The age-herald., 1901-08-17
Jefferson and MaIor handley.

Jefferson and Major Handiey.
 Briefly there Is told in the Age-Heraid today the story of old Seniors for Jefrer- son. meaning the late Senator John T. Miner and the former Congressman William A. Handiey of Randolph, and having special reference to Major Hand- leys great speech for education in the Constitutional Convention on Wednes- day" said an old schoolboy yesterday
 ''The Age-Herald's report from the hall of the convention was quoted to illustrate certain features of Major Handley's speech. In the stenographic report of the speech appearing in the Montgomery Advertiser Is this note of prosperfty'
 Our distinguished chairman of the Taxation committee applied to all the judges of probate in Alabama to know what the increase would be for 190l and they reported from twelve millions to fif- teen millions of dollars of increase for 19O1.'
 "In his noble plea for Birmingham and the Birmingham district Major Handley eloquently and truly said:
 Nbyt l itii yOu IHdC lic liaiio was come when Birmingham, and that miner al district surrounding 1t, will pay al- most half of the taxes of the State or Alabama. When I first went to Birming- ham, I got me turnout and went ana looked at Red Mountain, and saw q crop that never could be gathered that was mHtured and inexhustible; l saw crop that all the men that Generals Lee and Grant commanded in the war could not gather in thousand years; l saw the lime, ore, and then the lime and the sand and the coal-all that surrounding country there The truth Is in going up this grand Red Mountain, which is said to be seventy miles long. and half mile high, in going up this grand mountain the veins of iron ore protruded out twenty-two feet to the front, and went in the direction of China at about an angle of forty-five de- grees, and then went up the mountain at about forty-five degrees, and 1t was 200 or 300 feet to the top of the mountain, it was just simply immense. pr. Cald- well, president of the Elyton Land Com pany, bored a we'll about a mile beyond that mountain, and bored it about POGO feet deep, and on the route he went through that vein of ore 100 feet. How can you estimate the value of such prop erty as exists there? It is just wonder full. lived in a cotton country; thought to myself if had B, 900 square miles here in cotton. and 1t was about six feet high. and opened to the top and had GOO hands to pick 1t and another lot doing fha ertn selling, that that would be something in comparison to the mineral district about Birmingham
 "Dr. Caldwell sleeps the last sleep. and Major Handley does well to cite him as an exemplar of faith in Birmingham. He With his sturdiness of character, his un- surpassable courage, his great spirit of business enterprise, conjo.ned with the Powells, the Miners, the Handleys created Birmingham here in the beautiful valley of cotton fields. So long as Bir- mingham has a place upon the map just so long will its name bear with it the name of Henry Martyr Caldwelli
 Tt may be of some. comfort to Major Handley to know that Birmingham pro- foundly appreciates his powerful plea for her. Jefferson County-the empire county of Birmingham already pays nearly one- sixth of all the taxes paid by the sixty six counties. One soon-coming day it will pay half, as Major Handley says, and rejoice dn the doing of it. The Age-Herald has pleaded for the public schools, as Major Handley did. and the ge-Herald's immediate constituency, the people of Jefferson County, will pay at the outset almost one-s!xth of all the money raised under the three-mill rate, and be glad to do it. Thus the children of poorer counties will profit by the splendid opulence of the empire county of Ala bama and the south!'
 GHahaaie