The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-21


self composed of the chief mine In
spector and two other experts. to the
effect that the state would receive more
money from that contract than 1t had
been receiving from the Tennessee Coal,
Iron and Railroad company. For fear
that they might be mistaken IN their es-
Inmates I required guarantee from the
Pratt ConsolidatA Coal company that
the state should under all circumstances
receive as much under that contract as
from the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Rail-
road contract which had just ended.
''I desire to say that for You person
allv I entertain the very highest regard
and am proud to list you as one of my
friends Hence you can feel absolutely
assured that no unfavorable influences
have affected me- but that / am con-
vinced that the proposition / have Of
fered is absolutely fair and should be
accepted without further question.
Had Personal Interview
Finally, in March had personal IN
terview in Birmingham again with Mr..
Maben. and after a days conference,
reached a settlement by which | agreed
to accept a rate of 45 cents fiat and elm
mate the provision in reference to the
Pratt scale. | was convinced thai Mr..
Maben would make no better contract,
and 1t was only through the agency of
disinterested friends that he was finally
induced to consent to these terms. was
Furthermore confronted with the situa-
ton that il this contract was not re-
newed it was extremely doubtful whether
could hire the convicts to any other
Company in the Birmingham district, the
only other company competing with the
Sloss-Sheffield company, the Tennessee
company, having publicly announced that
they would no longer employ convict
labor On April 4 Mr.. Maben sent copy
OF the contract to Mr.. Oakley, but the
contract had some changes to which /
objected and refused to approve it, but
prepared another contract in accordance
with the agreement which we had made.
On April 16 Mr.. Maben wrote me the
following letter:
IT have a communication from my Of
fec enclosing a letter from Mr.. Oakley.
handing copy of convict contract. which
he states is drawn in accordance with
the terms that the governor says he
and your company agreed upon,' which
can hardly think is SO. You Will re-
call that the only change in the contract
originally executed was TO be as to the
price paid for the coal, and when you
passed through Biripingham on your re
turn from Florence / stated to you that
the contract had been prepared exactly
like the one then in force except as to
a change in the dates mot of maturity,
however, and the price to be paid for
the coal, and forwarded it to Mr.. Oak
ley, and you remarked that that would
be all right.
'sMr Oakley has inserted in this con-
tract in the sixteenth clause a copy of
clause which was once inserted by
Judge Carmichael when he was president
| OF the convict board, which gave rise
| to a great deal of discussion and misun-
derstanding, and it was finally settled
| that we were not to be responsible for
the breakage of machinery, the want OF
tram cars or anything of this kind grow
ing out of negligence on our part. We
have never yet suffered at Flat Top for
the want of railroad cars, for the rail-
lroads knowing that the state is interested
in the delivery of the coal has always
given them full supply of cars. You
can readily understand that ! would not
agree to bind ourselves and become re-
sponsible for a matter of this kind, which
is entirely beyond our control, and should
the railroad learn that the state was los
ing nothing but the loss falling on the
Slcss company they would be less in
elined to exert themselves to meet our
wants.
1--WE have had great deal of trouble
over this contract, and i trust you Will
direct Mr. Oakley to execute the con-
tract which I sent him just before leav-
ing Birmingham, which was drawn in
strict accordance with our agreement,
end which, it seems to me, goes as far
on the transportation line as you could
expect anyone TO CO. and forward one
copy to my office in Birmingham.
"As I have stated before, the clause
which Mr.. oakley has seen fit to inject
into this contract. was never construed
to refer to railroad cars. If you will
write me that this is your understanding
OF the matter the contract can stand as it
is, but / am certainly unwilling to be
made responsible for the furnishing of
railroad cars, which is beyond my con-
troll"
And to this letter I replied on April
q as follows:
Il am in receipt of your letter Of the
10th inst. ] regret that there was any
misunderstanding in reference to the con-
tract You will recall that / submitted
to you the contract after we had con-
ferred fully as to all of its provisions
and the only ground of contention was
in reference to the price of labor Just
as you were leaving / understood you
to say that you had had the old con-
tract copied and inserted the modification
as to the price of labor upon which we
had agreed. l assumed, of course, that
you had reference to the contract in force
for the past four years and not to the
one which went into operation the first
of the year. The sixteenth clause has
the same provision which is found in
the old contract. under which you have
been operating for the past four years,
which was fully discussed in our con-
ferences and to which you and your at
torney assented. As you state, you never
lad any trouble In reference to this pro-
vision heretofore. | do not see now why
you should anticipate that you would
have any more trouble in the future
tian you have had in the past Under
the contract the state only sells you the
labor at an agreed price per ton, and l
cannot see why the state would be made
responsible for your failure to produce
the necessary cars. 1t occurs to me that
this is a matter over which the state
has absolutely nothing whatever to do.
clearly understood that this matter had
been fully settled and agreed upon in
all of our conferences, and so did the
attorney general. am sure if you Will
confer with Mr.. Tillman you will find
that / am correct"
The contract as prepared by me was
finally signed and bears date March S0
1912.
List of Contracts
At the time Mr.. Oakley gave notice
to the lumber and turpentine companies
that their contract would be Cancelled In
November the state had the following
contracts:
Horseshoe Lumber company, located at
River Falls. Ala. contract which ex-
tends from August Q. 1909 to January 81.
1913, paying the state $1s5, 81 and 20
cents per day for convicts, according to