The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-03-06
HOT CONTROVERSY AT CONFERENCE OF
 GOVERNORS BEFORE
 REPORT IS ADOPTED
oContinued from Page onc)

terials as soon as possible. and continu- ation of the federal survey of natural
 resources started during the war were asked. The conference also deplored dis continuance of federal employment agen-
 cies and urged demobilization of the army
 by local draft boards.
 The section relating to public utilities
 was attacked vigorously by Mayor Hoan
 of Milwaukee who moved that 1t be
 stricken out, the motion being supported
 by Mayor Meyers of Minneapolis E. M
 Harber of Kansas City and others. Mayor |, Hoan wanted to know who sent the stacks of telegrams'' which Governor
 Cox reported had reached the commit
 tee favoring the declaration. He and
 Mayor Meyers declared the clause inter
 fered with local sovereignty and MT
 Harber said aid like that given by the
 war labor board in the Kansas City
 strike did more harm than good. Mayor Baker of Portland. Ore, an-
 swering for his colleagues of the commit
 tee, Governor Cox, Governor Bilbo ot
 Mississippi, Governor Sproul of Penn sylvania, Mayor Peters of Boston, anc
 George Foster Peabody, repi esenting the governor of New York, said the tele-
 grams had been addressed to President wilson, who sent them to the committee. "They came from the traction inter- ests," shouted Mayor Hoan.
 Don't get excited,'' the Portland exec utive replied, I've pulled that corpor- ation stuff just as you are doing, ana it goes well with your constituents, but I advocate this section because we ought to have some government agency to help us in difficulties which cannot be set tied locally
 CLAUSE IS SUSTAINED Motion to strike out the clause was de- feated, 34 to 2l. ts The controversy between Governor Cox and Mayor Rolph arose out of resolu- ton which the mayor introduced early in the day, demanding that President Wilson reconvene Congress to pass ap- propriation measures, condemning the building of American ships in Chinese and Japanees yards while contracts Tn this country were being cancelled, ana favoring the principle of collective bar gaining. In reporting the committees s decision not to accept the resolution, Governor Cox said he would be glad to give reasons if desired.
 Mayor Rolph failed to obtain postpone ment of consideration of the report until 8 night session. and then promptly de- manded that the governor give the req sons for eliminating the mayors reso- Iution Governor Cox did not reply, l and the fight over the adoption of the report began. Later Governor Cox rose | to a question of personal privilege. Nothing in word or spirit was in- | tended to convey asperity to the mayor 1 of San Francisco he said. 'The com mittee desired to avoid subjects which are matters of political controversy. Mayor Rolph heatediy replied that there was no intention to bring politics into the gathering; that he had crtti- cised the republican filibuster which de- feated the appropriation measures but that the only way to get Congress back on the job was to have the President call an extra session.
 An attempt to have the conference in dorse government ownership of railroads was defeated by exclamation.
 At the morning session. dissatisfaction of western delegates. at what they re- garded as the failure of the conference to achieve concrete results, broke forth in a storm of debate, during which Sec retary Houston, who was to have spoken, left the room in the department of the interior, where todays sessions were held, Director General Hines, who, with Sec retaries Glass, Redfield and Lane, ad- dressed the conference today, said the railroad administration was considering the reduction of freight rates on road building material.