The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-10
TEMPEST STARTED
 BY COUNCILS ACT Has Never Voted on Commis-
 sion Question HOW IT ALL BEGAN Alderman J. F. Williams Has a Few Words in Reply to the Recent Hud-
 dIeston Statemcnt-Ncws
 
BY BURR BLACKBURN

BY BURR BLACKBURN One thing begets another, and by the third or fourth generation fact is un- recognizable. Last Wednesday night when the City Council was about to ad- journ. Alderman George Huddleston sud denly read resolution calling upon the legislature to give Birmingham con- mission form of government.
 The City Council. by vote of 20 to :, referred 1t to the judiciary committee. Then the fun began and Sunday the Mobile Register published a furious at- tack on the City Council because it had dared to adopt resolution condemning the commission form of government" Those who are personally acquainted with these much abused aldermen know that at least ten of those twenty alder men who voted to send the resolution to committee have no objection to a com mission government, and a majority of the aldermen want to see the commission. In the first place, the council adopted no resolution. It simply followed the usual procedure and referred the Huddle- ston resolution to a committee.
 But, if councilman is given credit for at least thinking himself straightforward and honest should he be repeatedly called upon to indic4 himself?. Thes aldermen represent the government, which for 12 months has struggled with the perplexing problems of amalgamating a dozen mu- nicipalities They have given hours and | weeks and months of their time, and no doubt more than half of them think they have done their best. Should they be ex- pected to beg the legislature to abolish them?
 To the average person their determina- tion to remain neutral and quiet on the course Like the chairman from whose decision an appeal has been taken, they will let the people settle it.
 But as a result of the referring of that resolution, this council has been con- demned editorially, and when Alderman John F. Williams sought to explain the councils action, Alderman George Hud- dleston came back with a stinging reply. When seen yesterday, Alerman Williams had this to say:
 'I do not care to be drawn into an end less newspaper controversy with the ju- nior alderman from the Third ward. Like all other four fiushers,' that occasionally work their way into the council through the brass band route, MT. Huddleston has discovered that honesty was discovered before he discovered it; that the council is rather conservative body, and now MT. Huddleston is tired of his associates.
 MT. Huddleston takes himself too ser- ously and the council too fiippantly. He could be of some service to his constitu- ents if his unusual energies and alertness were properly harnessed and guided, but unfortunately MT. Huddleston prefers to be a Don Quixote.
 E I renew my suggestion that peonage does not exist in the City Council of Bir- mingham. No member thereof whether he be 'four-fusher or stand-patter need watch and pray for that welcome hour when the commission will separate him from his associates. I say this fully cog nizant of the fact that out of a total vote of approximately 600 MT. Huddleston carried the day with a majority of 1T. And his opponent still liveth
 Further than these few remarks I pre- fer to stand pat"
 The Mobile Register, thinking that the Birmingham council had actually adopted a resolution condemning the commission, used an argument which will apply to the adoption of resolution favoring the commission just as pointedly:
 'Yet the councils action has a serious aspect. What right, we ask, has city council to pass resolution of this sort Is 1t not usurpation of authority? In what part of the municipal code Is there provision for the council expressing by formal resolution it's views on charter or governmental form for the city? The members were elected to execute char ter, but not to make one. If the people had desired charter of the council they probably would have selected altogether another set of men to make it. We know it Is pretended that because the council men come from the people they are quail flied to speak for the people in all that concerns them. This idea prevails here to some extent; but 1t is a great error. The councils duties are fixed and prescribed, and the doing of anything further than what is thus fixed and prescribed or is necessary to the proper performance of what is fixed and prescribed. is presump- tro9ia and js offensive to 1ood order''