The age-herald., 1898-11-18
PROTECT THEIR INTERESTS Turned Out in Full Force to Meeting
 Yesterday.
THEY WILL CIRCULATE PETITIONS
The Chairmen of Each Committee So Instructed Alderman Henry B. Gray One of the Speakers Against Con-
 solidation in the Meeting.

The anti-annexationists' have decided to fight the bill which the city council will put before the legislature.
 A meeting was held yesterday afternoon and tkis decision reached. The "anti-an- nexio1ssts" turned out in full force to dis cuss and condemn the resolution passed by the board of aldermen of Birmingham at their meeting Wednesday night. This time the meeting was not held behind closed doors, as the last one was. and the committeeman didn't seem to care if the whole world knew that they were opposed to annexation
 The following resolution offered by c. P. Beddow, of Avondale, shows well the sense of the meeting:
 Moved, that 1t is the sense of this
 meeting that the chairman of each out
 lying district call his committee together
 at once to prepare and circulate peti-
 tions among the residents of their re-
 spective districts to sign, opposing an-
 nexation.
 "That each committee select suit
 able person to send to Montgomery and
 look after the interest of the anti-an-
 nexation movement, and be present at
 all times when necessary during the
 session of the legislature"
 There were over twenty-five citizens of the suburbs at the meeting which was held in Justice w. H. Stan ley's office on Twentieth street, all of the outlying towns and communities ex- cept North Birmingham being represented. Chairman R. DuPont Thompson and Sec retary Gilbert Carter were the officers or the meeting present.
 Plan Not Acceptable
 Justice Stanley made the first speech, in which he opposed annexation from start to finish. He said that not even the plan of fered by the council was acceptable to them. They didn't want annexation in any way, shape or form He repeated num- Der of the arguments that have been used by the "anti's" ever since the agitation of Greater Birmingham began.
 Somebody then got up and invited Alder man Henry B. Gray, of Birmingham, "the friend of the people," to address the meet ing. MT. Gray is one of Birmingham's al- dermen who is opposed to annexation.
 MT. Gray said that while the outline of the bill passed by the Birmingham alder men provided that the suburban cities should receive all of the money which they paid into the city on taxes, that he did not see that such measure carried into execution at the present time would be beneficial to any of the communities con cerned. He said that Birmingham must get in a condition to take care of itself be- fore it tried to control any more property. Next year the city of Birmingham must meet an obligation of ,0OO of accumu- lated interest which is just half of the total interest on the citys bonded debt, that should have been paid during the past five years. If the Birmingham amendment holds good, this amount may be funded and the city's credit eventually redeemed, but then will be the time to talk of annexation, he said.
 MT. Gray was of the opinion that there was no doubt that some such bill as the board passed Wednesday night would be submitted to the legislature, and he ad- vised that the suburbanites make their fight before the council of Birmingham, urging the board to put clause in the bill that the matter of annexation be referred to each district which it is proposed to an- mex, and let the white voters in these dis tricts vote the measure down, "as I think they will do by 90 per cent" afI, Gray's advice was not followed. however.
 Time to Quit Talking
 c. P. Beddow said that 1t was now time to quit talking, as the suburbanites have been doing for the past few weeks and get to work. He said that the movement against annexation was as strong now as it ever had been, and ''there are so few an- nexationtsts," said he, ''out in the suburbs, that if they were all put fin a frying pan and fried up they would not make the pan stink" He then offered the resolution given above.
 In the discussion which followed the in- troduction of this resolution, Mayor Ellard, of Avondale, suggested that fund be pro- vided to pay each mans expenses to Mont- gomery. Carter, of Woodlawn, thought that there should be mass meetings in- stead of committee meetings. Johnson, of Phillips addition, made a long speech ad- vocating that Former Governor Rufus w. Cobb, "who was on to all of the tricks of the legislature" be sent to Montgomery and kept there all during the legislature, and when anything turns up he could send home for help.
 This suggestion brought up the question of who was going to pay the Montgomery delegation's expenses, and the discussion got very much tangled up. Captain Parks, of Woodawn, offered an amendment to the Beddow resolution that the men selected by each community or district form them- selves into committee of the whole, and they were to decide who and how many of their number should go to Montgomery, and how long they should stay. All ex- pensss incurred were to be prorated among each of the districts represented. Mr. Beddow would not accept this amendment, and after a good deal of discussion pro and oou Capfafn Dor uutf6draxv hfc and