The age-herald., 1899-11-27
BELIEVES SALE WAS ADVISABLE Another Trustee Gives Out StatG-
 nent THE UNIVERSITY LAND DEAL MT. Davis Has No Apologies
 to Make. THOUGH MEETING af SECRET Defence of the Governor and the Board ---atbo or;,, ~. r ;5ooao ;, L,o1oral,1a
 to the Sale-Question Re-
 mains Unanswered
THOUGH MEETING aa SECRET

Tho trustees of the State University have adopted the advice of The Age-Herald and are HOW explaining the sale of the universi- ty coal lands.
 Yesterday The Age-Herald printed Colo nel W. J. Samfords statement and below Is given that of MT. Hubert T. Davis, one of the trustees who voted for the sale.
 It was said yesterday that statement had been prepared, and was being signed by several coal operators, affirming that $12.5O an acre was liberal price for these lands.
 No one has, however. yet come forward to explain why these lands were not put up at public sale to the highest bidder, nor has any explanation been made as to why the decision of the trustees to sell was not i'm medately made public. These matters are to be Investigated by the alumni and they are also endeavoring to get at the price paid for adjacent lands.
 The statement of MT. Hubert T. Davis sent to The Age-Herald yesterday is as follows:
 To+the Editor of The Age -Herald:
 IL bad not been my purpose to enter into a newspaper defense of the action of the board of trustees of the University of Ala bama, in the sale of certain lands the property of the university, but there has been such a torrent of censure from news
 
 papers and individuals, that I, as a mem- Der of that board feel impelled to give my reasons for favoring the sale of these lands
 In the outset. I wish to state that if mistake has been made, or, if there is any blame attaching to said sale, the members of the board who were present at the called meeting in September, and not the gover- nor, except as a member of the board, should Shoulder the responsibility for said mistake or blarneworthiness.
 Thought It Was a Secret Session.
 I understood that the transaction was done in executive session, hence my re- fusal heretofore to make any statement to newspaper correspondents. The governor, according to The Age-Herald of November u, that issue, made a concise and correct statement of the transaction as it occurred. l had felt that the personnel of the board was such that surely no fraud or corruption would be charged against them, and as surely it would not be charged that they were so foolish as to sell a million dollars worth of land for $56,0 ,000 But the newspa- per attacks continue to be vrulept and unabated. According to published state ments, some of the officers of the university are induging in unfriendly and scathing criticism of the action of the board This is much to be deplored, because it is we'll known that for number of years the uni- versity has been very poorly attended. This year its friends have been elated over its prosperous opening, and such criticism by members of its household against other members of the same family can but result in detriment to the institution.
 I shall now give my reasons for favoring the sale. l may say in the outset that l am an alumnus of the university and was appointed a member of it's board of trustees by Governor Johnston in July, 1S9S
 Iood Pr.ce Tor Lands
 At the meeting of September last there
 
 tegrity and honor, who were familiar with the lands in question, and with the values of such lands. They all stated that SIP 50 per acre was not a fair price, but a good price for 1t; that while some of these lands had much greater value than SIP 50 per acre, the largest portion of it was of little value; that the portions of it rich in coal were in such small bodies that they could land commissioner for the university stated that he had tried to exchange these small traces of land with the owners of similar lands in the same territory in order to ''body it up," thus making it desirable for leasing purposes, but that he had failed to do so. It was also in evidence before us thatanone of the land in question had ever been leased, notwithstanding repeated at- tempts to do so, during the fifteen years of university ownership. Further, that several thousand acres of these lands had been sold about the years 1885 and 1886 at an average price of little less than $10 per acre. and that there had been very recent sales of similar lands in the same locality for s1O per acre. After a long discussion of every phase of tine question, l became convinced that the sale was desirable, and I introduced a resolution empowering the governor to sell