The age-herald., 1899-02-22
Holding Fort Against the Board
 of Revenue.
NEW MEN NOT QUALIFIED
As Soon As These Preliminaries Are Arranged They Will Hold Meet ing and Decide Upon
 Plan of Action.

The commissioners are still holding forth behind barred doors, and not even a flag
 of truce can bring them from their strong ly entrenched position. No news will be given out by them, and very little taken in
 Though the public is anxious to understand their position, not one word of explanation
 can be gotten from these barricaded of- fcials.
 Notwithstanding this lingering thirst for news the back of an icy hand was turned to the information seeker who wanted to tell the public how it all happened. They are there to stay, and that is certain, but
 just how long they will remain encamped when the enemy appears is altogether an- other question As yet the advance guard of the enemy has not appeared, but a close watch is kept by day and the camp fires
 lighted at night awaiting their first ad- vance.
 J. B. Elliott was in town yesterday and stated that as soon as his affairs could be arranged he would accept the appointment rendered him. Two more of the appointees were seen, but no concerted plan of action
 has yet been decided on. As soon as all nave decided to accept the appointments
 meeting will probably be held, and they
 will determine what course to pursue None have yet qualified.
 Acceptance Means Fight In answer to a question as to whether
 or not they would make fight one of them said yesterday afternoon ''of course if
 we accept the positions rendered us we will be expected to go in and make fight for th1 We do not wish to have a law suit, but if we find it inevitable we will use our best efforts to win"
 There is considerable speculation on the streets as to the result of the commis- sioners' fight, and various opinions as to the constitutionality of the bill have been offered. lawyer said yesterday: T have not thoroughly investigated the subject.y but I can see nothing whatever in the proposition offered that the bill is unconstitutional on account of Colonel Wi ley voting for it. The senate is body which judges it's own membership, and if no fight was made on Colonel Wiley by a member of that body, can't see how an outsider can come up and make a kick l after the senate adjourns. He is a mem- Der of the senate until unseated, and any | vote that he made while a member, I should think, would not in the least af- | feet the constitutionality of the law So l passed. If that bill is unconstitutional | then every other bill passed by the gen. | eral assembly is unconstitutional when just | a quorum was present"
 Wiley Made the Quorum The opponents of the bill claim that Col onel Wiley's presence made exactly a quo- | rum, and If his vote had been thrown out l the bill would have been lost. If this be the case, according to the lawyers opin- | ion, every other bill which was passed | when exactly quorum was present is also | unconstitutional and cannot be enforced. | The deposed commissioners have many
 friends in the city and they are quite bit- | ter in their denunciation of the governor, | who insisted on the passage of the bill. l A party of gentlemen were sitting in a
 restaurant last night, and one of them l remarked:
 l q think if any flaw whatever can be
 found in the bill it ought to be taken ad- vantage of, for 1t is a most unjust law"
 ''But," insisted his companion, "do you think the old commissioners ought to have
 been retained after their accounts came l up wrong?"
 No, don't," he replied. "But why
 couldn't they have been fmpeached, and let the people have a say in the matter7' l Such discussions as this are frequently
 heard. and there is nearly as much inter- est being taken in the trouble as when the bill was before the legislature. 1 P. H. Earle. the president of the board, l was seen again yesterday. and positively | refused to discuss the matter. He would | not say whether he would accept the ap- ! polntment.