The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-19
EVERYBODY TAXES KNOCK AT COUNCIL Lively Session Held By Besse-
 mer Fathers ALL SORTS OF COMPLAINTS One Man Charged That Aldermen Were Getting Special Rates From Water ompany-Edmundson
 Springs Surprise.
ALL SORTS OF COMPLAINTS

] Bessemer, February 1S.-(SpeciaD--The Bessemer City Council met this evening and those present were Mayor Rush, AL dermen Lewis. Batson, Emundson, Thom- as and Copeland. Aldermen Winters, | Long and Ross were absent. One thing that both amused and aroused the council was the statement made by Edgar L. Mitchell that the members of the board or at least some of them were getting ] special rates from the Bessemer Water | Works company for the amount of water 1 that they used.
 | This statement fired Alderman Lewis | up and he arose and stated that such was not the case as far as he was con | cerned. Alderman Edmundson stated that l he did not get any special rate from l the company. Alderman Thomas stated that he certainly wished he could get the company to give him some sort of rate that would be cheaper than the one he was now paying.
 l Mayor Rush stated that he had never heard of the company taking anything off his bill.
 MT. Mitchell was then asked for his authority and he stated that he had been l informed that such was the case by E. | A. Little. MT. Little arose and stated that he had been informed that such was the case, but he did not give the name of l his informant. It was the general inn pression that since MT. Mitchell was de- sirous of becoming sort of board of in- l quiry that he should be heard to the end, and the end was long time coming. He had kick to register on everything that came up He wanted to know some- thing about the recent sale of Bessemer | bonds, and he also wanted to know some- thing about the ordinance that was intro duced at the last meeting of council and referred to the cemetery committee and reported by them as being buried, with regard to the reading of meters by the by the water works company.
 He stated that he had been informed just before John F. Cannon, superinten- dent of the company in this city, left on l trip to the west that several mem- bers of the board had informed MT. Gam mon that he go along with his trip and that the ordinance would be killed when | 1t was presented. At this juncture Mr. | Cannon was called upon for a statement with regard to this and he stated most | positively that no one had approached him with regard to the matter
 After a good deal of discussion the | matter of having the water company leave a copy of the reading of the | meters with the consumers was re- | ferred to the water works committee and they will submit their report at | the next meeting of the council. MT. Mitchelrs inquiry into the recent sale of the bonds of the city met with a cold response and he was passed up. He talked so long that the mayor finally requested him to keep quiet. w. T. Kennedy was the next speaker. MT. Kennedy stated that he was at a loss to reconcile the report of the city 1 physician. He stated that he had buried more people during the month of January than the city physician had reported as dying. He wanted to know how this came about. He stated that while the report of the city physician called for nine deaths, he had buried
 22. He also stated that he had kept one dead man In his place for two days and could not get the city physician to pass on the cause of his death. He
 stated that third man was found dead on the streets. His report was re- ceived as information.
 The report of the city physician for the month of January was read and re- 1 ceived.
 The report of the treasurer for the month of January was read and re- ceived as information.
 The ordinance to pave Nineteenth street from the crossing of the Ala bama Great Southern railroad as fal as Sixth avenue was placed on its last
 reading and passed as read. This wal