The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-23
AbOliti0nists Snatch Victory From Defeat in All Day Struggle Over Commit tees Report
LITTLE TROUBLE ANTICIPATED IN
 MAKING BILL LAW
Adherents of Measure Be
 lieve It Will Pass Both
 Houses and Go Over Gov ernOr HendersOn's Veto
nx HuGH w. ROBERTS

ny HUH w. RObEniS
 Montgomery. July :2.-tspecial)
 The house committee on prisons
 and criminal administration ---
 reached n determination tonight in
 executive session to report favor ably Saturday morning the bill of
 MT. Davis of Walker, providing
 for the abolition, January I, 1917.
 of the convict lease system as it
 obtains in Alabama. The vote in
 the committee was s to 6.
 And thus in the first skirmish. which, in view of the fact that it endured throughout the day, assumed the pro- portions of a general engagement, the abolitionists achieved a glorious vic tory, a victory, as a matter of fact, snatched from the very jaws of defeat. This morning the indications were that the committee by a vote of to { would adverse the bill. But one of the opponents of the measure during the day transferred his legislative affec- ton and another, Mr. Spier of Will cox. was unavoidably absent.
 General Rejoicing
 When the news became dessiminated that the abolitionists had won the vic- tory and that the first serious blow against the lease system had been de- livered, there was general rejoicing. The triumphant faction predicts that its measure will have comparatively smooth sailing in the house and senate and that eventually over the veto of Governor Henderson it will be enacted fpto law
 The session of the committee was declared open at 10 o'clock. With the exception of dinner recess of an hour 1t continued throughout the day. It was after o'clock this evening that the executive session was ordered, and after s o'clock when the verdict was an- nounced.
 The session of practically 10 hours was not bitter or acrimonious. but one in which temper on more than one oc- casion was diplayed. It was a session featured. too, by commercial rather than humanitarian augmentation, and an un- wary onlooker would have reached the conclusion that the object of the delbera- ton was the settlement of point of con- troversy between the Pratt Consolidated Coal company on the one hand and the Tennessee Coal Iron and Railroad com pany. supported by various lesser in dustrial lights. on the other.
 Argument Not Humanitarian
 While repeatedly mention was made of the fact that the treatment accorded convicts is to a certain extent at least inhuman. and while argument was pre- scented tending to prove the necessity of highway construction through the instru- mentality of convict labor the great bulk of testimony adduced concerned the eff feet produced by convict labor on the coal market of the Birmingham district, on free or organized labor, and on finan- cial conditions generally.
 Borden Burr. attorney for the Tennes- see company. which some years ago vol untarily abandoned its long practiced pro- fession of leasing state convicts, acted as counsel in chief for the aboitionists With him were associated Senator Frank S. White, Congressman w. B. Oliver, J. Asa Rountree. Legislator H. P. Merritt, Legislator w. c. Davis and various lead CTS of labor organizations. On the other side was George B. Mccormack. presi. dent of the Pratt company, and the attor- ney of the company, John H. Bankhead Jr The legislative chamber. in which the cOlH Sdl, WAS well nHcu WitH Spct- tators, and so interested became the fol- lowers of the debate that Chairman Greene on several occasions was compelled with spirit to rap for order. There were gathered ready for action two rival schools of thought the old conserva- tive and practical and the new theoretical and progressive; one pointing out the dan- ger of destroying a lucrative source oi revenue and institutng in its stead an ex- eix npssihlV dana rfIIr the other contending for humanity to man. kind and the urgent necessity of good road construction.
 More or less sharp differences were de- veloped right in the beginning. Mir. McCor mack, president of the Pratt Consolidated Coal company and Borden Burr. counsel for the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company, were unable to agree on the point of whether the affirmative or the
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