The age-herald., 1901-08-09


 he heard a gurgling sound beneath the water. A minute later Mackie appeared on the surface and shouted shark. shark" The surface of the water was covered with blood near where he came up. Mackie started to swim and al- though crippled reached the boat which took him aboard. The leg was bitten off below the knee, but the ship surgeon found 1t necessary to amputate the mem Der between the knee and hip. --~~~-~~~<<~<<<<> their own affairs. If they were bottled up by railroad they ought 10 be allow ed to grant a franchise to new one.
 MT. Dent of Barbour said that this section, as stated by his colleague, was a blow at local Seh-go vernment and con trary to Democratic doctrine, and he w as sorry to see any such spiri- manifested in the convention. He thought tke sec ton was vicious and moved to table 't, which was done by voee of 51 10 26.
 Classifying Cities.
 Section ten was then read as follows.
 Section TO- The General Assembly shall provide by general laws for the organiza- tion and classification of cities, towns and villages; the number of such classes shall not exceed four, and the powers of each class shall be defined by general laws, so that all municipal corporations of the same class shall possess the same powers and be subject to the same re- strictions.
 The General Assembly shall assign the cities, towns and villages of the State to the class to which they respectively be- long and change assignments made as rafY lot nf enc nIf nd xrtl- lages increase or decrease, and in the ab- sence of other satisfactory information as to their population the General As sembly shall be governed by the last pre- ceding federal census, provided, however, that any city, town or village in Ala bama may in the year 1905. and every ten years thereafter, cause a census of all its inhabitants to be taken, and the General Assembly may change the classification of such city, town or village according to the result of such census.
 Any city having population of more than 10000 inhabitants may frame a char ter for It's own government, not in con fiict with this constitution, whenever the Mayor, authorized by a majority vote of the legislative body of such city, shall have made application to the judge of the Circuit Court for the appointment of the board, to be composed of nine quail fled electors, who shall have been for at least five years residents of such city If the judge of the Ciruit Court Is a non resident of the ounty in whih said city is loated, then such application may be made to the judge of any State court of record of general common law jurisdic- tion residing in such county, and the said application and the appointments made thereon shall be entered of record by the clerk of such court
 Said board shall, within ninety days af- ter such appointment, return to the chief magistrate of such city the draft of such charter signed by a majority of said board within thirty days thereafter: such proposed charter shall be submbitted to the qualified voters of such city at a spe- cial election to be called by the Mayor, and if a majority of such qualified voters voting thereat shall ratify the same, 1t shall, at the end of thirty days thereaf- ter, become the charter of such city and supersede any existing charter or amend ments thereto, and all special acts of the General Assembly relating to the cor porate organization or government of such city other than law securing and en- forcing the payment of the debts of such city.
 A duplicate certificate shall be made set ting forth the charter proposed and its ratification which shall be signed by the chief magistrate of such city and ha au-
 
 such certificates shall be deposited in the office of the Secretary of State and the other shall be deposited among the archives of such city. and all courts shall take judicial notice of such charter Such charter so adopted may beamended at in tervals of not less than four years by pro- posals therefor, submbitted by the legis- 1ative authority of the city to the uuali- fled voters thereof at general or special election held at least thirty days after the publication of such proposals in two news papers of said city and ratified by ma jority of the qualified voters voting there at. In any such charter or amendments thereto any alternative article or propo- sition may be presented for the choice of the voters, and may be voted on separate ly without prejudice to the others.
 Amendments Offered.
 General Sanford of Montgomery, . member of the committee, offered mi- uority report which provided that the legislature by a general law could incor- porate cities, but that they must all have the same municipal powers.
 General Sanford spoke in favor of his minority report saying that of all the greatest dangers of the day were the powers usurped by the municipal gov ernments. They regulated everything. even saying that people could not spit on certain parts of the pavement. They made a citizen put down a stone pave nent and fined him If he spit on 1t. This section put the cities into four classes and gave them different powers Why do this7 Why should Montgomery have more power than Eufaula? Have they any more virtues7 Why not make a gem eral law for all? Look at the bad prin- cipie of allowing a city of 10000 people to make a charter. Their aldermen are often men insolvent financially and bank rupt morally.
 MT. DeGraffenried of Hale moved to amend by providing that nothing in the section should affect the clause in any present charter regulating or restraining the liquor traffic. He spoke in favor of his amendment saying 1t would take the Supreme Court twenty years to tell us what we had done to the charters of va rious cities if we adopt this section.
 MT. Weakley explained the section. say