The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-10

coal mines and their sanitary condition
 A new regulation by law gave the
 miners the privilege of appointing d l check weighman." charged with the
 duty of protecting their interest. l Indicative of awakening interest in man. ufactures, the legislature passed an aci | exempting newly founded cotton mills from state, county and municipal taxa tion for 10 years, where the investment was s50oo0 or more. Under the protec- ton of this act the sAvondale' mill was built
 It was upon Governor Johnstons recom-
 mendation that the parole of penitentiary
 eonvicts by the executive was made legal. Up to that time the executive pardon was
 the sole method of release before expira-
 tion of the sentence
 This governors recommendation for the creation of a corps of back tax commis- sioners was promptly enacted into law
 that took immediate effect. The scheme
 was put into practice by State Back Tax 1 Commissioner William j. Wood. lawyer of Florence. Eight months after his ap- pointment, that is on October l. 1897, Com- missioner Wood was able to report to the
 state auditor escapes and raises of $11.-
 020.5l4 45
 To anticipate the aggregate of the four years of this officers tenure of office in escapes and raises was 3S,933 654 33. The
 
 E. Jones, showed that up to September 30.
 l9o4, the new fiscal office had pain into
 the state treasury sSs1, ,259 .96.
 Increase of the corps of state examiners
 of public account had the indirect effect of greatly improved bookkeeping in the counties, besides the direct effect of large returns of mistakenly paid out public
 monies by county officers.
 On February Is, 1897, Governor John- ston approved the act abolishing the | name state troops" from the organized and uninformed militia and substituting the name national guard" The change, however, was not Alabama pref erence. Four years prior bill entitled, An act to improve the efficiency of the militia and for other purposes,
 passed Congress, and was approved by President Benjamin Harrison. The first
 section ordained that 'the organized militia shall be known as the national guard
 Interesting public discussion arose HThe
 army the land and naval forces of the United States" the militia" are known
 to the federal authority. But control of the militia is qualified by the constitu-
 tion. Did Congress have the power to die
 tate the name and style of a state insti- l tuition. only liable to federal use as a state institution for specific purpose and | fixed duration of time? Why should the militia of Alabama be known national guard?' Called into service by the gov ernor, liable only to such service as the commander-in-chief, the governor. might provide, was it the purpose of the act to reduce the commander-in-chef Of the militia, the governor, to the attitude of second in command? Might the Presi- dent in ordering out the national guard order the governor to take command as a subordinate to himself or to the Sec retary of War or to the general com manding the United States army? Was not the change of name from state troops to national guard" a pre- medtated indorsement of the republican party doctrine of consolidation of power in the Washington government? JOHN WITHERSPOON DUBOSE.