The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-24
LADIES OF ATTALLA
 THINK ACTION AT
 GADSDEN WRONG
Letter to Age-Herald Indi- cates They Consider Denial of Seats
 Indefensible

The Attalla delegates to the Ala
 bama Equal Suffrage association who were denied credentials at the recent Gadsden convention still believe an in- justice was done them by that act The president of the Attalla association has
 written the following on the subject: To the Editor of The Age -Herald
 In The Age-Herald of February 22, ap- pears an article by Mrs. Pattie Ruffner
 Jacobs in regard to the exclusion of the Attalla delegates from the Alabama equal suffrage convention, which is so plainly an effort to justify that action, that the excluded AttalIa delegates de- sire word in reply thereto, and re-
 quest that you give this space in your paper.
 Mrs Jacobs seeks to justify that ac- tion upon the ground that the conven- tion puts its own construction on it's own constitution, while she admits that | the construction was technical" It was shown without challenge that the Attalla dues were received by the treas urer on the morning of January 26. The convention assembled on the after moon of February g. Beginning with the morning of the 18th, the day the dues were received, it is aa simple mat | IA days required by the constitution | expired on the Sth, at midnight. l 1t was shown by the arguments pre- 1 sented for the Attalla delegates, that under the law, the usual method of computing time under such a provision as is mentioned in the suffrage con- stltut1on, the first day, viz, the day on which the dues are received, is to be included, and the last day, viz, the day the convention met is to be excluded. This argument is sustained by numer- ous citations from the decisions of the Alabama courts. There was an anus ing answer attempted to this argu- ment, and that was made by Mrs. Angus Taylor, president of the Birmingham association, who said upon the floor of the convention, We are a law unto l ourselves, this is not a question to be determined by state or federal laws" This statement was, of course, very surprising, for the Alabama Equal Suf- frage association is an incorporated body under the laws of Alabama, and l 1t is very inconsistent to invoke the protection of the laws, and then de- cline to abide by it, when it suits one's purposes.
 Had the convention of the Alabama Equal Suffrage association been ruled so rigidly as to put all (so-called) delin- quents in the same class whether they were several days late or only tech nically" so, then why not go further l in the rigid enforcement of the consti- tuition and bylaws? There were sev- eral fine points brought in which it would seem that the ruling of the chair was not always "as unalterable as the law of the Medes and Persians." In one l instance the chair ruled that a member of the Huntsville association was not eligible as delegates, because she did not live in Huntsville, but resided ! fex f1acs | association. On the other hand, Mrs Bonelli was a delegate from Mont gomery, and was seated without ques- | tion, notwithstanding the fact that it lis generally understood that she does not claim even the state of Alabama as her home, and only spends three months of the year in it, which is certainly not long enough to allow her husband l to become a qualified voter in the state of Alabama.
 Now 1t is quite true that we did not accept the treasurer's decision as final that we were too late in paying our dues and shall remain at home, as did Columbiana or whoever else was sup posed to be delinquent, but were inter- l ested and sometimes amused spectators l to the entire performance. In the first place our dues were accepted and all suffragists agree that taxation with out representation is tyranny" And we
 
 marily to one side, no matter how | magic the wand
 | Mrs. Jacobs statement that "Attalla was said to favor one candidate while the other two places were said to be favorable to another for president" surely cannot enter into the question ! of the business and the legality of the act of exclusion, but it may be noted | in passing that when Mrs. Jacobs as president, appointed the committee on l credentials, she appointed them solely | from the ranks of the partisans, and i supporters of the successful candidate, and gave no representation whatever to the friends of the defeated candidate.
 MRS. WILLBURN HILL. President Attalla Equal Suffrage Asso- 1 citation.
 Attalla, February 2s. 1916.
 To the Editor of The Age-Herald: We note that in the article in your issue of even date by Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, in her reference to women on | the school boards that she does not men, | tion Attalla in the list of those towns and cities who have ladies on such l boards.
 l The Birmingham papers have re- 1 peatedly asserted that Birmingham was the first to honor the women with this office, but they have always avoided 1 giving the dates on which their boards | were elected on which ladies were placed. On April g. 1915. the Attalla l city council elected to the local school board Mrs. w. F. Stowers and Mrs. Lamar Smith. both ardent suffragists We have been told that this was one or 1 two days ahead of the election of the Birmingham board, and we are certain, from newspaper reports, that they were installed into office one day before the board of the Magic City.
 Quoting member of the AttalIa Suffrage association, ''Attalla is still on the map, the state suffrage convention and the state president to the contrary notwithstanding. But am afraid that the decision of the treasurer and the late convention may have the effect of causing more than the Attalla dele gates to stay at home in the future For I am sure that if woman suffrage does not stand for fair play to all, and special privileges to none, then the ma jority of Alabama women do not care to enlist under the suffrage banner" J. w. MILLS. Editor Attalla Herald. Attalla, February 22. 1916. REFRESHMENTS