The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-16
Bessemer Partisans Have
 Not Abandoned Scheme REPRESENTATIVES TALK
Number of Members Openly Express Their DisapprOva1 of Breaking Up the Imperial County of
 the South
BY HUGH W. ROBERTS

Montgomery. January 15-(Special) The nightmare of Pettus county is as troublesome as was the ghost of Banquo.
 It develops that the Bessemer part!- sans have not abandoned their schemes and their plans as was reported when their first letters to the members of the legislature netted them little ma terial return.
 Representative A. A. Griffith of Cullman says that several days before the opening of the legislature he re- ceived from Bessemer citizens, along necessity of curbing the legislative power of Jefferson county" map of the dream county of Pettus. MT. Griffith, however, without hesitation, stated his opposition to the scheme of the Bessemerites.
 q can see no necessity of cutting Jefferson county in two,' said he. T take pride in the fact that Jefferson Is the imperial county of the south. and that in material wealth, no other coun- ty below the Mason-Dixon line can
  son pays third of the total amount of taxes gathered by the state in a year, I cannot see wherein the justice would be in restraining the so-called legislative power of the county"
 Senator Moufthrop Talks
 Senator Robert Moulthrop of Barbour county Is another who will not listen 10 y,Ji people. T believed that the people should rally to Birmingham and make 1t ( inal cosmopolitan ely And now believe that the people should rally to Jefferson and prevent the ambitious from clipping It's wings. I am for Jeff ferson county as 1t stands today. As it is the greatest county in the state and the most populous, it hould have the strongest delegation as far as numeri- cal strength is concerned"
 1t Is not believed that there will ever be Pettus county in Alabama. However, from the indications, the Bessemer partisans are still in arms. and are fighting vigorously in the dark. As far as known the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce has raised no hand to prevent the possible flooding of the tide. The mole hill of today may grow into a mountain tomorrow.
 As has been pointed out in this cor respondence. no member of the Jeffer- son delegation will sit on the com mittee of counties and county boun- dartes.
 Some Other Schemes In connection with the idea of divid- ing Jefferson county, there are several other schemes under way as result of which strong efforts will be mads to cut from and add to other counties of the state. When the congressional districts are changed, there will be other ina ginary boundary lines. true enough. but other real and tangible boundaries will come into existence, if all the schemes are successful The first scheme of course is the di- vision of Jefferson county. and the formation of Pettus county. To com plete this idea a little strip will be stolen from Tuscaloosa and a little strip from Walker.
 And then there is a scheme to make new county to be known as the noun tain county of the state. To form this the plan is to rob from DeKalb, Jackson, Etowah and Marshall. The third scheme is to cut from the northern end of St. Clair and paste on to the southern extremity of Blount
 The fourth plan is the annexation of little strip of the county of Chiffon and adding that strip to Bibb Should this be accomplished, two towns of Chiffon. democratic strongh olds, will Eo to Bibb. Chiffon county. nominally is republican, and this will make the republicans even more strong than they are today.
 It is not believed that either of the | --y- -~xt1I l. k..T -~k each, except the Pettus scheme. there is strong opposition.