The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-14

| would take no step, or make no ef- l fort to have this convention establish a new county, but that l did desire that the people of Henry County should | know my position. and that favored q reduction of the constitutional area so that future legislatures might establish new counties. l went before the people of my county. | ey fully understand ing my position and after very spir- ited and heated contest where there l were four candidates, l received 90 per | cent of the entire vote cast in my toun- | ty. I received more than as many | again votes as the two defeated can | didates. 1 received nearly as many | again votes as my colleague who was l elected to this Convention. That be- | ing true, I myself am willing, after have voted according to the resolution not to reduce the area of counties, to take the responsibility to support this amendment as offered by my colleague,
 Mir. Malone. and go back to my peo- 1 pie. In addition to what he has al- | ready said with reference to the neces- | sity of the establishment of new | county. we desire to say this. that we are living in a flourishing and progress l sive section of the country. The town
 We are in is but an index to the coun- l try surrounding it. In 1890 the census
 
 | 3.275. As a roatter of fact we now have in that town about 4,500 inhabi- | tants by actual count. 1 mention this | to show the progress of the country. l This Convention has gone on and said they will not reduce the constitutional areas of the counties. If this amend ment is not granted we stand with a constitutional barrier confronting us until another Convention is called, I Iysyt1i oh iS Loly tn at lao in twenty-five years. If the spirit of progress goes on for the next ten years | the delegates to this Convention can readily see the deplorable condition l that we will be in. Now in reference | to the wishes of the people of Geneva County. I know not what the entire people think, but I do know that the people residing in the territory that will be sought to be incorporated in any new county hereafter to be estab- | lished are almost unanimous that the | new county be created. I do know that the same condition prevails to a cer- | tain extent as to the people of the i eastern portion of Dale County also. Now we do not ask the Convention to establish new county. Here is all we want: If you notice the reading of the amendment 1t says the legislatures, un- der the regulations of this provisions may in the future. establish that coun- | ty. Now I submit to the Convention that if the people of those three coun-
 ties do not want this county establish ed in the future. they certainly will not have it. Why? Because when they l go to elect their representatives, if they want to make 1t an issue and a I majority is against it, the men who advocate 1t will go down in defeat,
 but If the people want it. the advocates of the new county will triumph. And when such question comes up before the legislature. every fairminded man knows legislature won't carve a coun-
 ty out of three other counties where
 the representatives of those counties | are opposed to the proposition. So
 when you resolve this amendment to | its last analysis. it means simply this:
 Remove the constitutional barriers so that out of these three counties a new county can be formed. We do not ask | distinct regulation. We ask that it be fixed in such a manner that we can establish new county and not be put in position where that establishment can never be realized. The only thing we ask is to reduce the area of the | three counties so that we may form the fourth county. As it now stands I we cannot form a new county out of these three counties and all four coun- | ties have 60S miles.
 MT. Sollie-Mr. President and gentle
 men of the Convention. Individually I
 would gladly see the town of Dothan | relieved from an embarrassing situa- ton. But do not think the gentleman l from Henry (Mr. Malone) who first
 addressed the Convention on the mat
 ter. is exactly correct in his under | standing of the territorial location of | the counties. For instance. l think | Geneva county Is more han twelve miles wide and I think Henry county
 is more than sixteen or seventeen | miles wide. Whether I am correct in that I do not know except from my
 general acquaintance with the country. MT. Rogers (Sumter)-CeneVa Is not l over twelve miles wide.
 | MT. Sollie-I feel sure it is
 Mr. Rogers (Sumter)-Here is the | map with a scale and it Is not over | eleven miles.
 | MT. Solie-I have gone across that l county so much that l undertake to | say Geneva county is more than twelve | miles wide. It is fourteen miles from | Dothan down to the postoffice where I | live and ten or twelve miles down to l the Florida line. My mother lived in
 the county twelve or fourteen years | My only effort at homesteading was
 in that county and I am so familiar | with the county that the gentleman
 must be mistaken.
 But gettting away from the question | of territory and the shape of the coun- | tics. l admit so far as Dothan is con 1 cerned. that that city needs relief. and | individually I would be glad to see
 the relief granted. But I feel that I | am hot proper person tn take a di- l rect and personal interest in the mat
 ter. because I represent eight counties
 and some of those and perhans the | majority are against the proposition to reduce the constitutional areas of | counties I feel if I am to vote for my constituency I would perhaps have l to vote against the reduction as general proposition and yet I thought | Dothan should have the relief if the Convention wanted to reduce the areas | and ! was content to say nothing Our condition in Dale is this: If :here | were no trouble between Ozark and | Newton, my county. except a small strip. would he unalterably opposed to l any reduction of area. There is little strip at the east end three or four miles wide that would like to be joined with | Dothan in a new county. and for the reason that fl would make them nearer the court house and it would be more convenient for them. >But the other portions of Dale. apart from the court house proposition, are, think. opposed to any reduction of the territory in Dale county.