The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-20
GENTLE ROAST FUR COUNTY OPPONENTS J, A. Estes of BeSSemer Pre-
 SentS His Case BIRMINGHAM IS SELFISH Maintains That Percys Arguments Against Splitting the County Are
 MisIeadins-caIIs 6lrmina-
 ham Coterie "Wonder."
BIRMINGHAM IS SELFISH

the Dolnt. lheA SHOW ifoli tiei aie"- ment that their guns are aimed at Besse- mer, Poor Bessemerl She, with her thousands of population and vast area around her, has been in political servitude Tor a long time.
 MT Nesbitt who is a state officer, be- ing a member of the state railroad com mission, and who for political deeeneys sake ought to have kept out of this fight but they were pushed for material. See?
 Mir. Nesbitt takes the position that the modern plan is organization, coneentra- ton and amalgamation of people, assets and resources and that disintegration will never do Is this the way he talks to and encourages the railroads? The ad- ministration of justice has been monop- olized, organized, concentrated or amal- gamated until justice by lapse of time is defeated or denied, and the people are disobeying and losing respect for the law. But MT Nesbitt wants these conditions continued and made worse.
 MT. Nesbitt says the formation of a new county would injure the business of Bir- mingham. My Will the formation of
 
 to ruin Birmingham? Will there be any walls erected on the county line to pre- vent the people from crossing?
 MT. Percy's Position.
 MT. Percy says the constitution leaves the matter of the creation of new coun- ties to the legislature when they deem it necessary, etc. in order to the more con- Venient access to the county seat, or for any other good and sufficient reason. He says the legislature can, for any reason which it may deem proper, create new county in any locality of the state and define it's boundaries, etc, consulting the wishes of the people in the locality as to their desire to go into the new county or stay in the old. He says also that the reason the new county amendment is be- ing advocated is because those advocating it can't present to the legislature good and sufficient reasons for forming a county.
 Wonderful logicl The constitution of the state has prescribed the qualifications for new counties It says the territory out of which it is proposed to make a county shall consist of 600 square miles; that it shall contain population enough to give it at least one representative in the legislature, and that its lines shall i not run within seven miles of the court house of any old county, nor shall the area of any of the old counties be re- duced to less than the constitutional area. Now, is it not perfectly clear that the constitution has declared when the necessity for the creation of new coun- ty exists Bessemer, for one place in the state, has had all the qualifications for 20 years or more, and asked the legisla- ture time and again to create the new county and it has never been done. What
 is the matter? The answer is that in the legislature they let the senator from the district dictate what shall be done They call this senatorial courtesy" This one man rule that has been over-riding the constitution and rendering it of non-effect | is what the new county amendment pro- 1 poses to abolish and let the people to be affected say whether or not they will form a county.
 Mir. Percy says the legislature can con- l sider the boundary lines and consult the people as to whether or not they want ] 10 go into new county. The legislature i is a wonderful body to consult the peo- 1 pie in the locality, isn't it? How on earth can the people be consulted as to such matters any better way than to | let them vote on the question, and this is the way the amendment provides for ] it to be done? He says the legislature ] can consider and fix the boundary lines. ! He ought to have said the senator from
 the district could consider the matter
 and fix it (and that he always being from | Birmingham he wo|ld always deny any
 relief just like they want him to dol,
 that they would then be able to continue
 to prostitute the constitutional guaran-
 teed rights of the people just like they
 have in the past This is what it reads
 between the lines.
 The amendment provides that it re-
 qures 800 of the qualified voters of the
 territory to petition the probate judge
 of the county from which it is proposed
 to take the greatest area in order to
 get an election of county no county,
 and in the petition they shall state the
 proposed boundary lines and it must stay
 within the constitutional limitations.
 Now, which is the better, let the sena-
 tor, if he would say at all, or the leg
 islature, say what the lines shall be, or
 let the 300 petitioners living in the ter
 ritory say? The provisions of the new
 county amendment requiring 800 petition CTS is an extraordinary and satisfactory l precaution.
 | MI. IeIcy says 10 permit new cOuntleS
 to be formed on a vote of the people
 might take in somebody who didn't want
 to go, referring to a little corner of | Walker in which county few politicians which seem to be subject to Birmingham s
 orders live, and assumes in a way that
 they are all bitterly against it, which is | not true. Nonsense! From the position of these Birmingham fellows it seems 1 that our forefathers committed a great wrong in declaring the independence of l this country from England. We should l never have a governor of the state be- l cause the people are not unanimous for 1 him; same as to county and municipal 1 officers and in forming a municipality, it 1 should not be formed unless every voter 1 wants it. And bring it @ little close to | them, Greater Birmingham should not l have taken the extra territory outside l unless every voter in the annexed terri l tory wanted to go in, but we notice that | they have been taking in the territory 1 just the same, and that, too, over con- siderable minority vote It is possible 1 however, that these Birmingham fellows think this is all right, because it is Bir- l mingham, but it would not be all right for l Bessemer or any other city or county |