The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-04
Citizens Grow Personal in Their Rebuke of the Gov
 ernor's Attitude
CHARGE UNTRUTHS
 IN HIS ASSERTIONS
Members of Committee Ask to Be Compared to Governor as to Sobriety and Debt
 Paying

In reply to the statement of Gov. Elm met O'Neal defending the recent tax raise of s41. .000.ooo made by the state tax board. the Chamber of Commerce con- mittee gave out a statement yesterday. The committee appointed at a mass meet ing is composed of J. D. Moore of Moore & Handley. Frank Nelson, Jr., Robert Jemison, Sr., Eugene L. Brown and Dr. J. S. Gillespy.
 The statement takes direct issue with Governor O'Neal and is vigorous in its treatment of the subject The defense of Governor O'Neal is taken up section by section and various variations are shown in the recital of facts and quotations of the law.
 The statement which Is said to be the first Dig gun in the tax fight follows: Tn The Age-Herald of June there was an interview published from the governor of the state of Alabama in reference to the tax raises in Jefferson county, many statements of which are untrue, and are insults to some of the best citizens of this county.
 There is no effort on the part of any committee or of any collective body of persons or of any individual to nullify any of the tax laws of the state, or pro- tect any favored interests in the county of Jefferson.
 When the state tax commission raised the assessment of certain of the property in Jefferson county s4OOoo.ooo. there was mass meeting composed of many of the best citizens of Jefferson county, which adopted resolutions protesting against this raise, and a committee was appointed by this mass meeting for the purpose of pre- tecting the citizens of Jefferson county from what it was conceived would be unjust taxation by an unjust raise in the assessments of the property of this county This mass meeting was called by the Chamber of Commerce and was com posed of some of the best men in the county of Jefferson; men who stand high morally, and who have always performed their duties as citizens of the state of Alabama and of Jefferson county. And it is a islander by the governor to accuse such men of being tax dodgers and of at- tempting to nulify the tax laws of the state.
 All Classes of Men
 This mass meeting was not composed entirely of men representing big business, as alleged by the governor; nor was any corporation, such. represented in the meeting. But the meeting was composed of all classes of men as individuals and rot as representing corporate interest. The governor in his article mentioned two men who were In the meeting before the board of revenue who, he supposes, repre- scented corporate interests. One of them he speaks of as the president of the Southern Iron and Steel company. MT. Bowron is the president of the Southern Iron and Steel company. and he was pres ent, not for the Southern Iron and Steel company, but on account of the raise of the assessment on his own dwelling in the city of Birmingham, and his talk before the board of revenue was in reference to the increased assessments on his indi- vidual property, and he made no com ment whatever upon any raise of assess ments against the property of the South ern Iron and Steel company.
 MT. Frank Nelson, Jr, is the president of the Empire Coal company, and in his
 
 there representing the Empire Coal com pany, but was there in respect to his own individual property.
 Not Acting for Corporations
 ''As matter of fact, not a single in- dustrial corporation in the county of Jeff ferson has consented for the committee appointed at the mass meeting to act for if in acfc tA,o in the county
 The governor must have known that his statement to the effect that the move ment in this county was in the interest of pig business is not true for the reason that he Is bound to know that 1t is cur rebtly reported that outside of the raise of $40, 000,O00 by the state tax commission, the county tax commissioner, MT. J. " Allen, proposes to raise the assessments in the neghborhood of 100000 more these raises to be put upon the property of some 2500 to 40O0 citizens in the coun- ty. There are already IT tax raises by the state tax commission, but if MT Allen carries out the intention which has been expressed by him to raise the assess ments on 25o0 to 4000 citizens of the coun- ty, 1t will be readily seen that these as- easements certainly will not apply to the wealthy classes alone, but the assessment Is likely to be raised on all classes Of citi- gents who have any property whatever.
 In Interest of Tax Payers
 "The committee of 15O citizens which appeared before the board of revenue did not appear there on account of the raise of the assessment of their taxes by the tax com nlissioners. Most of the assessments of these men had been raised by the state board of assessment but this committee realized the fact that if MT. Allen was allowed to put on another raise of s25.000. .000 upon other citizens those other citizens fear that they were not able to hire coun- sel to resist these raises and would probably not have the necessary time within which to prepare to defend their assessments where many of them were interested and 1t was In the i'm terest of the general taxpayers of the county that this committee went be- fore the board of revenue It could have no especial effect upon their own assessments because as heretofore stated those assessments had already. been made. Yf
 This committee realizes the fact that it is claimed that in Jefferson county we already have one officer earning one-half as much salary as the President of the United States and if the governor io to have This way in reference to raises of assessments in this county it would appear that We will soon have another officer in the county earning nearly as much, all