The age-herald., 1901-03-11
To Convention Candidates.
A mere man writes:

ITO be mute in a critical time that the world may belle your sentiments or ques- tion your capacity to unfold them to the waiting multitude. is not your reserved right. If you really understand the things in which you are quick to mix yourself, speak out to us even as the clarion note of the bird of morning. 'Egeria, sweet creation of the air The nympo- lepsy of some fond despair. is not Ala bama in the throes of incubating an or ganic law? Mayhap you are an Egerianl I am an Alabamian.
 Have you made note, my dear MT. Candidate-for- Convention, of two most notable men, and both Morgan by name; how they strive against one another to suodue one another, and both, strangely enough, in a rush toward the same goal? Did you read the lately announced opin- ions of Mademoiselle. whilom a house. keeper of James Pierpont Morgan, that the widey-declared brain power of her quondam employer Is a resultant trust, as the lawyers phrase it, arising from a diet of corned beef and cabbage? However that may be, 1t is quite beyond cavil that James Pierpont Morgan, championing the interests of land transportation on a diet of corned beef and cabbage, has tackled that dream of our own noble John Tyler Morgan, that he could shake this mighty trust in it's base by canal uniting the two great oceans across the great West ern Hemisphere upon which railroads ply their work, and the man of corned beef and cabbage feeding bears off the belt Corned beef and cabbage feeding, lobster salad and cocktail, another kind of feed ing, two men and two combating social and political forces pose before you, Mr. Candidate-for- Convention, with a mean- ing for each and all! You have barely time to skim the surface of the facts and their consequence so modestly here set before you. The Morgan of the trust will come to Alabama some day, ere great while, to look around him. On his way back. having been charmed beyond expression, he will call at the Nations Capitol, and summonnlng MT. Henderson and MT. Hanna, he will order the Van Hoose canal cut by Congress; he will or der Mobile harbor made ready for heavi- est freights Meanwhile we may amuse
 
 and readjusting our internal affairs by a new constitution, even as the fly on the chariot wheel shouted to the dust that followed the shouting. You have seen he little dog chasing the fast maill It's the fast mail that is up to the situation here in Alabama, not our great and eloquent Senator.
 Well, sir, I had hoped to have heard from you to be re-assurred upon this point, to wit, how do you expect to enact ordinances in sovereign convention as- sembled which are forbidden to you by the enabling act of the General Assembly under which the sovereign convention convenes? I recur to my example here tofore cited. By the act aforesaid you are permitted to deliberate only fifty days, while you are commanded even within that limit to employ your time in part upon certain subjects named. Peradventure, the fiftieth day may find the convention engrossed With considera- tion of an amendment to the report ed ordinance to exempt Escambia. Winston, Marengo Mobile and Lauderdale, would you leave yoar seat and go home, as per act of the General Assembly, at 12 m?
 What Would You Do?
 Assume that the sovereign convention takes the bit in It's mouth and defying the prescriptions of the enabling act of the General Assembly, proceed to exempt from the ordinance the counties afore- said after the fifty days limit had passed, in your opinion would the Supreme Court, n ha from the ordinance, sustain the constitu- tionality of the new constitution which should defy the statute of the old General Assembly in fixing the fifty day limit, or in your opinion, would the Supreme Court reverse the new constitution on the ground of extraction by the new consti- tuition of the fifty-day statute limit afore- said?
 'I could wish, my dear MT. Candidate r-Convention, that you would use this simple illustration of a miserable muddle which confronts you to perform well your part in preparing your mind to rise to the attitude of your opportunity. Inter nos, there will not be exceeding 25 per cent of the convention composed of men so prepared. Not less than 75 per cent of the membership are hell bent on taking care of the 'deestrict.'
 If Alabama is to have an organic law of comprehensive force the convention must know the fundamental principle, that the General Assembly must be left unshackled by the constitution to enact statutory law under wise checks and limitations. If we are to have General Assembly in it's legitimate province, then the counties, towns and precincts must be required to keep their small local af- fairs at home. MT. Jefferson's plans of political organization was: CD The pre- cinct; @ the county; (S) four counties (4 the State, each factor endowed with rights commensurate with State integ- rity."
 MT. and Mrs. Bert Allison.
 MT Bert Allison and Mrs. Allison of Cincinnati are making brief visit to Birmingham, MT. Allison's former home, where he is gladly received. He won a great many friends during his residence in this city, and he is still greatly es- teemed here. Mrs. Allison was Miss Mary voupo of Louisiana and ic hrilliapf T, 3