davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02
A Free City Again.

This city has at last secured right 70
levy a one-per-cent. property taxa tax
one-half smaller than the average tax i'm
posed in American cities-and yet tax that
has been persistently refused, although the
eity's credit and schools and general ad-
ministration were thereby impaired The
long contest is now happily ended. The
use of the increased tax in caring for the
city's debt will leave the old tax free for
use in the conduct of the citys affairs-its
excellent schools. and streets, and the vari-
GUS other branches of the public service.
The constitutional limitatio upon taxa
ture of it, extending as it does to all SUBJ
divisions of the state, to counties and mu-
inequalities. Experience does not demand
1t, for people who are overtaxed by officials
quickly apply the proper remedy. They not
only cut off unnecessary taxes, but also
the official heads of the lawmakers In
stead of restricting taxes, which are quick
ly adjusted and readiusted to the needs of
the people, restriction should be laid upon
the power to create debt. Bonding instead
of taxpaying is the evil to be guarded
against. All American experience goes to
show that communities do not overtax
themselves, although they would very often
overload themselves. The entire tax re-
strictions- in the constitution of the state
may be in me main harmless but they are
certainly superf1uous, and in some in
stances are absolutely hurtful to growth
and progress.
The perfection in the supreme court of
the Birmingham amendment restores to
this city considerable power of self-govern-
ment. 1t takes us out of the small-chi-
dren class who are adjudged incapable of
handling their own money. 1t is step
valuable to us, and it ought to serve as an
Illustration to the rest of the state of the
absurdity of the tax restriction clause of
the state constitution. If that clause were
repealed tomorrow there would be no in
crease OF taxation except in cases of i'm
perative need, and where there is such a
need there the power to impose taxes
should rest as an ordinary act in the
course of self-government
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02
Voters and Their Ballots.

The opinion of the supreme court in the
May e Thomas case, elsewhere presented
this morning, is from the pen of Judge Nc
Clellan, and is as unanswerable as it is
lucid 1t is good reading, and the news
paper skinner or wayfarer can afford to
read it. After reading it one is surprised
that question ever arose over the famous
Birmingham amendment.
Perhaps the best thing in connection
with the case is the fact that way has at
last been found to. compel every voter to
consider constitutional issues. Under the
new plan the man who votes must vote
either for or against each question SUBJ
mitted. Non-action, whether voluntary and
intelligent or otherwise, will not hereafter
stand in the way. AL least 1t need not.
A dissenting opinion was not filed. The
court unanimously said that 'every person
is presumed to know what is on his bal
lot" And the court further said that a
voter should vote one way or the other
whenever constitutional proposition is
submitted. Such a proposition can appear
on the ballot in either a negative or an
affirmative form, or in both forms requiring
a mark or sign; but it is plain that the
plan of submission adopted in the Birming-
ham case will be adopted while the present
constitution remains to be amended. The
words For the Birmingham amendment"
appeared on each ballot and the voter who
desired to vote against it simply scratched
with pencil the words so printed. Every
voter was thus counted either for the pro-
posed amendment or against it, The care
less and the uninstructed were thus
counted in favor of the amendment, and
for once at least they served the state ex-
celently.
Ii revision must come by amendment this
decisions renders the process feasible in the
course of time, but such plan is not al
ways satisfactory. and states from time to
time prefer revision through the substitu-
ton of a new instrument for the old one.
The indications now are that amendment
after amendment will occur until the
patchwork becomes overloaded and irregu-
lar and then the people will in disgust de-
mand a new and harmonious instrument,
and a convention will be called, and new
constitution will supplant the one over
which so much time and so many votes had
been expended.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

=
yates of the polytechnic school. Hs was
tried in 1894 by cavalry and infantry Off
GERS, but in the coming trial he will be
tried by members of his own branch of the
service, and of the school from which he
was graduated. The few friends that he
had in the dark days that followed 1894 were
members of the artillery corps and of the
famous school. Beyond reasonable doubt
Captain Dreyfus will be accorded a fair
trial. and it is reported that the trial will
be of public nature. General MERCER and
the ring of army men who prosecuted
Dreyfus are in Rennes fighting for their
thirty witnesses, but unless they know
more than detectives and newspapers have
been able to unearth, their efforts will not
convict Dreyfus or acquit themselves. A
fair trial at any rate is guaranteed, and
that trial will. it is plain, be free from the
manifestations that often attend French
politics.
The prisoner doomed to spend his days on
d lonely Island under the equator comes
in the name of Truth and Justice to put
France on trial, to confound his persecut-
ors, and to take a place in the history of
the times. Beyond all doubt he will soon
be a free man, and in one way and an
other every one of the men who were in
strumental in sending him to Devils Island
will be punished before all nations. Truth
and Justice are having an unusually large
sized inning at present. One of Dreyfus'
judges in 1894 died a mailman; and of the
witnesses against him at that time one is a
fugitive from justice, one committed sui
eide, and still another is awaiting trial for
forgery after twice trying to end his case
by suicide.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02
The AIger-Griggs Law Factory,

