The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-10

feel that. after all, this is the best thing
| that could have happened 1t has NOT
| only lined up large portion of the senate
with the administration but it has in a
sense committed that portion to the poll
| ctes OF the new chief executive In add.
| ton to this 1t has placed the Responsible,
| ity OF legislation upon the majority and
| there will be no chance for this dominant
enment to escape criticism If action In
taken deserving of such. In other words
the situation seems to be entirely In the
nanos OF Mr. Conner and his friends, and
| IL they FAIL to bring about the enactment
or laws which the people of the state
thlnk they ought to have 1t will not be
at all difficult to place the blame where
| 1T belongs. This of course will be so If
the senate continues to emphasize ita
disposition to support Mr.. Conner in much
| he hopes to accomplish.
Important Victory.
With the victory of Henry B. Gray,
| lieutenant governor, in his contention that
he has the right and is charged with the
| duty OF naming the committees of the
| senate, the administration that will be
formally installed next week has won its
first, and very important victory. 1t
has routed the old opposition to Mr..
| Corners element in the senate and evil
| denced the desire on the part of the men,
| bers of the upper house to stand by the
| new executive In the issues he has in
view.
There has been much interesting gossip
about the desires of the administration
and seevral members of the body are at
| work on bills to present to carry out
| the provisions of the platform. The i'm
preston prevails that Governor Conner
| HIMSELF will write the railroad bills. In
| fact 1t has been said to him and his
1 hat In. he 1fnrhf 49, Ii
7 of his several races he is charged with
| this duty. That being the case 1t is a
| safe guess that Capt. F. S. White and
| w. D. Nesbitt, his campaign managers
Will prepare the measure, though Mr.
Conner will no doubt advise and make
| many alterations
| There is belief that at least three
| bills will be presented to meet the rail-
road situation, I'm order that they do not
| overlap. They will, perhaps, have to do
i with the powers of the commission to
deal with the rate question, the regula-
| ton of car service and other features of
| administrative control having different
| ones to take care of different desires.
To Defeat Overlapping.
There will be fear that these bills will
| dove TAIL and to defeat this a committee
| will have to be raised to go carefully over
them and weed out all the things that
ished, however, that the bill will COM
| bine. or rather the three will, all the
essential features of the platform so far
| as rail rates and management goes. 1t Is
| also a fact that the new governor will
have the shaping of Them
Another measure that will be delayed
some and is of general interest is the
local option measure in the which will be
combined the dispensary ideas that will
finally prevail Senator Moody of Tusca-
loosa, will urge local option dispen-
sary bill, and the anti-saloon league will
go after a law that will make 1t possible
for beats as well as counties to have
their own say as to whether or not
whisky is sold in them. A committee of
the temperance people is busy outlining
the laws desired and will be ready in a
few days to present them, the necessary
advertising having been done already.
Representative A. H. Carmichael of
Colbert county, which has up a dspen-
sary movement second only to that of
Madison county, says that so far there
has been no agreement upon general
bill. but one is being worked out He
agreed that the beat unit feature enter
ing into the dispensary question was puz-
zling and would have to be worked out.
1t is planned now to have it so that any
beat in any county may have liquor or
not and it is hoped that the rule will be
extended so that they can have either
saloon or dispensary, or neither, as they
see fit. Another question to be met is
the fact that liquor men may come from
other states and sell in Alabama and
escape the law on the plea of interstate
commerce.
Floor Leader.
The floor leaders are to be Senator
Lusk in the senate and o. c. Manner in
the house, both of whom are ardent Co.
mer men. 1t is likely that there will be
a second floor leader in the house. as
Manner will be at the head of one of the
big committees and will be busy. 1t is
worth while recalling that Mr.. Manner has
been on the inside from the time he was
nominated for the lower house from
Montgomery. He espoused the cause Of
! his associate, w. L. Martin, for speaker
and was in the confidence of the adminis-
tration forces from the first. With Col.
S. w. John of Birmingham, he has had to
do with most everything that has been
taken up by the administration forces.
In the selection of committees other
men of prominence are to be given good
places. ]. w. Overton of Randolph Is ex-
pected to head the common carriers COM
mittee of the senate He gave out an in
terview few days ago in which he said
that he would introduce bills providing
for two cent fares abolition of passes
and regulation of Sunday trains He il
red hot in the support of every feature
of the platform that applies to railroad
regulation. John Lusk of Marshall Is to
have the judiciary craftsmanship of his
section of the body. He will in that be
in position to push his laws for redis-
tricting the state from judiciary stand
point.
One hears that r. Tyler Goodwin, who
came out of the race for speaker a day
or two ago, is to be cared for by the
powers with several good committee as
signments. 1t is likely that he will be
given opportunity to pursue the work
for capitol Improvement which he began
at the last session. and he will also be
| recognized in many other ways. 1t 10
remarked by men who are in the coun-
ellis that the new speaker is going to be
very nice to his erstwhile opponent who
so gracefully came down and pledged his
support when he saw that he was beaten.