The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-06-25
Representatives of Mer-
chants and Board of
Trade In Conference
GENERAL MEETING
TO BE HELD TODAY
Practically Every Merchant In Bir-
mingham District Aroused-Thach
Issues Statement Explaining
What Allen Is

About 25 men. representing some-
thing like 500 merchants In the Bir-
mingham district. met upon the invi-
tation of the Board of Trade yesterday
afternoon at $3.50 o'clock and decided
to make an organized fight against
making assessment of solvent credits,
which was demanded of them by Back
Tax Commissioner j. V. Allen. II was
last ditch" and the merchants will, If
necessary, secure a fund for paying
attorney fees and make test cases
wherever possible.
President Ewing of the Board of
Trade has called special meeting of
that body for this afternoon at $3.50
o'clock, at which meeting will be rep
resentatives from the Merchants Pro-
tective association, the Birmingham
Retail Furniture Dealers association
the Business Mems league and others
interested.
The meeting yesterday afternoon was
of the executive council of the Board of
Trade and Others interested" 9th
ers Interested" ii became evident, rep
resented practically every merchant in
the Birmingham district There were
representatives of merchants in Besse-
mer Ensey, Wylam, Pratt city, Fair
field, Avondale, Woodlawn and East
Lake present at the meeting yesterday
and all were In favor of lighting the
assessments to the end.
1t was stated by one of those pres
ent at the meeting that those in at
tendance represented more than $780,
600 in taxes, such as the back tax COM
credits
The committee from the Retail Fur
niture Dealers association was com
posed of II. N. Wheeler. chairman, Ed
Brown and 3. +. Morgan. The Mer-
chants Protective association, which
held a meeting along the same lines
yesterday afternoon, sent the following
committee in to the Board of Trade
meeting: Adam Pow, Ensley; I. w
Benton, Bessemer and w. s. Mallory,
Woodlawn. President X. A. Brown of
the Business Mems league was present
and said that while the work of his
ties of this nature, he was heartily in
sympathy with it and that If the Bush
ness Mems league did not cooperate
as body they would individually.
President Ewing of the board pre-
sided at the meeting and introduced
the subject. Attorney II, " Evans for
the board gave an informal opinion
that the law being invoked by Mr.. Al
lien Is unconstitutional upon the
grounds of double taxation. 1t was
stated in the melting that leading at
torneys of Birmingham, who have been
Investigating, have expressed the opin-
lion that the law is unconstitutional.
Mr.. Evans was instructed by the ex-
ecutive council of the board to make
further Investigation and report at to-
days meeting.
Assurances were given the board by
the visiting delegations that their re-
spective associations stood ready 10
pay their pro rata share of any eX-
pense incurred in paying attorneys to
fight the matter in the courts. and sew
eraI suggested that test cases be made.
one suggestion was made that a firm
doing rather small credit business.
make II test case. 1T being thought a
firm OF this kind could conduct test
case better than a house carrying very
large credit accounts.
Won Fight Years Ago
Ed Brown OF the furniture dealers COM
mittee made the statement that the fur
niture men here had fought out the mat
ter of taxing solvent credits some eight
or 10 years ago. and had won the fight.
Adam Pow, representing the Merchants
Protective association. said that members
of his organization believed the law i'm
constitutional because 1t was double tax
alton and that they proposed to fight 1t
vigorously.
1t was stated in the meeting that some
individuals already had made their as
sessment, which was demanded by Com
missioner Allen day before yesterday In
a letter to the merchants. President Ew-
ing requests that all who had thought OF
| making their assessments to hold up
the matter for a few days in order to
give the Board of Trade attorney time
| to investigate the matter thoroughly.
1t was pointed out that unless the law
| Is proved unconstitutional many small
firms doing credit business here would
be forced to the wall. Many large con-
Germs would be heavy losers. especially
| fertilizer companies. which do very
large credit business. carrying accounts
| for several months. Furniture men would
| be heavy sufferers, too. The rate on solv-
emit credits IL $2.S6. Solvent credits mean
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