now pay us license for doing bus-
 ness in woodlawn. All of this would be
 | lost, which amounts to about $500 an-
 nually."