The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-02-22
Members Expect to Have Big
Time al Mardi Gras
TRIP IMPER|LS R. R. BILL
Notwithstanding Early Efforts to Hold
Him Down, Mr.. London of Jeffer-
son Has Developed Into
Leader-other Gossip.


mt antime the members will spend Mon
day and Tuesday enjoyiny Mardi Gras
at Mobile, the invitation 10 that famously
hospltable city having proved more al
Turing than any amount of bills stacked
on the calendars.
The wag of the house. Mr. Kelly of
Choctsw, expressed perhaps great truth
when he argued In favor of going. I'VE
rass too many bills, anyhow, instead of
too few" Still, the trip undoubtedly I'M
rerils the passage by the senate of the
house railroad commission bill. which mas
developed by degrees into the chief busi-
ness of the session Indeed, there is scme-
thing in the cir that indicates a lie-over
! TIL September. Tho TWO houses seem 20
differ in their estimate of the Importance
CT the two branches Of the subject. An
elective commission was the prime thing
in the house. l1ore power for the com
mission as it is seems a stronger scheme
in the serate.
1t ought to be recorded that no major
ity ever behaved better than that which
ne naged the railroad bill in the house.
| The group of gentlemen who were press
ing the matter were aggressive until they
got a test vote, which showed that they
re ally lid have a majority. and then they
smoothed down, let the minority do the
Fl citing. took it easy AID passed The bin
after reasonable allowance of obstruction.
AS to the Soldiers Home.
It is hard TO tell just to what extent the
abroad fight has interfered with the
taking ever OF the soldiers home at
Mountain Creek by the state. 1t has been
decided tc let the bill lie over till Sep
TENDER. end H. the meantime the strain
On private bereficence is getting to be
Iather severe. The Tact that Col j. NJ
Faikner is the head of the home and also
CT the opposition to railroad legislation
terdcd to prejudice TIE bill. The railroad
issue has orept into egerythng-evcn this
hat Colon Fallner will keep the home
going somehow or theT through the
summcr goes without saying; but even
if he could net, the failure would not
hurt him, the old soldiers having the
burden TO bear. There arc still some in
the poor houses and The applications for
| admission are very pressing from large
number. The iii could yet he passed II
all the old vetersns in both houses would
| get togf her on 1t.
Osteopathy Bill.
The one thing that has approached the
railroad issue as an exciting theme, was
| the osteopathy bill And what gave force
| to the sentiment that came so near press
| ing 1t through was the charming person
| ality of a woman. Mrs. Lyon came up
from Mobile she saw and she almost
| conquered the combined medical fraternity
of the state. She captvated everybody
but the doctors and even they acknowl-
edged her mastery skill in playing on the
masculine chord of sympathy by working
like beavers for a week to counterfeit the
deep impression she had made. After
all, they had to concede one exception
to the osteopathists when they come to
be examined that of major surgery The
galleries were full every time the subject
came up and the galleries were for the
women. =
After all that has been said about ap-
preparations only two extra ones of i'm
portance have made their way to the
governors desk. The largest of these Is
Sl5O,O0 for the o,pitol Improvement, and
the other 100000 more for pensions. The
first spreads over four years. and is,
therefore not so big as it looks.
Uniform Text Book Bill.
The question of state uniform text books
sleeps quietly In the house committee on
education. The work against it has been
mostly by school men and one of the book
companies. No one seems to know fust
why the school men are against It, but
one of their leaders expresses very
wide feeling among the teachers when he
explained why he was for county uni
formity. Il am for 1t just as | would
rather have small pox than leprosy 1t Is
a less evil than state Uniformity 1t is
hard to find a school teacher to whom the
price of books or rather the cheapenlne
of books makes the slightest appeal.
Commissioners to Be Appointed.
During the week Governor felix's will
send to the senate for confirmation the
names of two gentlemen for railroad
commissioners. Hon. Wiley Tunstall, the
present incumbent will be one of them.
So successfully has the governor con-
cealed his thoughts on the subject of the
other, that not enough has leaked out to
provoke speculation. No one has any
opinion to express, though there is some
little impression that he may Jump the
fence and take up some man who has
not been in the running. Jefferson whose
shipping interests naturally single her
out as entitled to one member of the
commission is handicapped with a multi
plicity of candidates, all of whom have
strong claims ON the governor. The sur
prise is in just that shape that whoever
is appointed will cause surprise to near
~ everybody.
On March the appointment of three
convict inspectors is due, but as it is
agreed that the present board will be re-
appointed, the subject attracts little at
tention. A good deal of effort has been
put forth to enlarge the board but the
governor has consistently declined to con-
slider any such proposal. Dr. Bragg of
the present board put forward with
good deal of emphasis the need for sys
tematic Jail inspection, but no scheme
has been hit on that has Ego" in ii,
and the jais will continue to get along
the best they can at least until the Sep
TENDER session. Yet. the crying need is
acknowledged by everyone.
Fertilizer Tax Reduced.
Whatever else the legislature has left
undone, II has reduced the fertilizer tag
tax from 80 cents to 80 cents per ton.
This is a loss of some $50 600 to the state
treasury. which will have to be made up
from some other source So far from
Passing airy immigration appropriation as
seemed possible at the beginning. the
senate has passed and the house is likely
to follow suit. a bill imposing license
Of $1,000 per county on emigration labor
agents. There would seem from this.
that we have trouble enough to keep the
people we already have without going
out after more.
London Is Leader.
Development is the law of legislatures
as well as nature. When the legislature
met it seemed that Alex London of JEFF
feison was going to hoe row to. -him-