The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-16

| tnlnk is may DC IatEiy Saiu thot s'.c | work of this Convention is not haif done and the time is nearly gone. l What a disproportion that brings up | to the minds of the delegates: Out or l fifteen Articles this Convention has to write, only four have been written. | The paramount issue, the one this Ccn- vention. was called to pass upon. the | one the people had most in mind when we were sent here. will not have been | touched at the hands of this Conveh- | ton when the entire fifty days shall have elapsed. Here today on the 18th | day of this Convention after regulating local legislation. after an attempt to | build Chinese wall against local leg | islation, here we are engaged in the plainest project of local legislation that could be conceived by the mind of man. Why this Constitutional Conven- | tion Is asked to stop and write down and make a part of this Constitution | for our children and our children's children a proposition as to where the Court House shall be in Shelby County. Now do you think that people of Ala bama at large are lying awake at night thinking of where the Court House of Shelby County is or ought to Je? Do they care anything about 1t? Do you think they are caring anything about | what MT. So-and-so and So-and-so did | in the Legislature? They are not giv- ing a rap about that. The people of this State want us, I believe. to stay here as long as it Is necessary to write a fundamental Constitution, and to prepare things that are necessary to go into the Constitution. Now as long | as we are here engaged in that task, I don't believe they want us 10 turn aside-
 MT. Rogers (Sumter)-I would Ike to ask the gentleman a question. You state that the people of Alabama are not lying awake at night troubling | abou.-
 MT. Fitts-Unless the hot weather | keeps them awake.
 MT. Rogers (Sumter)-Troaoling about the affairs in Shelby County. Don't you think if the people in Ala bama were shown that such Iro- ceeding as this went on in the regis- lature that they would lie awake at ! night?
 Mir. Fitts-I was just coming 70 that | heard the expression fraud used and | the expression that the people were | over-reached. It seems to me that | these are filter terms for courts of jus | tice and that the Constitutional Con- vention has nothing to do with fraud. That Is what the courts were inaugur-
 
 mine whether frauds were committed. Will the Constitutional Convention ad- 5ourn itself into a court, if so what | sort of a court will 1t be? A Justice Court. or what other sort of a court? What has this Convention to do with fraud! Gentlemen, how is this Con- vention to determine this question? By committee? If we are to brand stxty-nine men who voted for this bill as fraud or fraudulent, then I say the Convention as a whole Off we are go- ing into this matter), that this Con- vention ought to stop and hear the evil dence and see whether we individually believe those gentlemen to have been guilty of fraud.
 MT. Reese-The gentleman says that 6S men voted for that bill. Is he able | to say that he knows that anybody voted for 1t except the representative | from Shelby county?
 MT. Fitts-I don't know whether any body voted for it or not. Don't the Journal show that 69 voted for 1t? MT. Reese-Yes, sir.
 Mir. Fitts-Then the Journal shows the record and is controlling. I was not there and if the Journal shows that 69 voted for it, 1t looks like they voted for it. I don't know anything about these charges of fraud or improper con- duct. don't think we should deter i mine that. I don't think this is the tribunal to determine that. These | good people of Shelby county are di- vided on this matter. The proposition that is made is the same as suggested in the inquiry from the distinguished gentleman from Montgomery when he arose at the beginning of this matter a few minutes ago and said: Gan 1t A1.l- a; f- fn ho Ixvvtff fny down into the Constitution of this State or is 1t to be considered a part of the schedule to it?" don't think that this matter has any place in the Constitu- tion of the State. nor acted upon by the | people of the whole State
 MT. O'Neal-Will the gentleman per- init a question?
 MT. Fitts-Yes. sir.
 MT. O.Neal-If the Convention see fit to concur in the report of the majority, in your judgment could that act be separate ordinance?
 MT. Fftts-I think it ought to be separate ordinance and only to be Vot- | cd for in Shelby county and there ratl- fed ar not. Why ask the people of this entire State to pass upon this section in the Constitution in the fundamentai law of their liberties of the whole | State? It will be patch work that wllt bring derision upon the instrument it. self.
 MT. Browne-Would you say the Hen rv county matter would bring derision upon the Convention to let the "hole State vc-e upon that?
 | Mir Fitts&-I was not here on sat urday and am not responsible for what they did on Saturday. If I had been
 here I would have risen in my seat and protested against local legislation in tnis Constitution. We ought to stay
 here and make a Constitution and take | as much time for deliberation upon It as is necessary; but we ought not to
 make local laws for Henry county Shelby county or any other county, no matter how good the people are; ana there are no better people than there are in Shelby county. those that i've at Calera and Columbiana both. put this is an old sore and an old contro- yersy. There have been charges anu counter charges between them for years. They have held elections and
 had the same old controversy for years.
 You can't make people think alike by writing 1t In the Constitution when that county has it's natural division of sentiment. People will divide upon it. The question whether the beautiful city of Calera or the more beautiful city of Columbiana should have the | court house will be a sore question
 when you are dead and when l am | dead, if the county stays geographical- | ly like it Is. The frogs at Calera are