The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-01
CONFERENCE WITH STATE
 ATTORNEYS ON SUBJECT
NLegislature Can Accomplish Any
 thing, It Will Be Summoned.
Suggestion Bothers that No Change Can Be Made in Present Enact. nents While They are Pend-
 ing in the United
 States Court.


 An extra session of the Alabama Legislature will, in all probability. De called to amend the anti-railroad laws 10 that the State administration can have the same sort of a coercive club as that which was used by Governor Glenn of North Carolina over the Southern Railroad.
 It was not decided last night whether there would or would not be an extra session. The decision will be an- nounced today by Governor Conner. The Governor and his advisors last night slept over the proposition which would mean so much for the success or failure of the anti-railroad legislation. But last night. among ihe few who knsw of the pending ques- ton, the opinion was expressed that the final decision would be in favor of the extra sitting of the law makers. ,t If the Governor should decide on the extra session. 1t will likely be called so that the law makers may continue the sittings of the regular session.
 
 working days by the Constitution. Tho z Legislature will have exhausted its store of working days by next We'd pesday.
 If the session is called. it will sbe governed in its details the same as the regular session. Every bill will have to be introduced de novo. as all pending. measures will. be dead at the end of the fifty days. There is some talk. however, of granting the law-makers furlodgh before 1t would be reconvened.
 The call will be for ten or nfte .n days. The call will give the Legisla- ture enough leeway in which to pass such bills as the Governor thinks neo- essary and the subject matter of these bills will, of course. be named in the call when the Governor isues it, if he so decides to do.
 Wants North Carolina Law.
 The extra session will have one main specific purpose. It will be called that .the Legislature may fix what the Gov ernor believes to be gap in the the pres ent anti-railroad legislation. This gap may be called individual responsibil- ty The North Carolina incident dis covered it to the Governor.
 Under the North Carolina law. the sale of a railroad ticket at more than the rate fixed by law was made mis- demeanor The agents so selling ticket were subject to indictment and arrest Many of them were arrested. Not only were ticket agents arrested, but President Finley of the Southern was also arrested.
 President Finley. like the ticket agents, secured his release upon ha- beas corpus proceedings before United States Judge Pritchard. But the ef- feet of the arrest, the effect of the criminal provision of the law as to in dividual responsibility. was to secure a compromise fro mthe railroads whicn the State regarded as a great victory. As a result Governor Glenn has re- ,ceiyed widespread advertising.
 An important difference between the North Carolina and the Alabama anti railroad legislation lies in the suspen- sion feature of the Alabama law. The Alabama law provided that the char ters of the railroads should be for feited if they took a case to the Federal Court-a feature of the law which meant it's suspension for punitive meas ures. if the railroads went to the Fed eral courts.
 The fight between the North Caro- lima Governor and the published an nouncement, that it meant a great vic- tory for the state reused Governor Conner It indicated too. that there must be some defect in the anti-rail- road legislation already passed and which was presented to the Legislature on it's passage as being too perfect and too sacred for any vandal change to be made in it.
 Got All He Asked For.
 The Legislature passed every single bill that the Governor favored. except the Sunday freight trains bill and the issues embodied in that bill cut no fig ure in the present situation. All reme- dial measures proposed by the Governor for evils, which he said he saw and which he had denounced. were quickly passed by the Legislature. However, many members of the Legislature dif- fered from the Governor on other ques- tions. the railroad bills went through smoothly and quickly.
 They were introduced and held up to the lawmakers as administration measures" platform measures, "Is- sues settled by the campaign" Every thing the Governor asked the Legisla- ture for he got
 Now he finds that the railroads cas- lily tied up this legislation in the Fed eral courts. On the other hand, from North Carolina. there came the sensa tional news that Governor Glenn had achieved a signal victory over the rail. roads. Glenn appeared in the role oi the only original railroad tanner, the man who had accomplished something He got world of advertising top ot column. preferred space. right next tc pure reading matter"
 The Governor of Alabama had beer essaying that same role himself. H. had been working the anti-railroad is sue for all 1t was worth ever since ht had been in politics in Alabama. Il anything sensational was to be done 1T the way of railroad tanning. 1t woult seem that he was the man to do 1t.
 Yet the Governor of North Carolina