The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-06
Miner, Ellis and Fern Vice
Presidents; ShacklefOrd
Treasurer, and N. f.
Thompson Secretary
ADOPT REPORT OF
SPECIAL COMMITTEE
AFTER AMENDMENT
Gross Says He Believes South Is Land
of Opportunity, But People
Should Do More and Talk
Less-Dr. Thach
Speaks

congress yesterday were consumed
with the election of officers, the dis
posal of the report OF the special COM
mittee headed by A. H. Ford, and the
hearing of several speakers ON sub
| jects of interest to the delegates.
! Joseph 0. Thompson of Birmingham
was chosen president of the association
succeeding N. Il. Thompson. who bc-
comes secretary and general manager.
The report of the special committee
was adopted after prolonged discus
sion. 1t was amended In several places.
| Continuing the discussion of the re-
| port of the special committee at its
morning session the land congress dele
gates had quite g lively period which
lasted more than an hour and placed
the programme far behind time The
report was taken up by section and
each section voted upon after the dis
cussion concerning it had been heard
The third section, providing that the
! congress establish q publicity bureau,
proved the bone of contention. 1t was
attacked by State Senator v. E. At
lSins of Selma and L. c. Irvine of Mo-
bile proved strong supporter of the
senator.
N. r. Thompson. in the chairmans
seat placed the report before the con-
gress and explained to them that 1t had
been deferred from Tuesday evening.
! Mr.. Thompson said in part: "The plan
of the special committee was submitted
at yesterday afternoons session and n
motion was made to adopt and an
other made to postpone it until this
morning. A gentleman Immediately to
my right moved that that latter motion
be tabled and in the hurry of the mo-
ment and the latenesr of the hour, per-
haps, did not state exactly what that
| tabling motion meant. There is no dis
position to railroad anything through
but in view of the fact that we have a
very busy day before us, with full
programme. suggest that the report
be disposed of as soon as possible"
Ford Is Recognized
w. C. Radcliffe, secretary of the Bir-
mingham Chamber of Commerce. then
read the report and A. H. Ford was
recognized by the chair
! ana gentlemen, be-
/ gan Mr.. Ford, the committee did not
expect to have to defend its report
| The committee met on Monday. They
met with the railroad men in the MORN
| ing. These railroad men represented all
the railroads. as the statement has been
made. operating in Alabama We had IA
meeting which lasted for perhaps a
couple of hours and had n free ex-
change of opinions between the rail-
road men and the members of the COM
mfttee as to how this work should be
done, and everything connected
with il.
I'VE have done nothing in Alabama
along the lines of work that is being
taken up by this committee and now
| that this great movement is under way
something must be done to accomplish
anything In that direction. The rail-
roads have been working along these
lines for years and they have ,peen
doing something that has made for the
agricultural progress of our state. The
report submitted by the committee is
only general recommendation of men
who are Interested in this question as
you are interested. The main points
We recommend to you Is that this con-
gress aid in all legitimate and prac-
tical methods in the development Of
the principal resources of the state.
Nobody can object to that. We will
undertake to raise a sufficient sum of
money to carry out. the plans submit
ted. 1t can't be done without money
and the committee estimates that it
Will take between $4,000 and $4,000
"a year to carry on this work. You
must call ON your city, on the coun-
ties and on the state. When these
sources fail you you must call on the
corporations. Many of these corpora
tions are represented ON this commit
tee and they will contribute literally
to the work, provided you place it on
a broad basis. 1t will cooperate with
the emigration departments of the
state and railroads operating in Ala
bama. 1t Will aid in the establish
ment of system of rural credits to
aid the farmers in marketing their
crops
Gentlemen, / submit this report to
you. The committee feels that 1t has
done it's duty in this regard and is very
sorry that 1T has been misunderstood"
Mr.. Ford was heartily applauded as he
took his seat.
N. +. Thompson. acting chairman, then
asked j. o. Thompson to take the chair
and that gentleman did so. He presented
the report to the delegates and asked
them their pleasure.
Senator Atkins of Selma arose and said
that he understood that the report was
to be taken up In sections and each sec
tion he acted upon separately. This
seemed to be the general understanding
and 1t was accordingly done. The chair
man read the first section, which pro-
vides that the congress will aid in all
legitimate and practical methods for the
development of the agricultural resources
of Alabama. The first section was passed
with but little discussion and the chair
| man read the second, providing that the
congress would undertaken to raise a
sufficient sum of money to carry out the
plans embodied in the report.
Atkins Takes Floor
| Senator Atkins was again recognized by
the chair and said: THAT is one pro-
vision of the report that is not in con-
crete form. The chairman of your COM
mittee says we will raise the money
from the cities, counties state and the
corporations You all know the difficult
| ties that will be encountered in trying
| to get money from these sources The
| state of Alabama is not in a position to
appropriate money for this purpose. 1t is
m condition closely bordering on bank
ruptcy. If we are going to show the
proper spirit and interest in this move
| the people of the state will give the
! money needed. One dollar from every
interested man will be sufficient to keep
| the work going" He was generously ap-
! plauded.
Frank p Glass was recognized by the
chair and said he appreciated that trou-
| bles that the gentleman from Selma had
placed before the house and proposed an
executive committee, whose duty 1t would
be to devise ways and means for securing
! this money that would be needed to carry
on the work as outlined by the report OF