The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-23
Attacks Motives Of Those 0p- posing New County
ANSWERS THEIR ARGUMENT
J. A. Estes Takes Up seriatim the Arguments Made In Interviews By Members of Board
 of Trade.


 ! environment seem to have discovered have dropped back and made an effort to make little better show by mus tering up a little more courage in the name of the Board of Trade. We say this Board of Trade matter is a pro- duction of the influence of the Com mereial club 20 because it is shown by their actions, in that Mir W. H. Kettig was chairman of the 20 and he appears and kindles the fire with the Board of Trade on the afternoon of October 20.
 Answer to position of those who dominated the Board of Trade, as they call it.
 MT. W. H. Kettig states that nearly | half of the counties of the state can be carved up at any time for the bene- l fit of ambitious towns. He said that the only counties safe from the effects l of the amendment are those that have 1 less than 500 square miles, and he l gives a list of the counties that he says can be affected and includes in his l list 36 counties which have an area of | more than 500 square miles.
 Now, we don't charge these Birming 1 ham fellows with intentionally trying 1 to deceive the people in order to preju- l dice them against this amendment, but l 1t Is strange indeed that intelligent men would undertake, as they have. to 1 say that a new county can be formed anywhere around either of these coun- ties. The people of the counties named know that the position of Bir- mingham Is a fabrication, and they can't be fooled into voting against the l amendment by any such stuff. Besse- mer is doing her work in this cam- paign on a high plane. and she is mak- ing no representations nor taking any l position until she finds out that she is 1 correct.
 There are many counties that can't be touched under the amendment be- sides those mentioned in the list of l Mr. Kettig.
 There are but few counties that can l be affected and they are suffering and looking for relief under this amend ment. MT. Kettig seems to have dropped 1 the court house and tax question of Jefferson as a hot brick too heavy to 1 handle.
 MT. -Kettig says the sanitary sewer l system evidently referring to the trunk l line, a point of which would extend down into Bessemer's new county, ought to remain it's whole length under one government He means by this that the point extending down into
 
 new county control. This Is not true. l The formation of a new county does not take away the property and rights l therein owned by the old county, ] though the property is cut off into the new, and if MT. Kettig and asso- ciates will take the trouble to look at the act of the legislature creating the sanitary sewer commission of Jefferson county. they will see that it is owned l by the county. So the sewer line will | still be under the management of the l Jefferson sewer commission and it will | remain so until otherwise provided by l law, and Bessemer will not fuss with 1 them about this; just let them keep 1t. This has been settled almost as long as the law has existed. These Bir- mingham fellows ought to inform themselves and stop stumping their 1 toes. This is the only way we can put 1 1t because we don't want to charge them with knowingly trying to fool 1 the people into voting against patri 1 otic movement that is destined to build up the state. We leave 1t for the peo- pie to draw their own conclusions as l to Birmin gham's purpose
 l Average Countryman. Now, MT. Kettig says that the aver age countryman wants to go to Bir- I mingham after his crops are laid by l 1 go to Bessemer. He says the sheriff tells him this and he knows it is so. | They are certainly put to it. Every | fool in the county knows that crops are laid by about and soon after July | 1, and that ,.the crops are being har- l vested by October, and they know too, that the courts are in recess from June l to October, except the Bessemer and | criminal courts. which start in Sep | tember. They have just lost their heads.
 l Atlanta as an Example. 1 MT. J. E. Shelby has a strain, l groans and then takes Atlanta an example, and Besesmer is glad he did. | He says the people of Fulton county | are tied together in perfect harmony 1 and that when they want anything 1 they go after it together. But he says 1 here in Jefferson there is always a 1 class of men who stand in the way l etc. If the gentlemen of Birmingham want to get Jefferson to where 1t will l be a unit, why on earth don't they go | to work to that end by helping to | ratify the new county so | that the vast area will be cut down to 1 where everybody in the county will have a common interest like Atlanta s county of Fulton? Fulton county, I Georgia, has 137 square miles, while l Jefferson has 1059. My! what hole Mr Shelby has stepped in! Listen, | Jefferson has just about as much area l as Fulton county and all the five counties of Milton, Cobb, Clayton, Campbell and DeKalb that surround her. Jefferson has 102 square miles more than seven times as much as Full ton. Hasn't he fixed it?
 Mir. Collins.
 A new speaker of the hot air band l appeared before the Board of Trade and went wild. He said if the amend ment was ratified 1t would mean 25 or 30 new counties. Why didn't he just stick to the facts and say 1t means the creation of three or four? We think he is excusable for more than likely he could not have told his name at the time. He says again that any am bilious town that can show $1,O0O,O00 of property and can carve out new | county within seven miles of court house will have a right to do so. Gle has the wrong end up, 1t has to be out ] side the seven mile limit, but he IS just going with the band.)
 MT. Collins is afraid they will create | shoe-string county somewhere Gle must be connected with Collins shoe store
 in Birmingham, or a wholesale grocery
 house and is thinking about sending out | drummers) We think the 800 necessary
 petitioners would be just about as com
 netent as the senator by himself, for |.
 if stays with the legislature he Is the
 ruler If the petitioners should under
 take to make a shoestring county the