The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-17
MAYOR REPLIES ID
 PHILLIPS CARD Answers Specifically Charges Made by Police Commissions DENIES HE ACCUSATIONS Mayor says the Investigation VIII Be Pressed and All His Charges
 Proved By Facts In
 the Case.
To the Public.

Though it is not, under ordinary con ditions, becoming in the Mayor of this city to engage In a newspaper contro- versy with man of Police Commission CT Phillips stripe. I nevertheless feel it to be public duty to answer briefly the "card" which, bearing his signature, has appeared in the newspapers
 Compressed into a single sentence. this
 card of Commissioner Phillips is a tissue of misrepresentation, falsehood and evasion. It has been sent out for the purpose of diverting public attention from the one definite subject under discussion. and of cloudlng the, issue of official graft that is now before the people of this city.
 The lawyer who wrote Commissioner Phillips 'card' evidently supposes that 1T the public can be induced to believe the question at issue is merely personal quarrel between two men. the people will cease to be interested in the subject Acting upon this supposition, Commission CT Phillips and his friends are attempting to shift the discussion from an official to a personal basis.
 When Commissioner Phillips says that there was a personal altercation between him and me, and that he roundly de- nounced me, he states an emphatic un- truth Everyone in this city who knows both of us certainly understands that if Commissioner Phillips had denounced me, as he now says he did denounce me, the happenings on that occasion would make it quite unnecessary for either of us to write or speak Of them now
 The only letter 1 ever wrote to Com missioner Phillips expressed in substance, the wish that he would either vote for me for Mayor, or keep his hands off After that letter was written, we hap pened to meet one night at a gathering of the City executive committee, and Com missioner Phillips asked me If my letter was meant as a threat l promptly an swered that 1t was not so intended. He replied that he was glad to know it, add ing that he had promised to vote for someone else for Mayor, and for that reason couldn't support me. That is all there is to the personal altercation to which he refers in his "card.'
 If Commissioner Phillips can name "the friend who will testify differently from the above. I will readily prove that his friend" also is a man without regard for the truth.
 Commissioner Philips states that as soon as l became Mayor, his saloon be- gan to be harassed. As I have stead- fastly kept from interfering with the police department, I herewith call on the whole force from Chief Wier down to the last man. to state if ever sug- gested or mentioned. directly or indirect ly Commissioner Phillips the Rabbit Foot or any other saloon, to them, prior to the day when different policemen came and made complaints of intimidation by Commissioner Phillips. Now. as matter of fact I had never even heard of the Rabbit Foot saloon or of Commissioner Phillipts connection with 1t. until the piano episode ventilated it in the news papers That was probably week before complaints of intimidation came in. and sixty days after I was inducted into the office of Mayor
 Commissioner Phillips further states that ''the Mayor approached man and told him to buy me (Phillips) out. and it would be all right. as he the Mayor) was only after Phillips" This statement has in 1t not even the faintest suggestion of truth. The facts are these: While l was out riding one afternoon with MT. Otto Marx, Phillips partner, George Wade. hailed us. and asked me 1T he bought Phillips out would he be allowed to keep his license I stated in reply. that it would be matter for the board to decide-that I had made charges against Commissioner Phillips only. and not against the saloon, and that the board would probably have no objections to the saloons running, so Hong as 1t was run orderly It was in this conver- sation that Wade volunteered the fnfor- nation that Commissioner Phillips had no money in the Rabbit Foot saloon but got 25 per cent of the profits. It is now up to the public to judge how Commis- sioner Phillips earned his profits"
 While Commissioner Phillips clamors in his card and on the streets for an inves- tieation. 1t Is interesting to remark that when the commission Is sitting and vot- ing on the matter. he enters, through his counsellor, the technical plea of want of jurisdiction and successfully prevents, for the time being at least an investiga- ton.
 In regard to the charges of personal spite'' set out in Commissioner Phillips statement, it is sufficient for me to say that at no time has any personal resent ment on my part entered into the matter My actions would have been the same had any other city official been so ac- cused. and will be the same in the future.
 If Commissioner Phillips disproves the charges made by me will take pleasure in apoligiz.ng publicly to him. IT he does not disprove them, I believe public opinion will force him to resign or at ast force the other members of the com mission to get rid of him.
 It may be that Commissioner Phillips really thinks he Is being persecuted. I can readily understand how a man with his dull conception of what a public off, ficer owes the people would probably see