The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-10
WEATHERLY CONTENDS
 HIS ADVICE IS NOT ONLY HONEST, BUT IS RIGHT

 cheaper rates and the Birmingham Wa terworks company can charge cheaper rates and make money if it desired to be just and be fair and be honest with it's consumers.
 But no. The waterworks company is now proceeding to take its pound of flesh. It proposes to charge the maximum rate under the 1888 contract not because that rate is fair or unfair. just or unjust. but because they say 1t is authorized by the letter of the law. The water com pany is undertaking to punish the peo- pie for their rash act in holding the referendum election.
 The people turned down the 97-6 water contract in the referendum cleo ton with the fixed idea of struggling with the old 1888 water rates rather than condoning the sins of omission and com mission of tfe waterworks company They refused to accept the lower rates because going with them was an absolu- ton of the sins of the watcrworlss com pany. Now the water company proposes to show the people that they had better be careful in dealing with it and a neat little punishment in the way of increased rates is to be meted out to show that the water company Is supreme and must be let alone It's the pound of flesh argument of Old Shylock to show the fSSHtN eittet tAtS Ntit NipiiS Hi lht ACA7 eIendum.
 By that verdict in the referendum cleo tien, the people notified the city com mission in no uncertain terms that they wanted back the franchise they had given to the waterworks company. They sacrificed lower water rates because they wanted that franchise restored to them. For myself. l cannot ignore that verdict. In response to that command, the suits against the water company have been filed and we intend to get that franchise and give it back to the people. That's what I'm fighting for, and I don't pro- pose to stop short of it.
 Water From Five Mile Creek
 Without wishing in any way to appear caustic in reference to Judge Crows de- cision, I wish to state that I defy any r1an to read through his decree from end to end and find any place in it where the court holds that the water company fur nished pure water from Five Mile creek before the suit was filed against it by the city. Judge Crow evades the ques- tion. He ,sidesteps the main issues and hands down a decree that substantially condones the proven defaults of the com pany by reason of remedies adopted through the pressure of this controversy. He holds that by the use of hypo- chlorides the water from Five Mile creek was purified and furnished to the people Wholesome after the suit against it was filed. By that ruling he indirectly ad- mits that the water was impure and un- Wholesome before the suit was filed. I am advised by the city attorney that the evidence in the waterworks trial before Judge Crow proved that for years ana years prior to the filing of the suit the co mpany was furnishing unwholesome water through an open ditch into which flowed all sorts of contamination, in- cluding typhoid germs. and it is decided that this sin of many years was con dcned by the covering of the ditch sub stantially after this suit was begun.
 Advice Is Fair and Right
 The water company contends that under the letter of the law it has the right to charge the maximum rates under the 1888 contract. But the supreme court of this state has held that the consumer has the right to inquire into the reason- ableness of water rates where maximum rates are fixed by contract My advice to the water consumers to refuse to pay the high. rates and sue the company for damages when the water was cut off is not only fair and honest and decent, but it is right. It would not be the first time in history that the people had arisen against despotism imposed by the let ter of the law l do not advise the con sImers to bring individual suits. They should take collective action if the in- creased rates ai 0 enforced. This would save expense and one or two attorneys could fight all of the cases. And the only way to make it effective is for them to act in body.
 Holds Back License Tax
 But now, if the individual consumer has the right to inquire into the justice n hn inl. t,a i grounds to refuse to pay the bills rem dered. The city has a suit pending against the water company for $54, GOO license tax, which the water company claims it does not have to pay under the exemption in the famous revenue bill sec- tion known as 36-F', a law drafted in the interest of a few corporations, which I am convinced is class legislation and which l believe is clearly unconstitutional Un- der the exemption of this same section. the Birmingham Railway, Light and Power company, in recognition of the Jrstice of public opinion, paid it's license. But the waterworks company ignores public opinion. Again it stands by ths letter of the law claims it's Shylockian pound of flesh and refuses to pay. Fur ther, l am reliably informed, that the head of the firm of Percy Benners X, Burr, who is now counsel for the water works company, was one of the five con 1erees of the house of representatives in the state legislature that reported favor ably on the notorious 36-F, under which the insolvent city of Birmingham, which he should have represented was clipped of al large part of it's revenue.
 Now why should the city pay the arbitrary rate of the waterworks com pany when the water company refuses to pay the just demands of the city?
 Effort to Control Necessities
 All these matters. however, are merely parts of great effort by the people to control the necessities of life The mere fact that the lower courts have so far decided against the people means nothing. The lower courts have so decided many times before and their decision is no argument against the justice of the cause or the possibility of final success.
 The fundamental issue of the cause is the question of the city's right to bind itself and surrender it's legislative powers as it did in the 1888 contract, the right of the waterworks company to charge the maximum rates are unfair, and the question of whether or not the waterworks company atoned for its sin of furnishing unwholesome and impure water by making 1t wholesome and pure after the city's suit against it was filed.
 My attitude is based on those three main fundamental issues. It is not taken