The Incredible Alger has cooly decided
to set aside law of congress. Congress,
wisely or unwisely, decreed "that no officer
or private soldier shall be detailed to sell
intoxicating drinks, as a bartender or
otherwise, in any post exchange or cam
teen; nor shall any other person be requir-
ed or allowed to sell such liquor in any en-
campment or fort, or on any premises used
for military purposes by the United
States This seems plain enough 1t is
plain enough. Congress intended to abolish
the sale of liquors in the army. But the
only Alger came to the conclusion that the
canteen is a good thing-so good that 1t
should not be abolished, and he went to
the ever-ready Griggs, who was quite
equal to the occasion.
Grggs and Alger put their noble heads
together for the purpose of beating con-
gress, and they did it with amazing casuis-
try. The juggle is the best of the present
day. The law-expounding Griggs decided
that employment is matter of contract,
and not of requirement or permission" and
that therefore Mr.. Alger can set up a sa-
loon in fort or camp by employing civilians
to conduct it. This bubble of Mr.. Griggs
is too contemplate for comment. Instead
of going to Judge Advocate General Lieber
for legal direction, as the law directs the
secretary of war went to Mr.. Griggs, who
met him halfway. President Mckinley has
tacitly approved the Griggs decision, and
Mr.. Alger and the canteen are now sitting
bestride congress and the law.
The power of Mr.. Alger in this adminis-
tration is it's most remarkable feature.
Even his desires in the very teeth of the
law are carried out. He has his own way
in all things. He has the law construed to
suit his own opinions, and he snaps his
fingers at public sentiment. He is the Won
der of the closing years of the century, and
their most pronounced stumbling block to
orderly and efficient administration.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

days the conference in the House of Wood
at The Hague. 1t is high time to abolish
such campaigns as sheridan waged in the
Valley and Sherman in Georgia. Churches
and dwellings are not fit objects of an
army's wrath. Such barbarism should be
abolished In the days of Rome and in the
middle ages plumber was a part of all
army operations, but the time has GER
tainly come when war should be confined
to armed combatants; and all who mind
their own business, giving neither aid nor
comfort to an enemy, should be permitted
to remain unmolested. Such a rule is
needed today in the Philippines, where
more rapine is going on than is told in the
censored dispatches.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

apart. Some OF the melons had fallen out
and been cracked, as was clearly observ-
able. The cart had evidently been brought
in from some farm few miles out of the
city; and the five boys and three men were
eager to keep the old trap from breaking
down before the melons were sold. The
market now being flooded with melons,
they We're compelled to accept prices lower
than they had anticipated.
Representative John L. Burnett of the
Seventh congressional district. and Circuit
Clerk I. L. Brock, of Cherokee county,
were in Birmingham yesterday on their way
home from Montgomery, whittier they had
gone to see the governor in the interest of
opposing applicants for the probate judge
SLIP of Cherokee made vacant by the re-
cent death of Judge Savage. Mr.. Brock is
a populist. One of the applicants in ques-
tion is Representative Burnett's brother,
w. III. Burnett who, like the congressman
himself. is a native of Cherokee. The gov
ernor will decide next Friday as to whom
he will appoint to the judgeship.
The friends of Hon. John B. Knox, of
Admission, will be glad to know that his
young daughter and only surviving child,
Miss Carrie Knox, who has been very
gravely ill for some weeks, is now con-
Valescent. 1t will be remembered that Mr..
Knox was unable on account of his daugh-
ters Illness, to deliver an address at the
recent commencement exercises of the state
university, and the sympathy of friends all
over the state have gone out to him in his
trouble.
1t is understood that the Birmingham
party of teachers who will attend the Ma
tional Educational association at Los An
geles will number fifteen, and that about
fifty will go from the southern part of the
state. 1t may, therefore, be safely est-
mated that seventy-fve Alabama school
teachers will be present at the meeting in
California.
City Court Solicitor Wiley Tunstall, Will
liam A Davis, John Pelham, and Editor
Ayers, of the Republican, all of Admission,
were in town yesterday.
State Auditor Walter s. White was in
Birmingham yesterday on private business.
Judge Robertson, of st. Clair, and Rich
ard P. Dexter, of Montgomery, were
amongst yesterdays visitors to Birming-
ham.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02
Probable Results at The Hague.

