The age-herald., 1899-12-20

be hereafter established by it, an advisory
 committee of three, to cooperate with the
 board of trustees of the University of Ala
 bama, to such extent, in such manner or
 on such matters as they may be requested
 to do by such board of trustees; and such
 board shall have power to provide for and
 allow the incidental expenses of said com
 mittee in like manner as they are author
 ized to provide for and allow their own
 expenses
 The Alumni Society elected it's advisory
 committee aud the board of trustees duly
 initiated them into all their meetings, as
 sitting members. The resolution was offer
 cd in the board by Hon. James E. Webb,
 and is as follows:
 (Transcrpt from the minutes of the board
 of trustees of the University of Alabama,
 under date June %, 1898, page 225)
 "A-r. Webb offered the following resolu-
 tion:
 :" That the advisory committee appointed
 by the Society of Alumni is hereby invited
 to attend all meetings of this board, as sit
 ting members of the board to advise with
 the board and speak on all questions, but
 without any right to vote but it is not in-
 tended that this resolution shall apply to
 executive sessions.
 - That the travelling expenses of said
 committee be paid by the treasurer upon
 certificate of the president of this board as
 the statute provides
 This resolution was adopted" Should Have Been Not fled
 The advisory committee have been, from
 the adoption of this resolution, sitting mem hers of the board; they have been notified
 Of, and attended meetings, save the one hereafter noted, both of the board and its , executive committee; their names are upon the roll of the board, and are regularly called, and their presence or absence noted; f; their expenses nave been paid and in many
 alr na and nr1ti irnl identified as members. They have not the right to vote. as this would conflict with the present consultation of the state; but their counsel has been asked and given, and 1t may be said without compliment, their in- huence has been felt.
 1 l. may be further said that the recogni- | tion of the Sc-rcty of the Alumni by the ! board has had most salutary effect upon | the fortunes of the university; it has stlmu- lated the efforts of the alumni, while 1t has
 made them better acquainted with the ardu- i ous work of the board.
 | A meeting of the board of trustees was i had on September 22, 1S99 One of the mem | bcrs of the advisory committee, learning i that a meeting had been held, wrote to l Governor Johnston, and received his reply, ! saying the advisory committee had been | forgotten, and hence not notified.
 This society owes it to itself and its duly | accredited committee to protest against such meeting.
 This action involves several considera- | tions The Society of the Alumni, through 1 its advisory committee, either have or | have not a legal status at all meetings Of | the board. If they have none, and can De | ignored or forgotten, at will it would be l well to withdraw their commission until | the Society of the Alumni can, if ever, | make it effective. On the other hand, 1T | the advisory committee have a status at all l meetings of the board, and were ignored, l i- .Jrojht n1 ot | meeting, without their presence, and to re- | spectfully and firmly insist that this so- l called meeting be eliminated. and its do- 1 dngs set aside, and held flor naught Oth- erwise, the advisory committee will lind | their commissions mere ornaments, and the | Society's long and successful fight for re- cogntion in the affairs of the university, 1 will have ended fin their own neglect to | maintain the fruit of their victory. Your committee, while not actually l through with their Investigation of the | legal rhase of this matter, are inclined to l the opinion that the resolution of the 1 board of trustees was equal in force to a l rule for the government of its meetings, by which it set 0 limitation upon its own l procedure to the effect, that 1t would not l act without the presence of the advisory | comittee and consequently having acted l 1n defiance of their own rules for the con- duct of their meetings, their action on this l account is and ought to be void. | It can scarcely be thought that there was any intention to permanently ignore the | Society of the Alumni. There is simply no | reason on the part of the society for its l being ignored; no exception has been taken I by the board to the personel of this conn., | mittee, and the conclusion forces itself | that the omission would never have occur red if the notice of the meeting had been | issued through the proper and lawful au- | thorities of the university.
 Since the so-called meeting of the board l of September 22, 1899, the executive coni- | mittee of the board was called to meet at l Birmingham, by its chairman. Hon. James | E. Webb. As was usual he notified the ad- l visory committee, and they attended, and participated in the meeting. The advis- | ory committee before sitting with the l executive committee filed with them pro- | test against the ignoring of this society, l through its committee, at the so-called | meeting to which reference has been made. Meeting of september. 22, 1899 | The information which we have in regard l to this meeting is derived from public state- ments made by Governor Johnston, Trus- | tees Sanford, Davis and Richardson and l from personal interview with Mir. w. c. | F'itts, who was present The differences in 1 the statements between these gentlemen as | to what took place at that meeting are all 1 dn regard to- minor matters. and such as | wouldl ordinarily be expected. Upon the | main facts as to what transpired, they sub | stantially agree.
 It appears from the governors statement l that a proposal to buy these lands was | made to him as president of the board, and | laid before the board at a meeting called | for that purpose and a sale was ordered to | be made The governor further stated that l the lands were widely scattered and not 1 in condition to be desirable to lease. That | a gentleman who had made previous nego- | tiations in regard to them positively declin- | ed to make any lease. He further stated | that all the revenues derived from leased lands had been from one small tract spe- cially valuable and had probably aggregat- ed about fifteen thousand dollars, or an av- craze of one thousand dollars a year. He further stated that some 13000 acres of these lands had been sold by his predeces- sors at an average price of about ten dol- lars per acre, and that these lands had brought under his administration 25 per cent more. It appears from the printed state ments of Trustees Sanford, Davis and Richardson that the governor made virtu-
 ally the same statements at the meeting of the board, and Trustee Richardson says
 that his hest recollection Is that the POVer-