The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-02


 manufacture of the coarser grades of cotton goods that go to that trade? Either they must shut down, or they must spend every dollar of their capi- tai and every dollar of the increased capital they might get for the purpose of putting in new machinery to make goods for other trades.
 When you are making a constitution, gentlemen. you must not look at the immediate present. or the immediate future. but you must look at the pos abilities that lie in the vast future be- yond. A great many promises have been made to us in recent years, of the increased trade which would come to America by reason of the acquisition of the Philippine Islands, and we of the South have been told that with the Philippine Islands in our possession, a vast trade would come to us by reason Of our manufacture of the cotton goods and the prduction of the provisions necessary to clothe and feed those peo- pie. That there were millions to be fed and clothed. and it would make the South blossom like the rose. Mill lions to be fed and clothed; fed on banana, and clothed with a breech cloth. We have been in the entire and absolute possession of the bay, the har- bor and city of Manila for a long pe- riod of time. and statistics show that almost nine-tenths of the increased trade with the Philippine Islands has been in the trade of American whiskey for the American troops. Now we are not engaged very largely in the man. ufacture of that article, and that in which some of our independent citizens are engaged. the white looking liquid, the aroma of which fingers upon the hr0 h yava of hA nd 1o gets exported further than the mouth of the mountain canon where it is manufactured. and where the revenue officer goes with fear and trembling.
 Let us look at another phase of that question. The man who thinks that the convict system of Alabama is going to remain for another generation as it is today is a dreamer. The time is coming. and it Is coming speedily, gen. tlemen of the Convention, when there will be an absolute. an entire and radical change in the convict system of Alabama. You cannot always farm out your convicts as you do now. As it Is today. the Convict Department is not only paying into the State Treas ury an enormous revenue, but 1t is ab- solutely and entirely supporting the administration of the criminal laws of this State. When a change shall come in the system, and 1t must come as civilization grows and enlightenment extends. you not only will strike down the revenue which you derive now from the convict system, but you will find yourselves face to face with the propo- sition that the State of Alabama must provide some other means for the ad- ministration of the criminal law at a vast expense of money. With the small surplus that is promised us by the Chairman of this Committee, how will you make provision for the admin istration of the criminal laws in the sixty-six counties of Alabama? It is impossible to do 1t.
 Members of this Convention cannot have forgotten the vast amount of money which was expended within re- cent years. when quarantine against smallpox was inaugurated in Alabama. With the small surplus that is promised under the conditions we have here, where would the funds come from to meet another epidemic of that sort, or an epidemic of yellow fever. or any epidemic that required a vast expen- allure of money?
 We have had strikes in Alabama The time was not many years ago, when encamped on the hills of Jef- ferson County was every State troop in Alabama. and they stayed there for weeks at an expenditure of enormous quantities of money. Are we to be free from strikes in the future? No man can say so. because there is but one way to judge the future and that is by the past, and the time may come, and 1t may come at any moment, hen by reason of a disagreement between operatives and employers there will require the use of every armed man in Alabama to preserve the peace. Money will have to be expended for the trans portation of troops. for the pay of those troops. and for their mainte- nance. This may come once a year, it may not come in ten years, or it may come every year, and submit that under the figures of this committe no provision is made for this scrt of thing in the future.
 Now gentlemen have asked the ques- tion if l do not think that the people will be grateful to us for giving them this reduction in the tax limit. or whether l believe that they have not got sense enough to know what they want. I believe. Mir. President, that the people have got sense enough to know what they want, and sense enough not to be grateful for small reduction of taxation. which is to be made up by increased assessments. and which will imperil the honor of this State. The hCnor O. the State of Ala bama is as dear to the humb!est citi- zen as the email tax reduction that this change in the limit would take off of him. and he Is not only not going to be grateful to you for making such a re- duction. but he will say to you in no uncertain tones that to create a little creap popularity for this Constitution before the people you have sought to deceive us. and you have done worse than that. We want the honor of cur State maintained. We want her to go want the time to come when on every hillside in Alabama there will be a coke oven which shall make her the center of the industrial world. and the smoke of her factories and furnaces shall be like a pillar of cloud by day." calling the childrena of toll into this land of happiness and contentment.
 l appeal to you. gentlemen of the Convention. not to imperil these grand possibilities. Not to make it so that the honor of our State will he imper- lied. Keep the time from ever coming again when outside the Constitution we must go to the marts of commerce in New York and pawn our Auditors warrants for the money with which to pay our debts. Let us be in that posi- tion where We can take every advant- age of the reduction in interest rates that may come, not tomorrow, or the next day. but at any time in the future, Let us have the manhood to say that