The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-20

the intelligent but helpless man who de- sires better things. from the rural pre- cincts and turns 1t over tQ the common- strated in Alabama especially and the rest of the world generally. The re- verse of this condition Is true when good roads are given a country. Suburban or country life Is the most enjoyable to man. As the street car brings the subur- ban. city resident into the business cen ter. so does the fife public road put the ie'ios in town, i've i've % minutes edi drive por one thirty minutes drive for the other. Aa the conveliences of living are increased in locality. so are the surrounding country becomes attractive to home seek CTS instead of repulsive; new men and foreign money pour into the country seeking the advantages and comforts or by affcrding a stiff demand for our here tofore unproftable lands. This has been demonstrated fully in Madison in com counties, where good roads were not con- stvucted.
 Trusting that these suggestions may prove of value to the material develop ment of Alabama and that they may cause some to consider the vast possibil- ities of our State if properly cared for. I respectfully ask their publication in your widely circulated journal.
 With great respect,
 President Alabama Industrial and Com
 mercial Association.
 Elba. Ala. August II, 19o3. Editor The Advertiser:
 In Sundays paper there was a wrlte-up of the hearing of the Enterprise petition commissioners to hold an election on the question of the removal of the Coffee County seat from Elba to Enterprise, in friends of EIba taff in sir Wholly % inc5rrect att titude. I, as Chairman of the Committee which has conducted the fight against re- moval have been requested to write this letter calling attention to. the mistakes and requesting that you publish 1t. which I feel sure you will be g ad to do.
 Tn the article this statement is made: they be given several days time to pre- pare proofs. To this the Enterprise at torneys objected
 The above statement Is exactly the op- posite of the way the matter happened. The representatives of Elba not only did not ask for time. but they announced to the Governor that they were fully ready had all their proofs In convenient shape mat they were prepared to show that the Enterprise petition for removal had on It electors. and enough of those who were qualified eletcors had signed the petitions from two to four times to reduce the pe- names They way that mistake in the ar- ticle probably came about was that de- spite the, fact that the Enterprise people compelled to file the petition before they got ready. and for that matter need not have filed 1t at all, their attorneys an- nounced that they. had no proof to offer to show that they had majority of the qualified electors on their petition. and begged Tor time to get up proof. and asked Tor commission, In case they could not get time to go and sit in Coffee County and hear evidence on the qualifications of voters, or if they couldn't get that to sit at Montgomery and hear evidence. Finally that day Saturday the 15th) to get up evidence.
 In another place the article sa'd: Both ing upon the legal auallfcations of the voters who signed the petitions"
 This Is mistake and might make it ap- pear & that t. Elba's evidence was prepared ago the Elba workers began the task of preparing evidence; alphabetical lists of those who had paid their poll tax Tor the years 1901 and 1902 were prepared, and from these and the registration book and the lists of persons over age, and the lists of those exempt from poll tax prepared an qualified e'cctors in Coffee County; after checking and re-checking the work to cor rect all possible errors the correctness of in making all the lists. A copy of the Enterprise petition. was secured and each name was carefully examined. and if found to be tha name of qualified ector was checked as such, and in doing this many names were allowed to be checked as good even if they did not exactly cor respond with the names of qualifehd cleo tors. but wers tcr thing like [ em. Az each name was checked good" the same was noted on the list of qualified electors toget>~r with the number of the petition he appeared on. Each name found to be bad was entered on list together with the name of the petition he signed. Each name appearing more than one time was entered on a list together with the num- her of the petitions he appeared on and was counted good only one time. This system of cross references, numbering and systematizing the proof was the work of several competent people for a number of weeks, and was not done in an after noon, as stated in the article.
 At another pace in the article it is stated the Enterprise gained tempo rary victory 1t is very proba b'e that the writer of the article intended to say Ei5a" instead of Enterprise.
 c. S. Lee. Anti-C1urt House Removal
 Committee of Elba.