The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-02
HELPS ALABAMA
COAL STRIKE TO INCREASE THE
 ALABAMA BUSINESS.
Many Conventions are Scheduled For Birmingham--Grand Jury of Jef- ferson County VIII Convene
 Today.

Birmingham. Ala. April 1.-tSpecial) Alabama coal producers will receive some business which they would not have had the strike in the north and west been ordered by the union miners It is learned that several inauires have been received in this district for coal to be shipped down the river and by rail to lower Mississippi ani Louisiana points while some coal may go up the Mississippi river. too. The produc- CTS in this State have many orders on hand and In sight and more than two weeks ago expressed the hope that there would not be a, general strike, The output in this State is on the in- crease right along. for the first three months of the year the production be- ing as great as 1t was during the first three months of 1904 before the strike began in this State and which is still on at a number of collieries of Ala bama. The opportunity Is to be given Alabama to increase the shipments of coal via the Mississippi river, from mines in the western part of the State. in Walker county and elsewhere, while the railroads with lines to Mississippi and Louisiana are said to have been arr arrangements looking to an increase traffic in the product
 Reports have been received from Louisiana. that the coal supplies are not very strong and that the shipments from the north this year have not been brisk Alabama coal has been tried before and found of good quality but the producers have not pushed their product as much as they might have and therefore the traffic has not been very big. There will be no Alabama coal shipped northward. exact perhaps up a little way on the Mississippi river The Alabama coal producers do not look for a lengthy strike, if a general strike shall be called into ef- feet The Pittsburg Coal Company. one of the larger producers in the section where the strike is to be conducted. Is interested in Alabama mines, especially in Walker county.
 Grand Jury to Convene.
 The grand jury for Jefferson County for the spring term will convene to- morrow and Judge Samuel Weaver of the Criminal Court will charge the body The more important murder cases to come up before the grand jury for attention will be that of Richard Wray, who is charged with the mur- der of George Freeman. a portrait painter. in a house conducted by Ma -ie Martin on South Twentieth Street, several weeks since. and Raleigh Jones. who shot and killed Lee Morrison in a saloon at Bessemer. 1 A number of cases will be taken dp by the grand jury but these two are the most i'm portant of all Jones appeared before Judge A. A Coleman of the Circuit Court Saturday on habeas corpus pro- ceedings. and after hearing all the evi- dence. the judge announced that he would reserve his decision until Mon day, but that he was of the opinion that Jones was entitled to bond. The amount of bond will be fixed tomor- row and unless the grand jury takes immediate action and holds the de- fendant under the charge of murder in the first degree, he will be released on making the bond named by Judge Coleman. which his friends say can be done with ease.