The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-19

 The deputy sheriff notified the sheriff of the condition of affairs and the sheriff notified him, to play hands off and have nothing to do with the negro that he did not want to be responsible for the negro life. If there is any law in this state pro tecting a citizen, and impeaching shfrin for cowardice in being afraid to do his duty, this seems to us a clear case of impeachment. and we therefore recom- mend his impeachment in this matter"
 Not By Deputies.
 During the strike a negro was taken off the train by the city authorities or Cardiff, and not by the deputy sheriff. heard that this negro at Cardiff was a non-unlon miner and some union minersswere likely to take this negro from the city authorities at Cardiff. l at once 'phoned to my deputy at Brookside to go at once to Cardiff and see if he could find any grounds for the rumor and to give the officers who had the man in custody any assistance they requested, and that if more help was requested or required, to advise me. The deputy, after going toNCar- diff, 'phoned me that there were no grounds for the rumor, and that every thing was quiet; that the mayor had given the negro trial and was going to release him. I 'phoned him to as- sist the mayor and other officers to escort him to a place of protection. This, he reported later he did. The negro was never in the custody of the sheriff, and, so far as I know, never asked for any protection, and If he had I believe that the deputy in question, MT. J. P. Brents, would have died. If necessary, to defend the negro; while, on the other hand, he would have re- a him for doing his duty. No one who knows the deputy in question, MT. J. P. Brents, questions or can question his courage and his fidelity to his duty. He has been a deputy sheriff in Jefferson county for many years, and other sheriffs than myself can testify in hls behalf as against this malicious slander.
 This charge of cowardice as to a matter where I was not personally present, and where the deputy sheriff in charge is a man of courage and fidelity, who never shrank from going to the front at any time during the whole strike, and of whom no com plaint was heard either from the oper- ators or the strikers, shows the de1ib- eration and the maliciousness Of those who seek to attack me under color of their official position. To recommend ludl Us lllptdSllcQ 1Oi COWAfN iS so absurd and unwarranted that it does not deserve the consideration that 1t has been given.
 Looking People Up.
 The third charge is: Tt has also come to our attention that the sheriff has been making 1t a practice to go out into the community and arrest peo ple place them in jail and force them to remain there for days and days at a time, sometimes as much as a week, without knowing what charge they were arrested upon, thereby forcing these unfortunate people to languish behind the bars of the jail, at the ex- pense of the county, and in ignorance of the charge against them."
 This, like the other charges made is wilfully and maliciously false. and no reasonable man would believe such charge against the sheriff, If, for no other reason. that they know that he Is civilly responsible in damages to any and all persons whom he would wrong fully and illegally arrest and detain. His civil interest, if not his sense of justice and duty, would restrain him from doing this.
 There are certain cases where the law permits arrests to be made without war rant, but, in every instance the sheriff has only made lawful arrests and lawful imprisonments. The charge is further false as to his making arrests without warrants, without notifying the person of the cause of his arrest The law requires. and the sheriff knows and abides by it, that in making an arrest without war rant, he must notify the person of the charge upon which he is arrested and de- tained, or else he is responsible in dam ages to any person so misused.
 cI.x n-iI.E<-
 The fourth charge is, in substance, that six baliffs, allowed by the judge of the criminal court to attend upon the deliber- atlons of the grand jury, were not kept in constant attendance, and that, for this reason, their deliberations were prolonged and the grand jury thereby delayed in its investigations. In substantiation of the abbVe, comes the fifth charge in the mil nority report, In citing one instance, not properly served, out of fourteen hundred and ninety-two Q492) different witnesses summoned and many eof these 1492 more than one time.
 The fact is that in order to serve these fourteen hundred and ninety-two Q492) witnesses and bring them before the grand jury, time and time again, not only did the sheriff put at the service of the grand jury six bailiffs, but at tinNs his entire force of 30 deputies.
 
 be received by the law abiding people of the county, but, as for myself, I feel complimented over the fact that, out of the enormous number of witnesses which were required at the attendance of this grand jury and all other duties touching same, together with the work of serving other courts, that the hypocritical report of the four wise men, could find but one illustration of failure to make a prompt service.
 The Sixth Charge.
 The sixth charge is as follows: We wish to apologize to the citizens and tax payers of this county for being forced to. continue our deliberations as a grand jury for the length of time that we have been in session Had we been given that service and had the witnesses been promptly summoned before us. urlabors would have been completed some time ago, but this service we have been un- able to get"
 This is another wlfully false state rnent of the four wise men and is base libel and islander on the majority of the grand jury, which, if these facts had ex- isted, would have ordered me before them to know why they were being held in session by lack of service on the part sof my office. The statement carries on it's face an absolutely false charge. It carries it's own internal evidence of it's falseness. It was commonly rumored that the, delay was due to an effort by the four wise men, to coerce the majority into aiding them in their effort to islander and injure me. Day after day, my deputies for several weeks served and reserved subpoenas, as the records will show, on a set of the most notorious crooks, crim- inals and law-breakers in the county of