The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-23
DAVIDSON WING
 THREATENS TAFT Wants Certain Things Done In
 Alabama or Else RUM0R IN MONTGOMERY officehoIders and Frank Hitchcock Must Take "skidoo" Slide Or
 Tales Will Be Told
 Out of School.
RUMOR IN MONTGOMERY
BY HERvEY w. LAIRD.

Montgomery, January 22.-(SpeciaL)-
 According to local report the Davidson
 wing of the republican party in the state
 has sent the word to MT Taft that he
 will have to see to three things before
 the members of the faction will give him
 support; first, that no member of the
 state committee be an officeholder; sec
 ond, that Frank Hitchcock, first assist
 ant postmaster general have no say in
 Alabama affairs, and. third that delegates
 to the national convention be chosen on
 the bass of the vote for Roosevelt in
 the last election and not by population.
 It is charged that the dominant wing of the party, headed heretofore by J. o.
 Thompson and Charles Scott. is an office
 holding trust and does not represent the
 party. It is also desired that democratic influence be eliminated by the retirement of MT. Thompson, who, they say, is in-
 huenced by Booker T. Washington, who Is, in turn, disposed to favor the dem
 ocrats in the distribution of offices. It is said that MT. Taft has refused to dicker with the outs as represented by the Davidson wing. although there is no ob- jection on their part to MT. Scott, a
 hearty Taft man and one of the referees of the state.
 The threat is thrown out, it is said, that if these things are not done the members of the faction will go to the national convention with a contesting delegation and tell a whole lot of tales out of school.
 Supreme Court.
 The following cases have been handed
 down by the supreme court: By Chief Justice Tyson-Frank Polk ct al. vs. State, Bessemer city court; af- firmed.
 By Justice Haralson-William Wood | ward vs. w. P. Elrod, Blount chancery court; affirmed. e 1 By Justice Simpson-Council of Mont l gomery vs J. L. Walker; reversed and l rendered.
 | By Justice Denson-Rchard Tillis vs. J.
 M. Brown ct al., appeal from Montgom-
 cry city court; affirmed.
 High School Trip. 1 The members of the county high school 1 locating board, composed of the governor, l the auditor and the superintendent of ] education, will leave next Tuesday, Janu- l ary 2S, for a trip through Bullock, Bar 1 bour and Houston counties. The first
 stop will be at Midway, Tuesday at 10 a. | m., after which they will drive to Clay | ton for the night They will then go |
 in time to inspect the site before dark. l From there they go to Ashford, arriving | at night and getting away for Columbia | the next day, arriving there at D. m. 1 They get to Dothan at TAO Thursday and
 leave there next day for home Many Negroes In Selma. l By report of Mayor Atkins to the secre- l tary of state, Selma has 15,755 inhabi- tants, of which number 9o64 are negroes l and four Chinese. Thus it will be seen l that the town has almost 300 more negroes l than whites This report Is made by di- 1 rection of sections 12 and 13 of the muni- l cipal code bill adopted by the last ses- 1 sion of the legislature.
 1 Rountree Named. l John L. Rountree has been appointed l judge of the inferior court of Beat 10, 1 Morgan county, at Hartselle, in the place ] of J. l.. Draper, resigned. 1 Educational Rally. 1 An educational rally will be held at 1 Autaugaville, the home of Commissioner l of Agriculture J. A. Wilkinson, January l 24. It is in the interest of the town for l the Autauga county high school. J.. A. 1 Wilkinson, John H. Wallace, Jr., and w. l G. Smith of the state soils survey will be l the speaker.
 Money To Invest. The investment committee of the Ala 1 bama grand lodge, Knights of Pythias, have been busy in Montgomery for couple of days finding investments for | s3000 of surplus money. This will make the temple fund of the order $16,000 The committee is composed of R. H. Mangum, Selma; J. M. Dannelly, Montgomery; Henry Simon, Mobile; B. A. Taylor, Mont gomery; H. J. Willingham, Montgomery. In a few years this money is to be used in building a temple of Pythianism for the whole state, probably at Mont