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

planned. The record or no O11c1al Tn tniS county has eyer been sifted and resifted as mine has been. and yet, after all this ef- fort had aborted and the four wise men found that there were seven men who refused to join their movement to produce anarchy in Jefferson county, furious in de- feat and mad in the power of privileged communication, they have assaulted me in a manner beneath the contempt of honest men.
 Special Deputies.
 The seventh charge is the one in ref- erence to certain companies having dur ing the strike made request for special deputies for which they agreed to pay sS per day per man, and the fact that of the 8 the deputy sheriff only re- ceived g.
 In the first place. this custom be- tween the sheriff's office and the oper- ators has existed for years and years without any complaint so far as I have been able to know upon the part of any one.
 When the strike came on in order to observe all past customs on this sub- jeet and not to do or ask for anything different from any other sheriff, l put MT. John L. Barker in position Tn my office to advise me, so I would make no such mistake. as suggested.
 MT. Barker had served under the diff ferent sheriffs of Jefferson county for 12 years. So in following MT Barkers advice I know I followed custom. Further more, I was legally advised that the course I followed was perfectly legal and proper.
 No Complaint Made.
 No complaint was made as to the companies paying the amount actually received by the deputies and for the obvious reason that in a large county like this no sheriff could be financially able, If for no other reason, to employ and pay for the services of the large number of deputies required in such emergencies, nor does the law contem- plate any such requirement, and the sheriff himself is put to expense and subject to liability for all the acts of omission or commission of these deputies once they are commissioned; and these matters, I take it, were thoroughly can vassed and considered when the custom was first invoked. These newly employed deputies had to be supervised by expe- rienced deputies in the employment of the sheriff at the time when all of the deputies of the sheriff's office had to go on strike duty, Legislature after legisla- ture has met since first this custom ex- isted between the operators and the sner- frs office during strikes and no efforts by the public or by the operators have been made to. in any way, limit the right of the sheriff to receive such com pensation by private contract for giving special attention to the property of any citizen, where, in the mind of the citi- zen, extra and special protection to the property or person of the citizen was necessary.
 As to Special Deputies.
 Would it be contemplated for mo- ment that any citizen or every citizen who apprehended violence to his person or property, without swearing out any process, could require the sheriff serving any length of time to maintain deputy in front of his house or near his person! If so. every citizen of the county dur Ing the recent strike, or at any other time, could make this demand. If, how ever. for some private reason, citizen wished a deputy sheriff stationed in front of his house each night, vested with the authority of law. because of large amount of money or other property that he had therein and which he was exceed ingly anxious to have doubly guarded, does the public think it should be illegal for that citizen to enter into private contract with the sheriff or with the city of Birmingham for special officers to guard said property? Could not the sher- if demand that this special deputy be specially paid? Could not Birmingham say Pay for the special policeman?' The public can readily see that this added protection to the citizens property should not be charged upon the public nor upon any public officer, but should come out of the pocket of the private individual and the public can further see that the services given are more than the need ed attention of the deputy to the property which he protects for the service includes the supervision and responsibility of the e, party to whom his services are con- trncted, but also his conduct toward the public.
 If forsooth, the fees of the office of sheriff of Jefferson county went into the general funds of the people of the county a salary being paid to the sher- if, In that event. would the public think 1t was fair for the whole people of the county to be burdened by particular in- stances of this character? If it was unlaw- full to exist or to receive $3 for such dep uty, 1t was unlawful to receive S2 and for that reason it would be unlawful to receive any compensation for this private and special service of the deputy for any citizen in tho county. The above statement I submit, conclusively shows that my contracts with the different op- orators during the coal strike were perfectly proper and were sanctioned by custom, by law and by equity. In ref erence to the controversy as to the mol pressing of certain strike cases, have nothing to add to that which have here- tofore said.
 Election Frauds.
 TO return to the election of 1908, which is done In the tenth charge of the -Four Wise Men" is indeed far cry for sub feet matter on which to undermine tho public confidence in my administration. The public will well remember that one of the salient features of the three cam paigns was the reiterated charges with to the alleged packing of the companies with illegal voters. Having undergone the white searchllght of campaign investigation at that time, those charges were ultimately, conclu- slvely, and finally refuted by General L. V Clark who. as commanding officer of the Third regiment. gave these charges his careful consideration and repudiation. care now only to add that these charges as to unlawful and illegal inducements and enlistments of young men into com panies for the purpose of irregularly vot- Ing them or otherwise, or any insinuation as to improper conduct during that cam paign as to myself, MT. Luclen Brown. pr any one else directly connected with me, are willfully and maliciously false. and without any foundation or proof whatever. On the contrary, effort was made to steal the election from me, and one of the boxes of voting precinct. containing enough votes to change the result of the election, was actually stolen, and never recovered, and one of the parties to that crime was indicted md ropvictad ir, tho criminal cOurt of