The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-27
SUFFRAGE COMMITTEE IMPORTANT MEETING WAS
 HELD LAST NIGHT.
Article Was Practically Agreed Up- on and Will Be Reported Fri day-The Sheriff Question
 VIII Be Re-opened.

The Sunrage Committee had an ex- tended session at the Council Chamber
 last night, and did not adjourn until
 long after il o'clock. It was learned after adjournment that q report was practically agreed upon and the Ar l ticle was referred to a subcommittee
 te formulate and report to the full Committee.
 It is expected that the Committee will be ready to report by Friday and 1t Is a remarkable fact that no notice has yet been given of a minority re- port. There has been quite a differ ence, however. on the grandfather clause" and there will be no surprise If minority report is made on that Section. While 1t seems that a report was practically agreed upen last night and a sus-committee appoipted to put 1t in shape, it Is feared. and q proIni- nent delegate was heard 0 say last night that he did not believe that when it came to agree on the report as written. that there would be anything like unaniraity and that he expected minority reports upon a number of sec- tions. This may not be true. but the action of the Committee up to this time make 1t very probable.
 If the report is made Friday an ef- fort will be made te sidetrack every thing else and take up the report and consider 1t until 1t is agreed on by Monday ct the latest. The discussion will consume several days. and there is said to be a determination on the part of delegates who are especially interested in other matters not to let the suffrage report take precedence. be- cause they fear that with that Article out of the way interest will acbside and the Convention will soon adjourn.
 Sheriff Question Again.
 It was learned last that Hon. J. Thomas Heflin, of Chambers. would present a resolution this morning to re- consider Section 90 of the Article on Executive Department and endeavor to put sheriffs on an equality with other county officers and not make them in- eligible to succeed themselves as has been the law for years. Mir. Heflin is hacked by Judge Cobb of Macon. and other prominent and influential dele gates, and the fight for the motion 1 will be Q strong and stubborn one. ! It will be seen elsewhere in The Ad- vertieer this morning that the Sher1frs' | Association has had a meeting here and l 1t was in executive session. This move ment is probably the result of that meeting and if it Is successful there VIII not be much surprise.
 The 4eILlAlEST s4AH 4@A'
 The fight being made against the feT- tilizer tag tax has brought the repre- sentatives of the District Agricultural schools to the city and members Of the Convention are being importuned to stand by those institutions.
 An effort Is to be made to reconsider the action of yesterday afternoon and the entire day today will probably bo spent in a discussion of that motion. Tn this event the fight for ths SherlnS
 will not come up, but will be mado
 as soon as possible. The Agriculrurat
 Schools do not want to give up this
 tax. for the reason that they are afraid
 that there will be no appropriation
 from the general fund to maintain
 them.
 If was stated on the floor of the Con-
 vention in the debate on the amand"
 ment to strike down this tax that
 very small portion of the money raised from the tag tax went to the scneoH but found its way into the treasury. On the other hand it was stated that the farmers were willing to stand this in order to have these schools continue and that they did not want ihe tax
 taken of. It was also stated that the
 schools were not Agricultural schools
 in any sense and yet were doipg
 great deal of good. so much that they
 were not willing to sec them abolished.
 Discussion of Tax Rate.
 The fight on the general tax rate has
 not yet been reached but when 1t is
 there is going to be strong ana de- termined effort to have the maximum
 remain at three quarters of one Ter cent. While it Is true that pledges were made to observe the present law and not to increase the limit. 1t is equally true that nothing was said about the decrease of the rate. and
 there are many delegates who do net
 believe that the State can make all ends meet with any such liml-at! m as the Taxation Committee seeks t) put
 upon it. The committeeman argue that 1t can be safely done and IL wall be the strongest argument that can be made in favor of the adoption or the Constitution framed by this Conv sntion 4ha limit has been reduCaI.