The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-04

be printed by union printers. The res olution was referred to the Committee on Printing.
 Mir. Long of Walker. by unanimous consent introduced resolution seek ing to repeal the resolution adopted at the morning session which provides that no member shall be paid per diem during leave of absence except for sick ness. The Long resolution recites that the resolution adopted places q pre- mium of A a day on sickness" The resolution was referred to the Committee on Rules.
 Section 10 of the Article on Taxation was then taken up. It provides a linn it upon indebtedness of cities not ex- ceeding five per centum oof taxaoie property. Provided, cities may levy an additional tax of per centum for pub lic improvements and that this section shall not apply to indebtedness already
 MT. Weakley of Lauderdale. present. ed as q substitute Section 8 of the Ar ticle on Municipal Corporation increas- ing the limit to 2 per centum and ad- dressed the Convention upon munich pal indebtedness. He declared that In his opinion a city should own its wa ter plant, its sewerage systems. Be- yond this he said he was not prepared to go.
 Under a suspension of the rules the time of Mr. Weakley was extended to twenty-five minutes.
 MT. Macdonald of Montgomery, spoke against the Weakley amendment. He | said the city of Montgomery Is now
 bowed down under special taxes for paving.
 MT. Macdonald. He said MT. Macdon- ald wholly misunderstood the proposi- | ton of MT. Weakley, which simply | provided against increasing the in debtedness of cities over [ per centum except for certain public improvements. MT. Soliie of Dale, spoke against the | weakley substitute. He said he came from a rural district. which had no large cities. He was not directly in- | terested in municipalities but he said he represented the whole people. Most of the time of MT. Sollie was consumed in answering questions and he said that he would profit by expe- l rience.
 MT. Chapman of Sumter. found fault with the wording of the substitute and' argued against 1t.
 Judge Coleman said that no more dangerous proposition than that Of the | Weakley substitute had been submit ted to the Convention. It did not give sufficient protection to the smaller l towns of the State. It would leave the
 small towns in a deplorable condition. He earnestly favored Section 10 of the Article on Taxation as reported by the l Committee.
 General Harrison of Lee, said he con- cured in what had been said by Judse Coleman. He said he was surprised that the proposition to increase the
 indebtedness of cities to I per centum
 should come from the gentleman rom
 Lauderdale (Mr. WeakleO who had presented an ordinance reducing the | indebtedness of counties to per centum of taxable values. He said
 his own town of Opelika could not
 stand a s per centum tax. He ap- l pealed to delegates not to raise tne l limit to per centum.
 | Captain Graham of Montgomery, l made his first speech of the Conven- l tion. He said MT. Macdonald had been | fighting municipal taxes before the | Supreme Court and had invariably lost Now he brought it before the Consti- tutional Convention, crying "Confisca- | tion confiscation, confiscation." He said he defied any one to undertake
 to show that the purchase of water
 works by the city of Montgomery had not been a blessing to the people. He ably championed the Weakley substi- 1 ute and made forcible answers to many delegates. He said if the Sec
 tion as reported by the Committee was
 adopted it would choke the life out of
 every municipality in the State. General Sanford of Montgomery. said l he had not expected that the city of
 Montgomery would be injected into the
 Convention so early. He was not sur
 prised that Captain Graham was in favor of raising the limit. He had
 never seen an ex-Mayor or ex-City
 Attorney who was not opposed to the
 people on t-.s proposition. He had seen property confiscated in Montgom-
 cry because people could not pay the
 taxes. He had known people to leave
 Montgomery because they could not
 stand increased exactions. He said he
 earnestly opposed any further effort to
 choke the people to death. He proposed
 to raise his voice tn protest against
 this proposition.
 Mir. Pillans of Mobile presented an | amendment to the substitute of MT.
 Weakley. It propose to strike out the clause relating to notes, certificates of | indebtedness or revenue bonds and
 debts created for the preservation of
 the public health. He said the object
 of his amendment was to confine all
 indebtedness over per centum to wa | IeTWOTkS, sewers ana street or SlQe-
 walk Improvements. He felt sure 1t
 was not the intention of the Conven- | tion to deprive the cities of Alabama of
 the right to do what progressive cities | of other States were doing. He said
 Mobile is now preparing to pave its streets, and he as property owner
 would be heavily taxed, yet he was in
 favor of a tax for paving. He said he did not believe in quarantine during
 epidemics. He thought this was time of panic and a time above all
 times when municipalities should be
 restrained from burdening the people
 with special taxes.
 MT Ferguson of Jefferson said he | regarded 1t as a most unfortunate day
 for Alabama when any bonded indebt- l edness had been forced upon the State or any part of the State. He was In
 favor of the lowest possible limit of in- debtedness consistent with the honor l of the State and its municipalities. He
 said the Supreme Court had decided
 that the abutting property tax was
 constitutional and the Convention
 should stand by the proposition.
 MT. Lowe of Jefferson spoke in fa-
 vor of the, substitute He said the Convention must takeI its hand off of
 the throats of the growing cities Of
 Alabama.
 At 5:55 MT. O'Neal of Lauderdale in
 troduced a resolution providing for
 adjournment until Friday morning at 9:30 o'clock which threw the Convention