The age-herald., 1901-01-12
GENERAL FUCKER
 TO THE TRUSTEES His Statement Regarding the University Land Sale ASKED TO BE HANDICAPPED Appealed to the Board to Place Him Right Before His Business Asso-
 ciates-His Version of the
 Famous Deal.
ASKED TO BE HANDICAPPED

patch in the Age-Herald yesterday, the
 trustees of the University of Alabama have
 declined to reopen the famous University
 Sloss- Sheffield land sale case.
 The proposition to reconsider the action
 taken by the board of trustees on Decem-
 Der 20 1899, came up last Wednesday when
 Gen. E. w. Fucker, vice president of the
 sloss-Sheffield Steel a,sd-Iron Company,
 presented communication giving a his-
 tory of the organization of that company
 and the alleged purchase of 44S0 acres of
 coal lands belonging to the university.
 Gen. W. c. Oates appeared as counsel
 for General Fucker. H. F. DeBardeleben
 of Birmingham and Col. B. M. Long of
 Walker County both largely interested in
 Alabama coal lands, were present to
 make statements bearing on the transac-
 tion. General Fucker expressed desire to
 go upon the stand and make a complete
 statement of every detail of the university l land transaction but the action of the trustees in declining to reopen the case l prevented him doing so
 General Fuckers Letter.
 General Fuckers letter to the trustees l follows:
 l the University of Alabama:
 | Gentlemen-I most respectfully submit to | you the following statement relative to a matter of more than ordinary importance 1 to the several interests involved in what l is generally termed the University land | sale. The conditions out of which grew the | widespread agitation concerning the sale by your honorable board of certain lands to the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Com
 pany having been removed; the political contest. which was then in vogue (and to | which the trouble over the said sale was l largely due) having passed into history, I | believe the facts should be fully known l and understood, that no injustice to me | shall be perpetrated, nor injury done to | those, who, acting in good faith, became
 the purchasers of said property. Relying 1 steadfastly upon the justice, good sense
 and sound judgment of your board, I earn | estly invoke for this paper a careful and patient consideration.
 Before stating facts personal to myself, l permit to recall the fact that on the
 2d day of September, 1899, the trustees of | the university sold to the Sheffield | Company 44S0 acres of land at the price l of $12.50 per acre. They had the University | Land Commissioner, with maps and re-
 ports concerning these lands, before them,
 and they authorized and directed the Gov | ernor to convey them Subsequently, al- 1 most the entire press of tine State seemed | to be greatly aroused and stirred up over the sale, many of the papers criticised and
 abused in the severest and most unjust l terms the action of the Governor and the
 board. There were alumni meetings de- nunciatory of the sale, there were cries of
 fraud on every hand, there was a call
 meeting of the board and convention of
 tine alumni at Tuscaloosa in December fol-
 lowing and notwithstanding so much in-
 temperance of spirit and speech had been
 indulged In by self constituted guardians
 of ttbn mi | be urged against the sale was that it was l illegal not that 1t was sold at a price in- | adequate to it's value; not that 1t was
 tainted with fraud, but that the trustees
 had authority at that particular meet
 ing to ratify confirm the sale. Litga-
 ton looking to the annulment of the sale
 has ensued and so far as has been insisted
 no fact exists upon which cancellation
 of the contract can be predicated. other
 than the purely technical one of illegality,
 based solely upon the alleged irregularity
 of such action of the board taken at , called meeting, in the notice for which the l proposed disposition of lands was not spec l ifcally set out.
 | The foregoing are matters of public l knowledge and would not have been re- l hearsed in this paper but for their con- ] nection with other facts, concerning said ] sale of lands, which I shall relate, with no
 fear that the truthfulness of my state
 ment, or the integrity of my action
 throughout the entire transaction can be
 questioned.
 In March or April of last year. met MT. | J. w. Worthington in New York. For 1 more than year, as knew, he had, after | preliminary negotiations with MT. John w. | Gates, president of the Illinois Steel Com l pany, and other capitalists, been making l examinations of the brown and coal properties along the line of the North Ala
 bama Railroad, and also of the furnace sit
 uation at Florence, with view of putting
 all of the furnaces and properties into one
 company and building steel plant at Shef field Some months before, he had obtained 1 an option from me, as president of the l American Coal and Coke Company, upon I said company's property situated near | Parish, Ala, and I had assisted him in se- | curing other options. During the above | mentioned interview he informed me that | it was impossible for him to make sale of | properties, MT. John W. Gates had l turned down the whole proposition. After l carefully examining his prospectus, which l then saw for the first time, I became inn l pressed with the idea that 1t would be | good thing for the Sloss Iron and Steel l Company to acquire these properties. At | Mir Worthingtons request I brought it to | the attention of the executive committee | of said company, and afterwards laid 1t be- l fore the board of directors
 l While it was the purpose of John W. | Gates to acquire the coal property in MT. l Worthingtons scheme, 1t was not at first l l essary for the Sloss Iron and Steel Com- l pany, as they had an abundance of coal l property to last them many generations | as good in quality and as well located as l any in the State of Alabama, and already | developed to a capacity beyond the then ex- l isting demands of the market I frank | to say that, desiring to sell my coal lands, | and believing that ultimately it would be | best for the company, I insisted in the | face of much opposition, that they should | acquire about ten thousand acres, any | way; that is to say the holdings of the | American Coal and Coke Company, and l some six or seven thousand acres to be | acquired contiguous to it, which would | have been ample for all their purposes, and | would have covered sufficient amount of | available coking coal for the Sheffield fur i naces Knowing the board of directors of | the Sloss Iron and Steel Comapny would | require time for consideration of the propo- l sition, I returned home. few days there | after I met Governor Johnston, to whom l I in confidence explained my plans. He