The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-14

shortage amounting to ONei @oo'VVV.
 The friends of MT. Willox are very pos- tive in their assertions that he will be able to clear himself of the charge. So far he has not employed an attorney. 4%%%~&4~~-~<s->~- was the first definite information had of any kind on the subject"
 Cross examinations: "I knew of no false bid being presented by Donelson or other contractors. It appeared to me that a combination had been formed among the contractors.
 R. B. Smyer Called.
 R. B. Smyer, secretary of the sanitary commission, was called. He testified: T was never approached by Drennen or any one else with reference to the awarding of the contract
 "In the fall after the letting of the con- tract, I heard that MT. Drennen had an agreement with the contractors to secure the contract and that they had laid down on him.
 The secretary told of the meetings of the commission when the bids were con sidered.
 On cross examination he testified that he did not know of any effort of MT Drennen to influence members of the com mission.
 With the testimony of Secretary Smyer, Captain White announced the trustee would close. G. B. Burkhalter was the first witness called by the attorneys for the claimant and as he did not respond Referee Trimble adjourned the hearing until 2:3O o'clock. It was then 1 o'clock.
 E. J. Dunn Testifles.
 At the afternoon session of the hearing rN ,f la Hrfp1 ff R. Hal lande was the first witness called by the claimant.
 MT. Dunn testified that he had been in the contracting business about twenty years Knew Mr. Drennen, having had business dealings with him.
 An effort was made to have the witness testify as to what he thought the services of MT. Drennen were worth to the con tractors. An objection to this by Captain White was sustained by the referee, after long argument The witness was ex- cused.
 c. B. Burkhalter Called.
 G. B. Burkhalter was then called by Attorney Miller. He testified: Am a contractor and was at the head of c. M Burkhalter X, Co. A statement was not made by D. M. Drennen to me that S10,00O was to buy votes on the sanitary commis- sion. Such a thing was never discussed by Mir Drennen and myself. l do not believe that $l000000 could buy the mem bers of the sanitary commission. I know D. J. Smyer, T. II. Motion and James Gill; lespy and would hate to undertake to buy any of them for s,00O000. I felt a pride in this sewer business. as l had done good deal of work of this kind and was anxious to get the contract Think l called a meeting of Dunn x Lallande, the Donelson Construction company, c. M. Burkhalter & Co.,, B. o. Watkins and the Pennington Construction company. We looked over the work and then decid- ed that we could not form construction stock company We decided, however that each firm was to bid on five sections Mir Dunn said later, however that he was going to bid on the entire job and that broke us up. l thought if we could get together we could defeat foreign bid ders. We did not intend to defeat the plans of the sanitary commission. We put In bids honestly and they were re- iected. That was all right. however. as I was willing to bow to the will of the people
 Drennen's Conversation.
 MT. Drennen wrote me d note and asked me to come to see him, which did He said to me: 'Burk, l may be able to h/p you out Later he said. If you all can get together and pay cash for your material, will go in with you boys I discussed the matter with the other con- tractors and they made no protest. Later I saw Mir. Drennen and he asked me to get John Donelson and MT. Pennington to sign the agreement. Don't remember where the other fellows were when they signed he agreement with MT. Drennen The second bid had been turned down, and as I never give up fight, l went in to see MT. Drennen again.
 "The people cannot understand my po- sition, it seems, unless I write letter every day and publish 1t in the Age-Her- ald I am willing to do this too. I never did anything wrong in my life. The com mission decided that we must take the bonds We found out later that we could not sell the bonds, although it took sT5O