The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-20

that is. at almost every meeting of the committed. and the result was that we refused to put anything in the re- port, and the minority submits he re- port we are now considering. MT. President, 1t is not necessary for every man to 20 to a building and loan association. It is not necessary Tor rich men like my friend Long from EItler to GO so.
 MT. Long-I deny the allegation.
 tMr. Graham-I defy the alligator. He may not be rich but in comparl- son to a certain class of men who own stock in these associations he Is a mll- Iionaire. I know that there are hun dreds of homes that have been built in the Capital City of Alabama by poor men through the aid of these associa- tions. by the addition of small amount of money to the rent which they were paying. In the course of six or seven or eight years .or the time of maturity, they own their homes clear of all indebtedness. and the record is cancelled in the office of the Judge of Probate
 The President-The time of the gen. tlenian has expired.
 MT Harrison-As the majority Of the committee have not consumed much time ask that the gentleman who represents the majority or the committee may have his time extended tenSminutcs.
 Upon a vote being taken the time of the gentleman was extended for ten minutes.
 MT. Graham-Mr. President. am very much obliged to the Convent'on. I have not been upon the floor Of the Convention often enough to bore any man on it. and am sorry that am in a position now where it is probable that I do. but feel that I am speaking in the interest of the poor people of Alabama who are interested in these associations. and it is the first oppor- tunity that I have had tn do so.
 MT. Oates-Bore the fellows on the other side.
 MT. Graham-But still I have some friends upon the other side. but don't like to bore them. though they may differ with me. For instance l don't like to bore my friend Boone. MT. colleague. Macdonald of Mont gomery, virtually admits that the pre- ferred stock is the cause of the dis aster that has overtaken building and loan associations in Alabama. I agree
 
 statement Is a fact, but the gentleman cannot name a local association that has issued preferred stock. It is issued by the so-called "scurvy dogs." the national associations. I find there are. about twelve associations doing busi- ness in the State of Alabama. two of these are national associations. The balance are home associations. But one national association outside of the State of Alabama has taken out it's license this year and 1t is in the hands of a receiver There is but one Ala bama national association in existence in this State today, and my informa- ton is that 1t is in course of liquidation. Then we have nothing left upon which to operate, If we insert the minority l report in the Constitution.
 My friend also says that whenever a man opposes a measure 1t is a aues- tion of legislation. If he is In favor of it, 1t ought to go into the Consti- tuition. If he opposes it, 1t is Ques- tion of legislation and ought to be left out. There is a great deal of truth in the sta Gtement made by my col- league, but this Is one i'm stance where it should be left to the Legislature. It Is not matter of principle. but 1t is a matter of pol icy. and that policy should be dealt with by the General Assembly, and it will deal with it. But he seems to fear the law making body, he seems to fear the legislature. l say to him as Vol taire said in his life of Charles the Twelfth: Unfortunate is the country whose King loves the singing of bull lets" I say, unfortunate is the coun- try. whose people fear its General As sembly. I, for one, do not fear the General Assembly of the State of Ala bama. AS was said by the distinguish ed gentleman from Tallapoosa on the floor of the Convention the other day. in many respects the legislature is the peer of this body. I am not mem Der of the legislature. and do not pro- pose to defend it. It is able to take care of itself.
 There is but one other matter to which I desire to call the attention of the Convention. l have letter hero that was written by a distinguished lawyer of Alabama, one of the ablest young men in the State, and 1 desire to read 1t. and with 1t, conclude my re- marks. This is a letter written by Hon. s. D. Weakly of Birmingham, to Mr. w. V. M. Robertson. It is as fol- lows:
 Dear Sir-At your request l submit herewith the reasons why National Building and Loan Associations have not been successful, although the local Alabama companies have been pros porous, and have met the expectations Of their investing stockholders and bor rowers. For the past ten years we have represented both national and home companies, have conversed freely with officials of both. and have nad au excellent opportunity to observe their workings. In addition to this, I have been a stockholder with very satlsfac tory results in d home company, which more than met all my expectations.
 By reason of the fact that the na- tional associations haze covered such an extended field. and had to rely upon valuations and appraisements made by local people. who nearly always had an exaggerated idea of values, they were induced to make loans often times for large sums, far beyond the point of security and safety in the matter of values.
 T have in mind one case where a national company of Minneapolis, Minn.. loaned $7000 on a piece of acre age property near Birmingham on which loan they never collected from the party cent of interest and in which case after several years of liti- gation to secure the property, they sold it for $2,0O0. thus losing more than $5, 900 on that particular loan. For the same reasons the same company suf- fered larger losses in other cities in this State."
 Why don't you fellows that are op- posed to national building and loan as- sociations applaud the loss of the Min