The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-30

| | entered to reconsider the vote where
 by section l of .@e ordinance reported | by the Committee on Taxation was
 adopted, and 1t was q special order irn- l mediateiy after the reading of the 1 journal on yesterday, but the Chair failed 60 call the attention of the Con- ! yention to the pendency of the motion.
 It seems to the Chair that that Ques-
 ton ought to be disposed of by the Convention in some way.
 Mir. BFowne--I move to lay that mo. 1 ton upon the table.
 Mir. |SoIlie-Withdraw your motion | and let me make statement which I | think will settle the matter. am not | going to press it on the Convention, but | desire to make a motion before the House to take it from the House more gracefullA perhaps. thap a motion to | table. 4 MT. Browne-With that understand ing, withdraw the motion. Mir. Sollie--1 move an indefinite post l ponement of the question, to be taken up hereafter by unanimous consent if
 It is desired to be taken up. And the motion to indefinitely post | p0ne consideration was carried. The President-The regular order will l be the consideration of the report of the Committee on Taxation. When the Convention adjourned on yesterday, we had under consideration
 Section 1. and the pending question was a motion entered by the gentle
 man from Hale to lay upon the table the section as reported by the Commit tee. The gentleman from Hale. MT. deGraffenreid-I want to ask unanious consent of the Convention to be allowed to withdraw that motion, and to be allowed to withdraw the de-
 mand for the ayes and noes upon the motion. MT. Browne--I ask also. with the con-
 sent of the gentleman from Hale, unanimous consent to withdraw the
 motion for the previous question. . The President-We had probably bet ter dispose of one at a time. Is there objection
 Mir. Cofer-I object.
 The President-The question is upon
 the motion to table Section {, and upon
 that the ayes and noes have been de-
 manded and ordered by the Convention.
 MT. Cofer-I will withdraw the ob.
 jection.
 Mr. deGraffenreid--I now withdraw
 my motion to table If am in order to
 do so
 By unanimous consent the motion to
 table was withdrawn.
 Mr. Browne--I now ask unanimous
 consent to withdraw the motion for the
 previous. question. I desire in that
 connection to state thae upon yester-
 day when the gentleman from Tallade-
 ga, Mir. Graham, offered his amend
 n1ent. and made his argument, predi-
 cated upon the estimates of the Audi
 tor. which were confessedly erroneo eous,
 he afterwards moved the previous
 question upon his own amendment,
 which. if carried. would have debarred
 the Committee or any member of 1t from the privilege of showing the er- TOTS of the estimate. After that was voted down, demanded the previous question upon the other amendment,
 which I now desire to withdraw.
 The President-The gentleman from Talladega asks unanimous consent to withdraw the demand for the previous question. Is there objection? The Chair hears none
 Mir. deGraffenreid--I offer an amend ment to the section. e..
 The amendment was read as follows: Amend Section by striking out the word "sixty-five" and adding in lieu thereof the word seventy and add at the end of the section the following:
 The General Assembly shall, at each session. set apart a sufficient amount of such levy, to pay the interest on the pubic debt. and the proceeds of the levy 50 set apart shah be used for no other purpose" ..
 Mr. deGraffenreid--I objected to the report of the Committee SO far as the section which Is sought to be am ended Is concerned, because was afraid that in the desire to reduce the taxes Of the s state the Convention might 70 too far. if Q limit of sixty-fiVe cents on the hundred dollars was placed upon the General Assembly. The gem Ijeman from Talladega, when he read his report, gave us certain figures that he had received from some officer in the Auditors Department, and cer- tain estimates that he had received from the various Probate Judges of the state, and upon them he based the statement that this year, and next year, and perhaps the next, the State of Alabama could safely go upon a six and e-half mill basis.
 If this were the Legislature instead or a Constitutional Convention, would, in the light of those estimates, unhesi- tatingly vote for the reduction, but we are now adopting 0 Constitution which shall be a limitation upon the future action of legislators, and I call the Conventions attention to the fact that these estimates are based upon valua- tions liked at a period of imitation, which is greater now than 1t has ever been in the history of the world. Stocks and bonds and other personal property that are quoted upon the floors of the various stock exchanges of the world, are selling higher than they have ever sold before in the history of the world, and, as have stated. we have reached the period of the greatest imitation in the worlds history. We are at the flood tide. There must come the ebb, if history repeats itself. The question Is. when the ebb comes, when the pe- riod of depression comes, when we are over the present period of imitation, are we very sure that six and one-half mills on the dollar will be sufficient to meet the requirements of the State? We have lived under a limitation of seven and one-half mills. and during that period we have gone through pe- riods of depression and periods of in- f1ation, and we have been able to meet the obligations of the State and the de- mands that have been made upon the States treasury. but at one period, as was stated on this floor on yesterday, the Governor of. Alabama was required to borrow five or six hundred thousand dollars. in clear violation of law, upon warrants to be drawn upon the treas ury, in New York, to meet the tenn porary demands of the State.
 Ought we not to be cautious when such doubts exist as are shown to ex- ist in the minds of some of the mem bers of this Convention? We are hon ored with the presence of two ex-Gov-
 NE -E 1AA