The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-04
COMMITTEE RETURNS
HOPE FOR A PUBLIC BUILDING
 IN SELMA.
Capt. v. B. Atkins Tells of the Mis- sion of Himself and Associates to Washington-Central
 City News
Advertiser Bureau,

ocitud, ESU. Q. [ Capt. V. B. Atkins. City Attorney Wal ter L. Shafer and MT. Chambliss Keith, the two former representing the City Council of Selma. and the latter appoint ed at a citizens meeting to go to Wash ington and assist Congressmen Sydney Bowie and the two United States Sena- tors, General Pettus and General Nor gan, in getting a favorable report from the Committee on Public Buildings in reference to Government building for Selma, returned from Washington this morning. Captain Atkins was seen by your representative and he talked very enthusiastically about the prospects of the bill Said he:
 .'The committee appointed by the City Council and the citizens meeting nave been to Washington and have done all thAt was in their power to assist our rep r. sentatives in getting favorable report from the Committee on Public Grounds and Buildings in reference to a public Government building for Selma. Our Congressman, Hon. Syd Bowie, Is active and aggressive. and he showed us every attention possible. He arranged for us to to before the committee at 10:s0 o'clock on Friday, but 1t was Il o'clock before the committee assembled. When the committee met. Congressman Bank head the leading Democrat on the com mittee, came to me and told me not to make a long speech, if did 1t would in- jure the chances of the committee mak- ing a favorable report; that a short, clear presentation of the facts would do more to catch the committee than thirty minutes harangue.
 q took the cue and when the com- mittee was called to order I arose and stated what we had come there for and presented the statistics and other matter that had been compiled for the use of the committee and sat down in about min ute and a half. Hon. Walter Shafer fol- lowed in about a two minute talk and he sat down.
 ''The Republican chairman of the com mittee was evidently pleased at the brew ity of our remarks. for he took the data and statistics that we submitted to him and looked over them carefully for live or ten minutes, while the next case was being heard. After the committee ad- journed, the chairman came to me and congratulated the committee sent on from Selma, and said all the matter was compiled in a business-1ike manner and that the Committee on Public Grounds and Buildings could look over the data at their leisure; that it was seldom that A committee came to Washington with the subject matter in hand so concisely and well-prepared, and that the manner in which the matter had been brought to the attention of the committee had made a most favorable impression; that he had been chairman of the committee for three or four years; that the matter of a public building for Selma had been up several times before the committed. and he was free to confess that he thought that the bill ought to have favorable report and become a law.
 ta xufuInYr of CnnRrQaQmQn Rank. heads advice not to talk long was veri- fled when the next case was called. Some little town way out on the frontier some where wanted a public building and a committee similar to ours was there to present the claims of the town. The chairman arose and stated the object of the committees coming to Washington In about ten minutes speech and intro duced a lawyer from his town. who arose and commenced a long-winded and elo- quent harrangue about the importance of his town, it's growing prosperity. its love- ly scenery, the culture and refinement of It's inhabitants, how the brooks babbled over pebbly bottoms. and a whole lot of such gush. In the middle of one of his operations, the chairman of the commit tee, who had been wriggling around in his seat, called the Western orator down and asked him if he did not have all his SLdUBIICS anu IdCI6 III tyPcWTlIICn that the committee only had an hour to sit and did not have time to listen to long, verbal orations on this town or that; they were there for business. and he cut the orator off so short that he fell to his seat with a dull, heavy thud that made me feel sorry for the fellow, and at the same time was very grateful to Congressman Bankhead for giving us the tip, for we, too, might have been called down by the chairman in our zeal for public building for our city.
 But the chairman did a most natural thing to the Western orator. Only the Congressman from that fellows district was interested in that particular town having a public building. and the com mittee. as whole, did not care snap about the pure air, the clear brooks and the culture and refinement of the town from whence the committee came. There are several thousand towns in the United States all working for public buildings, and that committee would be bored to death if they took the time to sit there and listen to the vaporings of every coun- try orator who desired to come before 1t and talk about the beauty and future prospects of the town.
 Summed up in nutshell, think that the committee will give us favor able report on our bill. Congressman Bankhead and Congressman Bowie do not agree exactly as to the way in which the bill should go before Congress. Mr. Baankhead thinks that a special bill for building in Selma should be introduced; Mir. Bowie Is of the opinion that 1t should be included in the omnibus bill, thereby enlsting the support of every Congress- man who has bill for a public building in his district, enlisted in the passage of the omnibus bill We left that matter with them, and do not know whether the bill will come up as a special bill or take its chances in the omnibus bill. But of one thing the Selma public can rest assured: The bill will be reported fa- vorably one way or another and which ever way it is reported, Congressman Bowie can be relied upon to do his level best to have it become law.
 "IIe took us around and we called on most of the Alabama Congrcssmen. and every one of them promised us his earn est. hearty support of the measure, 1t matters not in what shape 1t may come up. Of course. there is some danger of the omnibus bill being defeated in open Congress. and the same may be said of the special bill, but of one thing you can rest assured. and that Is, the Alabama delegation will do all in It's power to have the bill become law. and that, too, at this session of Congress.
 "The committee called on General MOr gan twice. but he was out both times. General Pettus was in and he received the delegation from his home town in cordial manner, and made us feel per- fectly at home. Congressman Bowie could not have done more for us if we had lived in his own town of Anniston