The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-23

never found before in my experlence m this Legislative Hall. find also that on this side of the house 1t is very difficult matter to hear gentlemen on the other side whom have heard re- peatedly in halls with great ease. l am suffering this afternoon with hoarseness, and I therefore ask the indulgence of the delegates and ask them to keep quiet so that I may be heard.
 am much obliged to my friend from Montgomery, Governor oates, the chairman of the committee, for the kind permission that he has given for me to introduce my ordinance, or the ordinance introduced by me as a sub stitute. would have that right ary way. It, however, puts me to this disadvantage and it puts to disadvan- tage the friends of the measure that they are supporting an amendment in- stead of the original proposition which was adopted by the committee. If the Convention will remember l felt called upon when the chairman of the com mittee made his report to chalien2e the correctness of this Article 63 az the work of the committee. The gen. tlaman explained then as he does now that he said something about offering a SllDSllluIp DcCduSt iis 'oAN '0 he could improve it. But l could not agree to his offering a substitute as the work of the committee. Nor could I speak for the committee on that sllb' tect A vote was taken after consid- erable discussion, as the chairman of the committee has very we'll said, and the result was vote of nine to six Tn favor of what have been graciously' permitted to have as a part of this re- port a printed copy of what was act ually the work of the committee.
 Now, sir. I am reminded of a story of ancient history. because cannot very we'll help looking at the humorous phase of 1t somewhat. In olden times the Grecian philosophers worried themselves a great deal to formulate a scientific definition of man. After a great deal of trouble old Plato finally formulated definition of man. which seemed to satisfy him. He defined man to he a hiped without feathers. A few days afterward old Diogenes appeared among the school of philosophers with an old rooster in his arms with all the feathers nlucked out and he threw II on the floor and said "behold Plato's man." and that was the finishing Of the definition Plato had given. And sd the chairman of the committee comes in here with a substitute without head or tail or feathers and says "be- hold my improvement on the ordinance adopted by the committed; 1t is so much briefer." and so. MT. President, it Is so muck briefer. and the great ob- lection that S have to the substitute the gentleman brings in as the report of the committee is that it Is colorless and inconsequential. It is very difficult to tell from the construction of It ex- actly what 1t means. but there is no doubt about 1t that the effect is simply to perpetuate trusts in this State.
 Now the ordinance which l had the honor to submit to this Convention, and which was adopted even without the vote of the chairman of the commit tee. bv a vote of eight to seven, Is taken from an Ohio statute and is one of the best pieces of definition which ] have read. The very object l had was to define In the Constitution what was meant by trust.
 MT. walker (Madison)-I will ask you if definition of that kind has operated to stop trusts in Ohiof
 MT. Brooks-I will come to that in a moment. That law has been passed upon by the Supreme Court of Ohio. read it some time ago rather cursor fly. I haven't got it now. It did not 2, to the whole extent but 1t did de- eide that 1t was constitutional and that there were no obiter dicta apai3~t its constitutionality in any respect. It was reported In the papers not long ago where a case arose under that very statute and one plaintiff in the case, a woman, got all the damages and sat- isfaction she wanted. It had the effect of driving out from the State of Ohio the Standard oil Company, having that as its place of business, and 1t Is as- serted. and have heard it from gen. tleman who got 1t from MT. Monnette, the Attorney General himself. that that corporation offered him S300.000 to stop his prosecution.
 the criticisms that have been passed on this ordinance. Why. heard that a banker said that you could not have any bank clearances-that you could not have such a thing as a clearing house. IL has no more to do with A bank clearing house than with the di- urnal revolution of the earth. It would have no more power to affect bank clearances than 1t would have to bind the sweet influences of the pie ides. or loose the bands of Orion" One gentleman said it would break up labor orga ation5. It has nothing In the world to do with labor organiza- tions.
 The whole essence of the thing Is directed to affecting prices of articles or commodity of trade or manufacture or production. A mans skill or mans labor comes under neither head.
 MT Weatherly-I do not know wheth- I OuVht n rise tO a nOint of order or not. The gentleman is addressing him. self apparently to the ordinance which he introduced and which is not part of the report. He has not offered is as substitute. l would like to know the parliamentary status of this ordinance
 The President-The pending question Is on Section 63, aS> reported by the committee. and the chair understood the gentleman from Mobile to be ad- dressing himself to that question.
 Mir. Weatherly-I understood he was addressing himself to something else
 The Chair-That is the pending ques- tion. If the gentleman rises to a point of order that the gentleman is not con- fning himself to a reasonable limit Of the debate, the chair will undertake tc see that he does.
 MT Brooks-I like fair fight, Mir President and I don't think l am over stepping freedom of the debate. l con fine myself to the questions involved both in the substitute quoted by the chairman of the committee and the or dirance adopted by the committee both are on the same line. Then an other gentleman made this objection He said, Suppose the lawyers in 8 given place were to enter into an agree ment that they would charge so much {.