The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-05-16
sYNoDlcAL COLLEGE.
MT. Hooper of Selma Replies to Rev.
 MT. Sjnnott-Full Review.

In reply to a recent letter of the Rev. ". l. snnott, clerk of synod. J. F. Hoop CT of Selma, member of synod, sends the following review of the Synodical college matter:
 To the Editor of The Age-Herald.
 Newspaper notoriety of any kind Is dis 1 tasteful to me, particularly In connection with matter about which I had hoped it would not be necessary for me to say anything more, and had the article which appeared in your paper on the morning of the 7th inst been signed by Mr. w L Sinnott individually, I should have taken no notice whatever of it; but as MT. Sinnott has taken advantage of his official position as stated clerk of the synod of Alabama to make a per- sonal attack me- I deem it my duty not only to defend myself. but to place this whole matter in it's proper light in the eyes of all interested parties. shall, therefore, ask you for the courtesy of your columns, the attack has been made through your paper.
 MT. Sinnott's article is characterized more by sins of omission than of com mission, and I can only excuse it on the plea which he himself sets up, that he knows nothing of any unfairness which may have been practiced in this matter by any individual" and can only say that his acknowledgement of such ignor- anee should have kept him from interfer- ing.
 The words to which MT. Sinnott seems | to have taken particular exception are those in which I charge that the action of the synod of Alabama was full of dirty politics and disgrace to the denomina- tion represented. In reply to this, I think I can fully substantiate my re- marks in both these regards.
 The committee which had in hand the matter of soliciting subscriptions to this fund in Selma asked for those subscrip- tions strictly in accordance with the con ditions laid down by the board of trus- tees, namely, that the bids would be opened on the 5th of April 1904, in the city of Birmingham, and that las soon as practicable therefafter the synod would be called and would pass upon all bids submitted" Our subscriptions were taken with these conditions in view and were made payable one-thrd cash, one third on lst of January. 1905. and one third on 1st of January, 19O6 and some of our options on farming lands which were to be offered to the synod expired within thirty days, so that a postpone ment would be manifestly unfair to us. and particularly postponement until
 
 be held in Anniston, one of the compet- ing cities. When the bids were opened Tn Birmingham the board of trustees re- quested the moderator to call synod to meet In Tuscaloosa the 2Sth day of April. 1904, for the sole purpose of locating the college. A short time after this meeting was called, it was discovered that the presbytery of Mobile would probably not be able to participate in the vote if in HHFar A1I1
 because that body had already set the 18th day of April as the time of their meeting. The first intimation that we in | selma had that such was the case was received in a letter from the parties i,, l Montgomery who had the bid of that city In charge, and in this letter it was suggested that short adjournment would | be the best thing under the circumstances m oroer mat the Mobile presbytery might pe present. We had no objection to a short postponement as it did not inter- fere with our subscription list or o,,r l options, and suggested to the parties Tn Montgomery that the 12th of May would | be date which would be entirely satis- factory 10 LIS, and this date was apreed | upon by them and by us and we so mott | ned l'r. Stagg, chairman of the board or trustees, and Dr. McIlwaine. presi- oent or the college and this notice was ulsseminated over the whole of the synod or Alabama and we in Selma rastoi = cure in this agreement. In tha s1 time, we were told by the Mont eon,a,., parties that 1t would only be necess.,.,, TOT us 10 send bare quorum to Tneca- ioosa on the 18th of April in order to meet and adjourn synod to May 10
 io" may therefore judge of our SIT pilsv .., when on the morning of the 23rd of F April, the saturday before the date set | co shown circular which was beine soo lively distributed in the East Alabam ma prespytery, which read as follows:
 CIRCULAR LETTER.
 Opelika Ala, April 20 1904
 wy Lear brotner-At the recent meet ing oi our presbytery at Clayton the l following overture was unon,,,,.,,-,'. passed, to-wit: The presby yterv of Eas. Alabama hereby overtures the synod os 1 Alabama to meet in special session . : ] Tuscaloosa April 2S, 1904 to postpona acN i ton with reference to the selection of Q ! location for the college for men until tba | regular meeting in the fall
 This action was taken partly bec.,,so i the presbytery of Mobile does not meet until April 26, and cannot, therefore he ! represented in the synod, and partly be- cause cur presbytery is very desirous of having the college located within our bounds at Montgomery. The prime pur- pose of this letter is to earnestly re- quest the session of your church to ap- point a representative to the synod at Tuscaloosa on tie 2sth of this month to vote for the postponement of the selec- ton of a location for the college until the fall meeting. Yours fraternally,
 EDWARD PAYSON DAVIS.
 Stated Clerk
 This attempt to pack the synod was fully ventilated in the meeting on April fc dfrtv would like to know what would consti- tute dirty politics in the eyes of Mir Sinnott I know that dirty and clean are relative terms and that what seems dirty in one mans eyes seems clean in those of another. It is all according to how a man is raised. Mir Sinnott says that he was unable to any dirty politics at
 Children's Carnival at the