The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-03-03

minghdm which agreement was to be
made effective by an affirmative vote Of
the qualified electors of the municipality
To De annexed. The bill provided that
the agreement of annexation should fix
the disposition To be made of the public
institutes in the town annexed, such as
the school buildings, town halls, and
other public property. the division into
wards Of the new territory and the rep
resentaton of the new territory ON the
Board of Aldermen of Greater Brmins-
ham, and the disposition of public debt
of the annexed municipality.
Mayor John b. Burris of Woodlawn,
Mayor Mckinley and City Attorney Mar
tin of East Lake, Mayor Cole of North
Birmingham. Mayor Starbuck of Avon
dale, and the writer as attorney fortWest
End took part in the conference with A.
torney Ed Smith, who represented Bir-
mingham. The bill also provided for
the annexation of unincorporated terri
tory on a vote of the electors therein.
There was no exemption of the property
of any man or corporation provided for.
The text of the bill was made up at the
iOoAhS VI tiit conference dl lue lIACHdHSe
hotel and written down as each section
was agreed upon. There were two bills
pending for a general law providing for
The annexation of outlying territory TO
cities, which bills had been printed and
some of the sections from these bills had
been adopted and the printed matter cut
out and attached to the copy of the con-
ference bill as 1t was prepared. The
text OF the bill was delivered to a mem
Der of the conference to be typewriter,
and handed to one of the members from
jefferson to be introduced.
| am informed that it was properly
copied, but in some way an entirely diff
ferent bill got into the hands of Pro-
fessor Dubose, who introduced the bill,
believing ii to- be the bill adopted by the
conference.
This bill got a favorable report and
passed the house, if | remember cor
rectly, before the difference was discov-
cred Mr.. }. b. Gibson and myself took
the substitute bill and carefully going
over map We ascertained that the line
of the territory annexed took in only a
portion of AVondale, East Lake, Wood
lawn, West End and North Birmingham.
That it had no election or agreement
feature in it whatever, and provided for
the assumption of the debts of the
smaller towns only in the event all their
territory came into Greater Birmingham,
which. unler the boundaries set out in
the %bill, amounted to a reputation.
The discovery was made too late to
remedy aud we went to work to defeat
the bill. Which by the quick and intelll-
gent work OF Mr.. Hugh Morrow in the
senate accomplished.
How the mistake occurred or who sub
stituted the bill has never been known,
Mr.. Dubose did not know that he had
Introduced the wrong bill.
The bill of the conference would have
become a law and Greater Birmingham
could have been an accomplished fact
IL the people had voted for it, but for
the facts l have related
1t was the unanimous opinion of the
members of the conference that the peo-
pie to be affected by the bill would have
voted for annexation under any fair and
equitable agreement.
I think the same sentiment prevails to-
day and it needs no special exemption
from taxation TO accomplish It.
c, B. POWELL
Birmingham, March .. 1907.