The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-09-03
Merritt Makes Dispairing
Plea for Revenue Bill
tContinued from Page Three)

tax, the tonnage tax and the machinery
provisions, but would not vote for any
exemptions to water power. stated that
he would vote the same way again.
Mr. Baker of DeKalb county also voted
for all the taxes and against the ma
chinery but he would not vote for the
pending motion.
Mr.. Truss of jefferson county said the
house was getting nowhere and suggest
ed that the senate amendments be print
Ell so the members of the house can
know what they are. He favored exemp-
tons to individuals or corporations that
develop the state.
Mr.. Adams of Blount county said it
seemed to him that the house was work
ing in the dark and requested Judge
Murphree, chairman of the conference
committee, to tell something about the
committee and its work.
Judge Murphree said the committee was
almost unanimously agreed on over 100
of the senate amendments: that they re-
allied that some compromise on the ma
chinery must be effected. He said he
wv mo- I~no Hio views illo the CONFER
erce, but tried to get the things he
thought the house would stand for.
Insofar as a substitute for the ma
chinery was concerned he said one was
prepared that met the views of every
member. Some of the members, he said,
insisted on substituting for the tonnage
tax a license tax based on mine output
and license taxes on soft drinks, theatres
| and cigarettes, and this was where the
committee could not agree.
4 to the exemptions he said, no agree-
| ment could be reached that would meet
the approval Of both houses; that the
house opposed exemptions and the sen.
ate would not pass the bill without them
OPPOSE ENTIRE BILL
Mr.. Dickson of jefferson declared that
the opposition to certain features of the
bill had for it's purpose the killing of the
bill; that they are opposed to passing
any reQenue bill He insisted that il was
necessary to pass the bill today. He
said he was willing to continue the ex-
emptions. which he has fought all along
IN order to pass the revenue bill. He
insisted that the tonnage tax be imposed
on coal and iron and charged the oper-
tors with profiteering.
He said he was willing to trust the
governor to recommend something that
Mr.. Dansby of Choctaw county declared
that there would be no revenue bill at
this session Of the legislature unless the
| motion made by the speaker is adopted.
He insisted that the motion be adopted.
| Judge Longshore of Shelby county said
the house might concur in the senate
amendments on the faith of the govern
ors promise to send the bill back with
amendments acceptable to the house. and
then suppose the senate refuses to ac-
cept the governors amendment What
| would happen then? he asked. II would
result in the~governor finally signing a
bill that the house objects to- He on
posed voting for a lot of amendments
tbat he has not seen and knows moth
! ing about.
Mr.. Tunstall of Hale county raised the
point that the conference committee NOT
having been discharged and the bill not
/ having been recalled from the committee
the amendments were not the propertv
OF the house and the motion to concur
made by Speaker Merritt was out of
order.
He said the proposition to concur In
over 100 amendments without ever hear
ing single one of them read was some
tnlng he had never heard of before, He
said the constitution required that the
amendments be read and voted on by a
yea and nay vote, yet it is urged that
/, the mousse concur in over 100 amendments
without one of them even being read.
He said if the amendments are con
CURED in, it will continue the exemp-
tons to the large corporations and strike
down the exemption to the farmer of his
mule. his horse and his yoke of oxen
Abiding to the governors promise as
made through Speaker Merritt he said
the governor had ample time to have
submitted his proposal before this time.
Not doubling the governor would keep
his promise, but he suggested that per-
haps the proposals of the governor might
not suit the house. Then what he asked
He said the argument is made not that
the amendments are what we want, not
that 1t is the bill that we should pass. but
that unless 1t is passed today. it is dead
| That he said is not true. A new confer
ence committee can be appointed to en-
able them to prepare a report
4 He showed by reference to the house
journal OF the 1915 session that the con-
ference committee on the forty-fourtn
day made two reports. and that the con
ference committee report on the forty
fifth day in answer to the repeated state
ments that unless the bill be adopted
today, it would be killed.
| Mr.. Stoddard of Crenshaw county, then
charged that an clement in the state
had been wide awake ever since the
revenue bill was introduced in an attempt
| to defeat the governor Of the state in
mis- constructive programme. He appealed
to the members from the agricultural Sec
| tions to take control of things in the
| legislature. His agreement was based
on what he termed opposition to the gov
ernor. which evidently he considers a
vssy Gssvtsas -.