The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-08

| taD NoteS, certificates Of lnoepteoness or revenue bonds issued in anticipation of the collection of taxes, unless the same be not paid within two years from the date of such issue, and all sucn notes, certificates of indebtedness and revenue bonds shall be provided Tor, and made payable from the taxes ieVleo for the year in which they are issued, | and shall never exceed the amount oi such taxes.
 l MT. Weakley Geuderdale)-I desire
 to state that Section of this report
 was considered by the Convention al the time the report of the Committee on
 Taxation, and a substitute to section was adopted by this Convention. l.
 therefore, ask unanimous desire to | withdraw Section 8 from the consld- eration of the Convention. | There being no objection, 1t was so ordered.
 The President-The Secretary will read Section g.
 l MT. Long CWalker)-Before the sec | tion is read, I ask unanimous consent to introduce a. short resolution. | The Secretary read the resolution as follows:
 l Whereas, The delegates to this Con- vention appreciate the consideration of the Montgomery Street Railway Com
 pany in not making said delegates
 wait at the Capitol steps for a car more than fifteen or twenty minutes in the hot sun every day when the Con vention adjourns at 1 o'clock, ana sel- dom less than fifteen minutes at Court | Square for a transfer car; and, (Laugn- | ter).
 Whereas, The sasacious business management of the said Street Railway Company, in catering to the additional | sessions of the Convention. with their modern, noiseless, roomy. high-class cars, is deserving of attention: and,
 Whereas, It adds to the pleasure of ride down Dexter Avenue when the thermometer is 104, to have seventeen or twenty-five delegates standing In the aisle, and two or three of more than average weight occupying each narrow seat, Gaughter.)
 | Therefore, be it resolved, Inat the thanks of this Convention be not ten dered to the Montgomery Street Rail- way Company for their great cour- tesy. consideration and efficiency in hauling delegates and visitors to the Convention in modern and elegantly | furnished cars who have always paid full fare. Referred to Committee on IncIdental Expenses. Gaughter).
 | The Secretary read Section as fol- | lows:
 Sec. g. No city. town or village | whose present indebtedness exceeds the limitations herein imopsed shall De al lowed to become indebted in any fur- ther amount until such indebtedness shall be reduced within such limit provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall prevent any municipal | ity from issuing bonds in renewal or for the refunding of obligations already existing.
 MT. Kirk (Colbert)-1 have an amend ment.
 The Secretary read the amendment as follows: Amend Section by ad- ding thereto the following: Provided, | the provisions of this section shall not apply to the cities of Sheffield and Tuscumbia.
 MT. Kirk-I anticipate the Commit tee will accept that as an amendment. If they do, do not care to argue 1t. | If they do not accept it | MT. Weakley-I have no particular desire to interfere with the local con- ditions of the cities of Tuscumbia and Sheffield. At the same time. l can see no reason why every city in the State should be limited in it's capacity to create debts, and those places be ex- empt. I think there should be same limitation placed upon those two cities as Is placed upon others. Now, the section which was adopted by this Convention permitted certain cities within the State having a population of less than 5000 to contract debts to the amount of per cent of it's assessed valuation, with the permission to in- crease that. I say certain cities were allowed to incur debts to the extent | of
 The President-Does the gentleman from Colbert yield to the gentleman | from Lauderdale?
 MT. Kirk-No. sir; just asked If the Committee would accept it, and the Committee declines to accept t. I will ask the Secretary to read this petition as a part of my remarks. The petition was read as follows: 1 Sheffield, Ala, July Eth, '01.
 To the Hon James T. Kirk, Montgom- cry. Ala:
 Dear Sir-At a special meeting of the City Council of Sheffield. held this day for the purpose of taking some action with regard to the limitation
 to be placed on the debt creating pow CT of municipalities, the following was
 unanimously adopted:
 "The City Council of Sheffield views l | the Constitutional Convention in linn
 iting the amount of indebtedness that
 the municipality can make. and it asks
 it's representatives in said Convention | Hon. James T. Kirk and Hon. A. H | Carmichael. to do their utmost to re-
 lieve 1t from the burden of these pro-
 visions.
 The debt of the city at present. is about fifteen 15) per cent of it's as-
 sessed value and the character of it's
 growth will necessitate its making the | debt larger, or it will be smothered in | it's infancy. With the limitations pro-
 vided for in the proposed Article. the
 debt of the city will be more likely to
 grow from the defaulted interest; the
 real danger will be that these provis-
 ions though of some good effect else where. will result in death to our mu-
 nicipal life.
 Tn municipalities like this, unlike
 those of slower growth, the ordinary
 rules do not and cannot be made to apply The work ordinarily done gradually must here be done at once.
 Its public duties must be performed,
 or If not. the law will place on 1t an | involuntary indebtedness against | which the provisions of the Constttu-
 tion cannot protect 1t.
 We ask that the debtmaking pow
 CT of Sheffield be limited only by its
 borrowing capacity, believing that with
 the limitation provided for on the
 power of taxation, there is no danger
 of it's unduly mortgaging its future. Yours very obediently. I R Coleman