The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-23
ties may deem practicable. W. s. Neal,
 Acting President. L, W RosSer

i ACIlHS FTcSlu&HI. | L. W Rosser,
 Secretary. Referred to Committee on Taxation. | MT. Parker (Elmore)-I ask unani- mo rs consent to offer a resolution. The consent was given, and the resu- lution was read as follows:
 Resolution No. 1S1.
 | Resolved, That a committee be ap- pointed by the president of this con- vention to consist of the president, the three other delegates from the State at large. and one from each Congress sional district, to prepare a memorial to the Congress of the United States, On the repeal of the fifteenth amend ment of the FeSeral Constitution, said committee to report ad libitim dufing the session of this convention.
 Referred to the Committee on Rules.
 MT. Browne-It win be impossible to get a meeting of the Committee on Taxation before the report of that committee will be considered. The resolution introduced by the gentle man from Talladega, MT. Graham, simply. provides that, school buildings shall be chased among those public buildings for which special taxation is provided, and for the purpose of testing the sense of this convention l upon the subject, so that the commit tee may be directed to place school buildings with the otl;er public build ings, move to suspend the rules in order to put the resolution upon it's passage.
 MT. deGraffenried-I object MT. Presi- dent.
 Mir. Graham (Talladega)-I hope that the gentleman from Talladega will let the matter stand until his report comes | Gn II have a conference with him.
 Mir. Browne-I' do not see any good reason why the committee should not have the sense of the convention-
 The President-The gentleman from TaIIadega says to the gentleman from Talladega that he wants to have con- ference with him before this matter is brought before the convention. Mr. Browne-I withdraw the motion then.
 MT. Harrison-I ask to have Ordi- nance 352 returned by the Committee on Corporation. and that 1t be referred to the Committee on Taxation.
 The reference was changed as re- , quested.
 MT. o'Neal (Lauderdale)-I ask unanimous consent 60 submit the re- port of the Committee on Local Legis- lation. It is very short and will con- sume very little time.
 The report of the committee was read as follows:
 Report on the Committee on Local Legislation:
 MT. President.
 The Committee on Local Legislation instructs me to report herewith an ordinance to be made an article on that subject.
 , The evil of local legislation has long been recognized, not only in Alabama, s but in many other States of the Union. A number of recent State constitutions have endeavored to check this tendency On the part of the Legislative Depart ment, by absolute prohibition of local or special laws in certain enumerated cases. This method of enumerating the subjects, as to which the legislature Is prohibited from passing local, special or private laws, seems to be the only feasible plan of accomplishing the re- sult and has received the approval of the following States: California, Colo rado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland. Mississippi, Missouri, Mon- tana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, North Dakota Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Washington. West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming, The reason why the other States have not sought to check this evil by similar constitutional limitation on the power of the legis- lature, is no doubt due to the fact that they have not framed new consti- tutions since the danger from this class of legislation has become so patent, and its rapid and ever increasing growth so alarming.
 The Constitutional Conveption of da lNu Nub garded as stringent provisions, to. pre- vent the growth of such legislation in Alabama, but that their efforts failed, is made evident by the ever increasing flood of local and special laws which fill volumes containing the act. of the General Assembly. In recent years the number of local laws enacted have outnumbered the general laws in the proportion of about twenty to one. The books containing the general laws of the last two sessions of the General Assembly are less than the size of the old blue backed Webster spelling book, while the volumes containing the local laws of those sessions are nearly ten times the size.
 These local, special or private bills which we have sought to prohibit and regulate destroy the harmony of the law, consume the time of the legisla- ture, and in some States have been the fertile source of jobbery. In the enumeration of subjects concerning which 1t is proposed the General As sembly shall not legislate by special, private or local law, we have endeavor- ed to include those matters which seem to have consumed most of the time of the legislature and coupled most of the space in the published acts. The re- quirements that the notice of inten- tion to introduce a special. private or local law shall be affirmatively shown by the journals of each house. and that the courts and not the Gensfal Assem- bly, shall be the judges of whether the subject of any local law is provided for by any general law. and whether the | relief sought can be granted by any court, will in the opinion of the Com l mittee very materially aid in prevent ing local legislation.
 We have also provided for the repeal of local laws now in existence upon the same notice being given and shown as is required in the passage of new ones.
 One of the most common methods of evading provisions against special, private and local legislation consists in passing acts which, because they purport to amend general acts. gre themselves deemed general. Another method consists in evading such laws by the partial repeal of general laws by excepting certain counties, munich palities or corporations from their
 TEyo baya DvOyfdAd fhat ba