The peace conference may sit all sum-
mer, and there is still hope that the net
result of its work will wonderfully pro-
mote the humanity and civilization of the
world. So much of the work of the con-
ference is, however, done behind closed
doors, it is difficult to say what is probable
or improbable in tho outcome.
Russia has been pushing its propositions
looking to disarmament without waiting
on the arbitration proposition. She wants
except for colonial service. The exception
was put in for England's sake. All this,
OF course, applies to period of peace only,
for when war comes all rules must be set
aside in order that the law of self-preserva-
ton may have full scope. Russia also
wants all naval budgets for three years
to be without any increase whatever
There is no exception In her naval pro-
posal for the exigeneies of colonies. and
thus England and Germany, and even the
United States, may.not see their way clear
to an unqualified acceptance.
The arbitration proposition is still pend
ing, and the United States commissioners
are said to be hopeful of securing a per-
nanent tribunal. Germany is said to be
more friendly to the proposition-to have.
in fact, accepted the principle involved.
end to be seeking a satisfactory applica-
ton of it. The peaceful settlement of in
ternational disputes may be after all the
best road to disarmament; for If the ma
tons see that the public sentiment of the
world demands such settlement, they will
not care to keep up war establishments
that limit their domestic development. even
If they do not impose almost intolerable
burdens.
Other propositions before the conference
relate to dum-dum bullets and the like
to neutral property at sea, and to the pro-
lection of defenseless persons and prop
erty in time of war. The last-named prop
osition seems to be particularly well
adapted to the higher civilization and in
creasing humanity of the last days of tn,
great nineteenth century-a century that
was opened with the guns of Napoleon
Bonaparte and that witnesses in its last
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

From the New York Press. b
ii is hopeless.
Eve had her faults to contend with but
then, Adam had Eve.
If a man only loves a woman enough she
will never be kind to him.
You can be happy without being COM
Portable, but you can't be comfortable with.
out being happy.
Eru can always tell man angels from wo-
man angels by their hair; the woman an
gels part theirs in the middle and the meu
angels don't part theirs at all.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02
GAL miners are in clover.
AGUINALDO'S GRIP
From the Emporia Gazette.

From the Emporia Gazette. y
"a Filipino came up to me-" writes home
a Kansas volunteer, land made himself
known as Mason. He invited me to visit
San Geronimo lodge No. IS. You run across
Masons in all countries and among all ma
tionalities. That is one of its virtues
Aguinaldo is Mason, understand"
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

The French people were not nearly so
nervous and exctable when Captain Drey-
fus rode into Rennes as they thought they
would be. The landing was without Incl
dent
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

Keep in mind that July % is board of
trade day. The programme of entertain
ments will soon be Announced. 1t is to be
a great day, and the railroads are prepar-
ing to bring here twenty-five thousand peo-
pie.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

The strongly organized board of trade
proposes to show the people within one
hundred miles that this city is their best
retail and wholesale source of supply
their best shopping center
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

The administration has turned down Gem
eral Wheeler's military aspirations be-
cause of his age, but there is Miles, who is
not at all aged.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

The trusts and a denomination has sup
planted in Governor Pingree's mind the
old flag and an appropriation.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

Millionaire Mcmillan has also explained
away some remarks about combinations
among industries" and he, too, is now
agin trusts.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

The wrecked Paris is to have two sue
cessors that will be larger and swifter than
any liners now in use, and Cramp is to
build them.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

Aguinaldo will need locomotive to set
his pace as soon as the rainy season is over,
for Uncle Sam is getting his back up.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

The socialists of Brussels had just cause
for tumults at least. The premier's name
is Vandenpeereboom.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

Self-goyernment is to some extent re-
stored in this city by the Birmingham
amendment, but the rest of the state re-
mains in bondage to an absurd restriction.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

The new Baltimore Richmond combine
promises to be an important factor in the
development of this district.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

