The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-08-11


tative from this county. labor leader,
spoke for the commission form Of gov
ernment laying particular stress on
the fact that within radius
of six miles OF the court house in Bir-
mingham. there were dozen munici-
palities and Boards Of Aldermen and
for this reason there was no municipal
water, which was very costly. He said
that there must be something In the
position of Aldermen that so many men
wanted the Job and got no salary. He
criticized the pavement contracts In
some of the little cities and said what
was true of one place was practically
true in all.
Rev. A. T. Dickinson. pastor of the
First Baptist Church of this city, spoke
for the commission form of govern
ment. He said that the Baptist
Church hired its ministers on the COM
mission form. Ii a majority of the
members at a meeting passed a reso-
luton that the minister was dis
charged. then he was discharged, an4
he believed that that would be a good
way to conduct city. He said that
there was no loss of Democracy in
the commission form of government,
and that William Jennings Bryan would
admit that the leasing of the munich
pal authority to commission after the
people had voted on the leasing, would
not be considered undemocratic.
1t renamed for Alderman George
Estes of the Ninth Ward to make the
sizzling speech of the EVENING" He
scored the Board of Aldermen of Biz
min Cham, and said that the Council
had assaulted the Third Ward. he
said that the men who are leading the
fight against the commission form of
government were all directly or in
directly interested in the present City
Council or the present form OF gov
eminent in this city. He said that
Lieutenant Governor Henry b. Gray
has for years carried at his bank the
bulk of the city's deposits and that
bank did a lending business with city
employees, receiving an enormous In
terest He read some figures taken
after a call was made by the state to
show conditions of banks. in which,
he stated, that 40 per cent of the de-
posts In the bank belonged to the
city, on two occasions at least.
Mr.. Estes stated that w. p. G.
Harding was opposed to change, be-
ing Interested also, inasmuch as his
bank carried some of the funds raised
on bond issue. He said that Mr..
Gomlinson was AGAINST the bill be-
cause he was the, attorney for the
Board Of Trade, the President of which
and other leading members were men,
bers of the City Council. he mention
ed the names Of Burnett, Gambill and
several others. He said considerable
about the Council of Birmingham and
said that. one member had quit good
job paying 500 a month to be an
Alderman without compensation.
DR., o. T. DoZier was the last
speaker. Before beginning on his
speech, Mr.. Tomlinsop offered to take
a vote, appointing two tellers and al
lowing every man to vote. Nothing
was said about the proposition.
DR., Dozier at the conclusion OF his
talk. read some resolutions, and the
chairman put them to vote, the crowd
Overwhelmingly voting for them. In
the meantime, Mr.. Tomlinson arose
and offered some resolutions, but no
attention was paid to him. He stood
up to the front when c. w. AUSTIN
called him to order. From the audi
ence II had the appearance of a little
set-to. but nothing came of 1t, though
Mr.. Tomlinson was extremely warm
when he got to the outside.
A delegation consisting OF number
of men was named to go to MontSom-
cry in the morning and afternoon to
work for the commission form of gov
eminent. Those named are: T. d.
Howard, Nat Malone. DR.. Mack ROC
ers, b. H. Cooper, C. w. Austin, j.
H. Leath, D. H. Marbury. T. G. Bush.
Merrill Northington,S T. o. Smith, j.
H. Frye, E. F. Enslen, Atticus Mulltn.
John Bethea, DR.. Dozier, C. p. Bed
dow, G. H. Estes. Walker Percy, II. b.
Alternately, e. N. Cullom, ]. T..
BeasIy j. W. Sibley.
Chief of Police Bodeker, together
with Captain Johnson, were at the
meeting with a large numb er of regu-
lar uniformed and plain clothed men.
there being an expectancy that some
trouble would follow.
1t was nearly IL o'clock when the