The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-02-06
ARGUE SUNDAY FREIGHT BILL Committees Grant Audi
 enceS. PRESIDENT SMITE'S STATEMENT Railroad Men and Ministers Lock
 Horns. Spirited Argument Conducted Before Bodies of Both Houses of Lcgis- iaturc--Other open Meetings
 Asked For.

I 1 and Common Carriers last night on the ! sunday freIght tram bill had one Of 1 the llveliest and warmest meetings Of ! the present session. The iiveiiness l was furnished by an impfomptu joint l debate between Engineer T. S Pounds, l who opposed, the plil and delega- | tiou of prominent ministers who fa- yored the measure.
 | every minute of 1t, and It lasted until | after II o'clock A number of manu- | facturers Of various classes also ap peared before the committee in oppo. sition to the measure.
 The meeting was begun at s o'clock. l and 1t was presided over by Chairman John ". Overton in the Senate Cham Der. The opening argument in favor
 D. M White of Coosa County. who in- l troduced the bill in the Senate Sena- tor White declared at his home in coosa County. he could see a dozen
 dent they were massed in Alabama be- cause of the Georgia law forbidding them to run in that State on Sunday. Senator White saw no reason why the
 of business in Alabama to observe the Sunday law and make an exception in favor of the railroads.
 Rev. Sterling Foster. pastor of the South Side Presbyterian Church. pre- sented to ths committee joint resoiu- tions signed by the Ministers, Union of
 Birmingham. protesting against the
 operation of freight trains on Sunday
 in n Aiahams, He said it deyeiopsd a I m
 who had spokeI against the pending
 measure. was in a splendid minority of
 one of the Birmingham ministers.
 Declares WerSxmen Want It. MT. Foster declared that commit. tee which appeared against the bill
 represented 35.e0o men. women and children of Birmingham. They were earnest in favor of allowing the rail-
 road men to have Sunday. and to com pei the railroads to observe that day.
 The delegation was quite willing to accept an amendment which would per init railroad men to come into their
 homes on Sunday when they were over- taken by that day on the road. Dr. L. F. Whitten of Ensley fol- lowed in brief argument recalling the statements that had been advanced to W. H. Vanderbilt when a delega- to ask him to stop running Sunday freight trains on his road, and declared that spiritual If not financial bank ruptcy awaited the men who persisted in that practice.
 Rev. J. J. D. Hall, chaplain of con- victs, spoke rather warmly in support of the bilL After declaring the Bib1o did not give the railroads the right to suspend the Ten Commandments. he said:
 I am ashamed of Birmingham. 1
 am ashamed of the cry which has zone up from that district asking the break ing of a commandment. Don't you suppose the Lord lookel ahead through the years and knew the Birmingham district would have coal and iron" MT. Hall also declared the members who tried to kill that bill in commit tee or voted against 1t in the session, would be marked and paid back. He said something of "Skinning them and stretching their political hide on the
 barn door"
 Rev. J. c. Persinscr, pastor Of the Avondale Methodist Church, declared | the statement that all trainmen' op- ! posed the pill was a gross misrepre- | sentation. He had talked with many of them. and they were anxious for the bill to become a law. He present. ca set of resolutions tc that effect signed by Division 432 of the Brother
 hood of Locomotive Engineers. l J. F. Adams one of the proprietors | of the Longv!ew Limo Works, begged ! the committee for the sake of the man 1 ufacturing interests of the State, not | to recommend the measure. He took 1 some pains to explain the railroads
 were doing all in their power to han | dle the great business of the present 1 prosperity, and he showed 1t was inn 1 possible for them to do more than they | were doing now.
 Basiness Mcn Oppose. Mayor s. c. Oliver, of Talladega, also ' apeared before the committee as d | manufacturer. and made a witty and
 entertaining speech.
 | J. S. Johnson of the Consolidated | Coal and Iron Company of Birmmg- | ham. made an earnest appeal to the committee not to cripple the industries | of the Birmingham district He told | the committee how the Alabama min | eral district had grown to rival that | of Virginia and Pennsylvania, and that
 now competition was keen among the
 three. They had no Sunday law m | Pennsylvania or in Virginia, and he | begged the committee not to handi- ! cap the Birmingham district in the ! struggle with her Northern rivals. 1 John P. Tillman of Birmingham \ presented to the committee the writ | ten statement made ty President Mil
 ton H. smith, on existing railroad con
 diions In Alabama. It is printed else
 Engineer T. S. Pounds again appear ed before the committee and made one
 of his characteristic speeches. He was 1 not on the list of speakers, but he got
 the floor to answer some criticisms
 that he had been levelled at him, and
 he answered them in good style. He declared the Avandale division of the | Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
 had endor sed his fight against the bill 1 and that the head of the division, MT l Garrett, had come with him to Mont
 gomery to protest against the bill.
 A. L. Moore, prominent lumber.
 man of Covington County. protested
 against the measure. He told of tho
 loss and hardship such a bill would
 bring about in. his line of business.
 Henry Riddle, a lawyer of CIoodwa-
 ter. closed the discussion of the pend
 ing measure with q speech advocating
 the moral side of the question. Mir.
 Riddle quoted the Democratic platform
 to prove the legislation should be en- acted.
 The committee took no action on the bill last night Other hearings on the measure have been asked for