If women are to be permitted to propose,
they must, of course, furnish the engage
ment rings.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

Mark Hanna has the true Alger grip on
the Craftsmanship of the republican national
committee.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

The republicans who think they can beat
Goebel have forgotten the customary result
of cat fights.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

The cars surplus of baby girls has led
up to a great crop of paragraphs at any
rate
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

The guilt or innocence of Frank Cook has
been carried to a court that never errs.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

'"The Man With the Hoe" is not, after all,
Governor Pingree.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

The esteemed Alger is still unable to see
any reason why he should resign.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

French duels do not promote the under
taking business.
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

other every one of the men who were in
strumental in sending him to DEVILS Island
will be punished before all nations. Truth
and Justice are having an unusually large
sized inning at present. One of Dreyfus'
judges in 1894 died mailman; and of the
witnesses against him at that time one is a
fugitive from justice, one committed sui
eide, and still another is awaiting trial for
forgery after twice trying to end his case
by suicide.
Keep in mind that July 25 is board of
trade day. The programme of entertain
ments will soon be Announced. 1t is to be
great day, and the railroads are prepar-
ing to bring here twenty-five thousand peo-
pie.
The strongly organized board of trade
proposes to show the people within one
hundred miles that this city is their best
retail and wholesale source of supply
their best shopping center
The French people were not nearly so
nervous and excitable when Captain Drey-
fus rode into Rennes as they thought they
would be. The landing was without Incl
dent
Self-government is to some extent re-
stored in this city by the Birmingham
amendment, but the rest of the state re-
mains in bondage to an absurd restriction.
The administration has turned down Gem
eral Wheeler's military aspirations be-
cause of his age, but there is Miles, who is
not at all aged.
The wrecked Paris Is to have two sue
cessors that will be larger and swifter than
any liners now in use, and Cramp is to
build them.
Millionaire Mcmillan has also explained
away some remarks about "combina lions
among industries" and he, too, is now
agin' trusts
Aguinaldo will need a locomotive to set
his pace as soon as the rainy season is over,
LUZ - Itie odH 10 getting Ills DICK up.
The socialists of Brussels had just cause
for tumults at least. The premier's name
is Vandenpeereboom.
The trusts and a denomination has sup
planted in Governor Pingree's mind the
old flag and an appropriation.
ba Dol I,;a
promises to be an important factor in the
development of this district.
If women are to be permitted to propose,
they must, of course, furnish the engage
ment rings.
Mark Hanna has the true Alger grip on
the Craftsmanship of the republican national
committee.
The republicans who think they can beat
Goebel have forgotten the customary result
of cat fights.
The cars surplus of baby girls has led
up to great crop of paragraphs at any
rate.
The guilt or innocence of Frank Cook has
been carried to a court that never errs.
The esteemed Alger is still unable to see
any reason why he should resign.
''The Man With the Hoe" is not, after all.
Governor Pingree.
French duels do not promote the under
taking business.
Governor-expectant Goebel is a Pennsyl-
vanian by birth.
The plague is trying to cross our wide
watery barriers. -
The man with the hoe will vote in 1900
The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-02

Governor-expectant Goebel is a Pennsyl-
vanian by birth.
The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-11-10
GENERAL OTIS UNDISTURBED BY
THE RAIN OF CAUSTIC COMMENTS
Rings"
rade and
Philippines.
and the Bosses"
War in the

to the sessions as matter Of duty. The
whole show seems to have been run by
Schurman and Worcester, aided by the
trio or rather quartet of Fflipinos intro
duced into prominent notice as amigos
de los Americanos
To make some show. in view OF the
presence of this commission, Otis has es-
tabished petty courts of justice Cor
rather a travesty), over which Flllplno
shyster lawyers recommended by the
amigos" preside.
Fancy a court in the South, presided
over by a negro judge, and white man
as the prisoner, What justice would he
obtain? And this is the state of affairs
here. An American soldier or Tailor, a
civilian or any European has scant
justice They are fined ten or twenty
times more than a Filipino for the same
offense.
The intricate obsolete, annoying
methods of Spanish procedure are sun
in vogue-modes misty and unfathoma Die
that are beyond the comprehension Oh
not only the learned judge advocate OF
the army. whose only experience mas
been at the army post. but beyond the
power to unravel of the majority or the
so-called legal lights who have hung up
their shingles as "Abogados Amerl-
canos."
Not content with consulting the alleged
amigos" the commission through Gus