The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-29
Does Not Seek Controversy, But Wants the Facts Set
 Out Squarely
PREFERS SALARY TO
 PRESENT FEE SYSTEM
Has Paid Out More Money Trying to Enforce New Revenue Laws Than He Has Made From
 Such Cases

Sheriff Walter K. MoAdory yesterday, upon request of an Age-Herald repre- sentative. made a statement in reply to the charges of Walker Peroy which were published Sunday morning. MT. Percy. as chairman of the anti-fee amendment campaign, had scored the sheriff, alleging that he was employing men to swear out warrants against their neighbors for trivial offenses. MT. McAdory said:
 Tn the first place. desire to say that would prefer today a salary com mensurate with the duties and responsi- bilities of the office to which I was elected than the present system of fees.
 ,rhe sheriff of Jefferson county has always been the subject of attack. My experience is that he gets it both ways. He is roasted for a failure to enforce the law and then in almost the same breath gets roasted for trying to en- force if.
 That it Is necessary to employ out side help to catch violators of the rev enue law, and laws of like character. think no one will deny. who Is at all familiar with the situation in this coun- ty. The police department has resorted to this means to secure evidence, the state board of pharmacy has at present in its employ man to run down dope" sellers. and 1t Is not unusual to resort to this method of detecting those who violate these particular laws.
 Men Must Be Paid
 These men have to be paid for their services. and in this connection I de- sire to say that have often times paid out as much as s10 in the effort to secure evidence to convict a single violator of the revenue law. have been urged by the Liquor Dealers as- sociation and by reputable citizens in all parts of the county to stop the illegal sale of liquor. In every section of the city and county reports come to me that blind tigers are being run openly. l took the only possible means to secure their arrest, that of employ ing men unknown to these notorious violators fthe law. I want to say right here that l have paid out more money trying to convict these violators than I have ever made out of such cases
 Tn regard to the arrest of vioators of the Sunday law I have never made an arrest that was not on the complaint of some reputable citizen and very few ar rests have ever been made on this charge. Only few weeks ago a delega- ton of the best citizens of one of the flourishing suburbs of Birmingham called on me personally and reported the open violation of the Sunday law in their par tioular locality, but refused to swear out warrant for the arrest of the alleged offenders l put regular deputy sheriffs to work on these particular cases with the result that several arrests were made, but the persons who made the complaint refused to testify when the accused were brought to trial, and as our judges see fit to discredit the testimony of those who secured the evidence the defendants were discharged.
 Prisoners Now in Jail "As to filling the county jail with pris- oners | desire to call attention to the following figures At present there are confined in the county jail 226 prisoners. Of this number S5 are charged with capi- tai offenses, sl with felonies, such as | burglary, grand larceny, embezzement and so forth. five are from St. Clair county, one from Walker county and one ! from Calhoun. Thirty-fiye prisoners are charged with misdemeanors and of tfiis number not more than 15 are in jail on warrants sworn out by the sheriff's force. Do these figures indicate any desire 10 | fill the Jail with persons charged with minor offenses or any offenses for that matter? Major J. T. German, state ex- aminer of public accounts, is now check ing Up the board bill of the Jefferson county jail. He has just completed the examina ton of the board bill of the coun- | ty of Mobile. He Is authority for the statement that within the past 12 months only 800 more prisoners have been re- ceived in the jail of this county with it's 25O0oO inhabitants. than have been re- ceived in the county jail of Mobile with it's Sl,o0o population.
 | q am reluctant to enter into a cOntro- versy with MT. Percy at this time as the proposed amendment is before the | people of the state. l am not responsi- ble for the fee system nor had l any thing to do with fixing the fees. l have never used my office to oppress any one | but l have tried to stop the fragrant i violation of the law with the only means at hand. I shall continue to do my duty | and try to enforce all the laws. No man