The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-01
Secretary Rountree and Colonel FaIkner Have Correspondence
THE REGENT EXCURSION
Colonel Falkner, as Attorney for the Louisville and Nashville, Discusses Matter of Outsiders in Press
 Party Travelling on Passes.

getting after J. A. Rountree, secretary of the Alabama Press association, in con nection with the summer outing and an extract from a long editorial in the Ad- vertser of yesterday follows;
 For some years these excursions have been more or less criticised as discredita- ble to the Alabama Press. because large number, if not the majority, of those going on the trips, have not been bonafide news paper people. At each annual meeting or the association these excursions have been discussed. and various resolutions have been passed to put a stop to the evil. But these resolutions have not been effective. They have not been respected by all the members. and the officials of the asso- citation have apparently not exerted them selves at all to bring about the desired reform.
 The following correspondence between MT. Rountree and Colonel Falkner. attor- ney for the Louisville and Nashville ap- peared in the same issue of the Adver- tiser:
 Montgomery, Ala, July 30 1903.
 Dear Colonel-I called on MT. Glass and MT Kennedy last night and had long talk with them. MT. Glass is very much worked up and will continue in his fight. have come to the conclusion that the only thing and best thing to do is to go home and send a circular letter to the seventy-one newspapers and ask them to write you and pay you for the transpor- tation in advertising space in their col- umns and then the L. and N. will be on the same basis as the Evansville road and the Grand Trunk. 1 believe every one of the seventy-one papers will do this, ex- cept The Advertiser l want to do the right thing and l believe the newspaper men of Alabama who sent representatives on the trip will endorse this offer. I re- gret that The Advertiser should have published what 1t has and brought the public into this matter, but it is done and I am going to try to amend the wrong done the L. and N. by having the | newspapers pay you for the transporta- tion.
 Personally, I am very sorry that you feel toward me as you do, but l assure you that 1 was not the whole thing" and could rot dictate who should or should not go or put them off the train l hope that you will appreciate my posi- tion in the matter and not be harsh upon me and let me get the newspapers of
  tion as the other roads have been paid I leave on the s:25 train for Birming- ham. With high regards, l am, Your friend J. A. ROUNTREE.
 The answer of Captain Falkner was as follows
 ]. A Rountree, Esq., Secretary Alabama
 Press Association, Birmingham. Ala.
 Dear Sir-Your letter of July 30th re- ceived.
 For your informat tion I will say that the Louisville and Nashville railroad com pany would not receive compensation, un- der any circumstances for the courtesies extended by the company to the Alabama Press association. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad company has always been very much interested, not only in the Press association of Alabama, but the Press association of every other state through which 1t runs. It Is a pleasure to extend courtesies to bona fide members of the press. We have always been of the opinion that these annual excursions of bona f1de members of the press are highly beneficial to all the people of the state; that such excursions are educational to large extent; that they give our editors opportunity to see the growth prosperity and the like of other portions of the
  their various avocations, etc. and we have had the idea that our editors on re- turning home would write up what they saw. and give the benefit of their obser- vations to our own people, and in this way have hoped to see the country built up and for these reasons have not hesitated to extend courtesies In each and every instance when requested by the press, but 1t has never been our purpose to extend eli t, T hde connection with the press. It has not been our purpose to afford an opportunity merely to few members of the press to carry their invited guests with them on a mere outing from which no practical good could result to any one
 On the list which you sent me con- taining the names of parties who claimed to have some bona fide connection with the various newspapers I knew there were large number of people who were engaged in other business, but on your assurance that the Executive Committee of the Press Association had passed on those applications, and especially on your assurance that you had secured trans portation for them over the lines beyond Evansville, believing that to decline to issue the passes would result in prac- tically breaking up the excursion, I re- luctantly issued passes to large num- Der Of those on the list on written re- quests from them. But in doing all this 1t never occurred to me that anybody would be taken on our train to Evans vile who had no transportation what ever.
 From the best information obtainabIe I am led to believe that 40 per cent of those who left Birmingham and went to Evansville over our route, were not furn- ished transportation by anybody; that while they claimed to have transportation it was transportation furnished to some body else, whose names were on the list furnished by you. All this was done, not | wthstanding on every pass there was printed
 If presented by any other than the person named herein, the conductor will take up the pass and collect full fare"
 While the conductor possibly did not do his duty in not interrogating each person, I really believe that he had right to presume that each and every one was the identical person he assumed to be.
 The passes issued by me were to indi- viduals, and were not issued so as to enable any one who claimed to repre- sent a paper to travel. but were intended only for the persons named in the pass and only such had a right to be on the train.
 You will doubtless remember that I have been trying to correct this evil since the excursion to the Worlds fair at Chi- cago, and I have appealed to the Press association to protect itself. as well as the railroads. against evils of this char acter It having failed to do 1t. I shall hereafter in the issuance of passes. on Qn mt of he