The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-31
LAWYERS MAY URGE AN EXTRA SESSION Want Legislature to Straighten
 Judiciary TangIe MEETING CALLED MONDAY Birmingham Lawyers Will Discuss Error in the Lusk Bill Rearrangns
 Judicial clrcuIts-cost of
 the Extra Session.
MEETING CALLED MONDAY

Will Governor Cunningham be petition ed to call an extra session of the legis- lature to straighten out the Alabama tu- dietary muddle? This question is being seriously discussed among the members of the Birmingham bar and 1t Is likely that it will come up for action at the bar meeting to be held tomorrow morn ing
 Local attorneys seem almost unanimous in agreeing that the best and least ex- pensive way to correct defects in the Lusk bill will be for the legislature to be reconvened and repass the bill. While the supreme court has not yet passed upon the measure, lawyers who have carefully studied it seem agreed that Il will not hold, and they argue that for several reasons it would be better to cor rect the error before the court passes upon the act.
 Should the bill be declared uneonsti- tutional." said a lawyer yesterday 1t will cause the greatest muddle ever known in Alabama judiciary. Numbers of cases that have been tried in the newly established circuits will fall back on the dockets as If no trial had been had at all, and thus bring a heavy expense upon the state Another advantage of having the matter settled now is that we may know before the election what judges we are to elect iii the November election It would cause both confusion and ex- pense to elect seventeen circuit judges and have them sit for awhile and then have the supreme court cut off the heads of four of them by declaring the Lusk act unconstitutional. There are many other arguments in favor of the ex- tra session.
 "The only possible objection to the ex- tra session would be the expense attached to 1t, but this expense would seem as only nominal when compared to the cost of the courts for retrying the cases that have already been disposed of. If you will figure a little you will readily see that the legislature can correct Its error at small cost. It requires six days for the introduction and passage of bill in due form through both branches of the legislature and 1t would, therefore, not be necessary for the extra session to sit for longer time than this There are 140 members of the two houses who draw s4 per day salary. This would mean the expenditure of $560 daily. Sufficient clerk s help should be secured for $40 per day. bringing the daily expense up to $600 This would mean s36O0 for pay of the mem bers. with mileage of about 5000 add ed The incidental expenses of the ses- sion should be easily covered by 5000, bringing the total expense up to s660O
 "The extra session seems clearly the best and really the only way out of the trouble, and I shall urge the lawyers meeting Monday to petition the governor for the session."
 It Is understood that lawyers from diff ferent parts of the state are taking the same view of the matter as the Birming- ham lawyers and that already Governor Cunningham is receiving letters bearing on the subject. So far no public express sion has come from the governor rela- tive to the matter.