The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-30
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able the governor of the state to better I carry out certain important laws 1 MT. Rice then discussed the features of the bill in full, explaining at length 1 the provisions relating to the county back 1 tax commission system.
 If you vote down this report, said MT. Rice. it will be nothing short of a state calamity. This bill will stand the | test of time'
 Mr. Pitts followed Mir Rice in the dis cussion of the conference report. He | said he did not charge any member of | the house committee with disloyalty. but | that he believed they had acted unwise- ly and had made a mistake. MT. Pitts | said the back tax commission system | had been in operation in the state for | years and that the law had proven a | good one.
 | The Dallas representative made an elo- ouent speech against the adoption of the report, and urged that the house non 1 concur in the amendments proposed by l the conference committee.
 MT. Merrill of Barbour followed MT. 1 Pitts, speaking for the adoption of the | conference report He said that he con sidered the abolition of back tax com- l mission system an imperative need of tue state, and one which the house should effect.
 1 MT. Huddeston said the back tax cont
 mission system had been in vogue for
 IA years, and that it had always given | satisfaction. He declared that he saw l no reason why it should now be abolished 1 and urged the rejection of the report.
 Arnold Against Report | MT. Arnold, speaking against the re- 1 port. said that the back tax commission
 system had been tried too long to be | etl ha
 non-concur in the report, because it con l taned a provision to practically abolish | the county tax commissioners He said l that regardless of the fact that the pro- visions of the Pegram bill had been l slightly changed, 1t was, nevertheless, l the same question which the house had voted down last week. The Calhoun rep resentative went into Null discussion
 of this feature of the bill. Speaking of | the assistance whom the state board | can send out for the purpose of making l assessments, MT. Arnold said: He is 1 the whole cheese, using common par
 lance." MT. Arnold declared that lie | thought the conference committee had made a serious mistake, that instead l of giving the legislature a better sys- | tenn, they had given one not so good | as the old one.
 MT. Miner followed MT. Arnold and | spoke against the adoption of the re- l port. He confined his remarks chiefly | to the Pegram feature embraced In the
 bill. He declared that the Pegram bill
 was still incorporated in the revenue bill and that although in a different guise l if was the same. He said the name of I the feature was still "Pegram," but be-
 fore the house got through with it, it's | name would be Dennis
 | MT Greene of Dallas said it was time 1 for rhe house to pass the revenue bill
 and that 1t should be done immediate l ly. He said if the bill were not passed | an extra session of the legislature would l be imperative, and that he thought t l was the duty of the members to avoid an l extra session if it could possibly be done l The next speaker was MT. Pegram of | Marengo the author of the Pegram bill MT. Pegram said it was time to act, that the house should concur in the re- port, and that by not doing so an extra session would be necessary.
 MT. Jenkins, speaking against the bill, warmly criticised the action of Speaker Almon in appointing conference com mittee on which there was no represen- tation of the side opposed to the Pegram bill He made an earnest speech against the adoption of the conference report.
 Percy Next Speaker
 He was followed by MT. Percy, who opened his speech with referenc to MT. Jenkins remarks The Jefferson rep resentative then went into an analysis of the joint committees report.
 He then referred to the speeches of each of the speakers on the opposite eide showing from the state tax com misson's report just what assessments had been made in their respective coun- ties His refutalion of some of the ar- guments which the other side had used brought forth frequent applause, both from the members of the house and from the gallery
 Speaking of eX-Governor Conner, MT. Pe~ev said that Conner was a big man and that he was getting bigger every day. He declared that his shadow might be seen on the political horizon and that it was constantly growing larger
 He said his county paid one-fifth of the salaries to all the public school teaca- CTS of the state, one-ffth of the money | appropriated for the public schools of the state. He declared that this would not deter him from voting for all the school appropriation measures.
 Mr. Percy's speech was thoroughly | analytical He discussed the merits of the bill throughout and declared that it was a fair and an honest measure.
 In closing he said that the newspapers had referred to the Birmingham delega- | ton as having been "stung.' after their conference with the governor. He asked | that the house consider this statement. |
 Mir Thomas spoke against the report, | after which the question of concurring in the report was put to the house. The | house then non-concurred in the report | ference committee by a vote | of 57 to 43.
 then introduced a resolution | that another committee on conference he | appointed by the speaker and that the | house remain in session until the senate | be notified and a committee named The resolution was adopted and the house | then adjourned, the senate. which had |