The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-29

ton of how lawyers work together. He drew up part of it, and l drew up part of 1t. and we worked to- gether until 1t was completed.
 MT. James-Did you draw up Sec tion XXII? (That Is the section from which excerpts printed above are taken.)
 MT. Martini do not recall now.
 MT. James-Was 1t his suggestion or your suggestion?
 MT. Martin-Well, I could only say that it was drawn up in mutually satisfactory form. He undoubtely drew a part of 1t, and undoubtedly l made suggestions as to part of it.
 MT. Jam mes-In regard to the sug- gestion for the purchase of 1t (the Gorgas property) by your company, was that your idea or his idea?
 MT. Martini cannot say, MT. James. But I will take the respon- sibility of saying 1t was ours. Miller Throws Light.
 Fine light on the effect of the contract was thrown as result of 1nterrogations propounded by Rep resentatiVe Miller to MT. Martin. From the official record, the follow ing excerpts are taken:
 MT. Miller-Now, I see very clearly that In the construction of the gov ernment's activities, they used your foundations at the Warrior plant to build additional units, and as result of the method of construction, the governments activities were insepar- ably interwoven and interlaced with your activities.
 MT. Martln-Yes, sir. that is right.
 MT. Miller-They were not capable of division in any wise.
 Mir. Martin-That is true.
 MT. Miller-Now, you say you are willing to take that property from and not at it's scrap value. It being indiVisible, this contract was so drawn that you would have no com- petitor in undertaking to purchase the holdings of the government.
 Mir Martin-On reproduction basis and considering all clements that must enter into fair value, you do not need to consider the question of competition.
 MT. Miller-And. furthermore, there IS clause that in the event the government should sell this property to any other person, the plant could not be operated.
 MT. Martin-That Is correct
 Mr.Miller-Then the whole thing was shaped so that the Alabama Power company would ultimately ah- sorb the governments interest there and no other human being could come into competition with the company.
 MT. Martin-There was no way by which the arrangement could be worked out except on a basis of our agreeing to purchase the property at fair value and we stand ready and willing to do 1t.
 MT, Miller understand all that and l have it deeply impressed here that In your relations with the gov erhment you so entwined the gov ernments investment with your own ana laced backward and forward un- til ultimately there would be no human being that could purchase or come in competition with you for the purchase of the governments rights in that property.
 MT. Martini do not acccept your premise. The Alabama Power com. pany did not interlace anything This contract was made by govern ment officials with us on a fair ba- sis, and it was understood from first to last that this property was to be developed and constructed just as 1t was to accomplish the government's purpose, namely, the sale and de- livery of energy.
 MT. Miller-I understand But there are different ways of accom-. plishing the same results.
 Q o O
 CO1lOquy Grows Warm.
 From that point, the colloquy grew warm. The official story con tinues;
 Mir. Miller-the only possible peo- pie that the government can deal with will be the Alabama Power company; is not that true?
 MT. Martin-That is correct, MT Miller, and that was contemplated the contract from beginning to enc contemplated that, and there is nc other way by which this extension could have been worked out.
 MT Miller-I see very plainly what the contract is. But I have been wondering if there is any other hu- man being that would put "a dollar into an enterprise on such basis as the United States government put it's money in with you. Can you con ceive of any institution in the world or can you conceive of the United States, except in the extremity o1 war, making such contract?
 MT. Martin-This was the extrem. ity of war, MT. Miller.
 MT. Miller-And l am afraid, MT Martin, that l am forced to believe that you took advantage of the gov. ernment in it's extremity of war.
 MT. Martin-We resent the insinu- ation, sir. We did not. We made .