The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-08
FUNNY IF rRUE.

The Age-Herald has a congratulatory editorial on Mfr. Underwood's great victory" It is very funny. if what MT. Underwood says he has done by his bill. Is true. In the debate he said: we are not making 1t mandatory on 1 Judge Jones to hold this court L
 Judge Jones wants to- ne can comq don't think Judge. Jones couid asteno I to his business and the balance of the
 courts in these districts. and and go, to Iir. | not contemplate that. We recognize that he can't go there, but we want | to have Judge Toulmin or some other our court. If Judge Jones wants tQ. he l can go there and hold the courtf l don't think he can. and l concede he
 ssa aIld eer,fs aaf the fact to the Circuit | Judges and they shall under the gener- | al law as it exists today, assign some | judge to come to Birmingham and hold 1 the other three month&'
 Every lawyer in Birmingham except
 Mir Underwood know that Judge Toul-
 min had long ago been designated to
 hely out the Northern District. and had held several terms in Birmingham. and had been there . month at the
 very time MT. Underwood spoke. If MT. Underwood Is correct. the bill it. self is meaningless. Nothing has been accompiishsd. that has not already been done. Everybody knows that Judge Jones will loyalty carry out what he conceivss to be the spirit of the act. If the bill only means what MT. Under wood says it does. Judge Jones had al- ready anticipated its intent Some good lawyers here think that the bill means . great deal more than that. and that 1t means, if Judge Jones can't get anybody else. he must sacrifice the balance of the district to hold six months of court in Birmingham. him- self.
 The Age-Herald is wrong in it's sta tistics. On the hearing at Washing ton, when the committees wentk on to get the additional judge. it was shown that the total number of cases in the southern. or Birmingham division. of the Northern District. was as follows: civil. criminal and equity. 42s; while at the same time in the Eastern. Western and Northern divisions of the Northern District. there were, 70 law cases. 20 equity cases and ss criminal cases. and in the middle district there were. 57 law cases. 30 equity cases and s11 criminal cases. making a total of cases, law, criminal and equity of 547, against 42s at Birmingham. On the face of the figures this does not show six months for 35 per cent of the business outside of Birmingham .and six months for 65 per cent of the business at Bsrming- ham for these two districts" During the six months of the year when the judge would not be in Birmingham the bankruptcy business arising there has been given as much attention, as to matters which come before the Judge. as when in Birmingham.
 Birmingham has some advantage age suits. It is very far from accurate to say that 65 per cent of the bus mess of the Northern and Middle Dis- tricts centers at Birmingham. We will have something more to say about this "great victory" It seems to have been
 achieved mainly by ignoring at least half of the Alabama delegation. in get ting a favorable report. MT. Wiley
 stated in his speech that MT. Clayton, the Alabama member of the Judiciary Committee and also MT. Bankhead, were absent. and that the delegation had no conference on this mooted question, only favored few knew what was go- ing on. The rest of the State had a right to expect, if Birmingham's claims were so impregnable. that at least an opportunity would be given the other side to be heard. Perhaps they will be heard, anyhow. If the President should
 veto the bill, 1t would please the great body of the people of the State. and @
 good many in Birmingham. It seems
 to a man up tree that the great victory" consists in having the court held there in September, which Is such bad month that the State courts will
 not sit. The session of the Federal
 court there was changed from that
 month to November for that reason.