The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-05

tain Taylor and his men had persisted In this kind of business, flowers would be blooming over their graves at Oakwood, for I have heard the most conservative citizens say that If the Haas raid was repeated they would Intentionally mis- take the police for a burglar and use their guns with effect.
 T do want to ask why 1t is that special officers arrest men in the suburbs who take in S5 cents on Sunday for beer, when within three blocks of the police station more than one saloon Is run wide open? The city laws are not more drastic or complicated than the statutes. The state secures convictions and the police can do 1t 1T they are disposed to do it"
 Further back In his address MT. Jackson had said that the unwrtten history of Montgomery tells us certainly that no man Is more competent to know what gambling is and how 1t Is done than our present chief of police" He had also laid the lash on Mayor Carr who was in the lobby of the council chamber. in the following sarcastic language: "I will not dispute that he (the chieD is com potent man In his office If he was not a competent man he would not have been continually re-appointed to the head of the department of the police by successive mayors of a quarter of a century, at least the half of the life time of the average citizen of Montgomery"
 Makes Plain Assertion.
 The speech of Alderman Jackson was the first open attack In so vigorous a way on the police for some years, though there have been grumhlngs and public discontent for some time. It has been charged that certain men were allowed to violate the laws against Sunday whis- ky selling and gambling at will and never molested. and that some saloons keep open and do business on Sunday as they do all other days, and are not arrested, though the city has laws that will punish for all such offenses. The aldermen were greatly impressed with the vigorousness of the remarks, and they have been the talk of the city since. Mir. Jackson called a spade a spade, as the saying goes, and openly asserted that the police depart ment Is so bound about by favortism that it Is not doing its work in any sort of ef- fective way.
 MT Jackson also touched the depart ment up on the vagrancy question, ask ing what had been done to relieve the city of the great number of loafng ne- groes, who were not making honest live ings. as any could see. He offered a resolution to have the police report at the next meeting, through the mayor what had been done In the work of stop ping this nuisance. We have heard re- cently," said Alderman Jackson, that cotton congresses of Montgomery are suffering for labor, and yet within sight of the efficient chief of police hundreds of the vagrant classes throng the streets hourly. 1 would not hamper the chief of police, but I shall insist that he per- form his duties faithfully, fairly and im- partially"
 Ghost Bobs Up.
 Every time one opens a door at the state capitol some little ghost of the defunct Lusk judiciary bill bobs out. It l Is told in certain well known opera that people came miles to see the elbow of Katasha; that's not circumstance. They come from further away than that to talk of the Lusk bill to state house offl- cials. Every office Is full of them. and the governor and attorney general are besieged by those desiring information. The Hon. Erie Pettus of Limestone county, solicitor of the erstwhile six teenth circuit, by virtue of the Lusk bill, wired Auditor Thomas L. Sowell on yes terday for his salary for the month Of September. Did he get 1t? Well, not much. Let me see the attorney-general about it," said the gentleman who passes on the salary list of the state. And so MT. Pettus will have to stand his monthly bills off a few days yet. No doubt the juoge will have to do the samething, but so far this question has not been brought up by his application for pay.
 Attorney General Wilson Is being crowded by messenger boys with tele- grams from various sections of the state mostly from the north part urging him to advise the governor to call an extra session of the legislature.
 Capital Notes.
 | The matter of the condemnation of ths property near the capitol for the use oi the state in remodeling the old capitol | has been referred to Messrs. Horace 1 Stringfellow, G. A. Thomas and c. G | Zirkle, who will sit as a commission tt decide what the lands are worth. The Germania Life Insurance compan, has filed certificates of its capital stool