The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-04-27
BOARD ASPRANTS COMBINE FORCES, REPORTS STATE Merger Is Talk As Time For County Election
 Draws Near BOWEN TO HEAD
 HARGRAVE DRIVE C. R. West Calls COnfab Of Leaders In Race,
 Is Announced

With the state and county primary just beyond the horizon. interest in the 24-cornered race for the Jefferson county board of revenue was heightened Saturday by widespread talk of combine" between some of the candi- dates.
 The report persisted that five of the candidates are holding daily conferences together and laying plans to merge their forces and set out to combat the rest of the field in a whirlwind fin ish drive.
 Lines Are Down
 Lines in the various races to be de- cided May 13 now are tightly drawn, and the political wiseacres predict that the coming week will find all the cam paigns going at top speed.
 A major development of Saturday which created wide spread interest in political circles was the announcement that l.. K. Bowen, election commission CT, registrar, member of the state leg islature and one of the most widely known men in Alabama, had consented to manage the campaign of Wallace l.. Hargrave of Ensley, one of the rev enue board aspirants.
 Bowen is known personally 10 al- most every person in Jefferson coun- ty. His first act as campaign director was to assert that Hargrave was not a member of the reported combine" He said the firm stand taken by Har- grave for permanent roads moved him to actively enter the campaign.
 AmpIifies Platform
 In signed statement, Hargrave ann plified his original platform statement by declaring he would, if. elected, fight to build permanent roads in Jeffer- son county exclusively with Jefferson county products
 This county" he said, lis one of the richest in the whole south. We man. ufacture everything right here in our midst. At Leeds, in the eastern sec tion, we have one of the largest cement plants in the country. Its heavy pay rolls have done much to make that sec ton so prosperous. In the western sec tion our great industries are turning out pig iron, coal, iron ore, paint, slag, steel and everything else imaginable. My plan would be to use these products in our road building program. am everlastingly opposed to spending one penny outside the state for products we manufacture in Jefferson county. Calls Conference Another important development was the announcement that c. R. West, one of the candidates for the county board of education, had called his leaders together for a conference that is ex- pected to result in his retirement from the race. Vests close friends say he has been threatened with financial ruin" and the loss of his position as principal of the New Castle school un- less he quits the race. In retiring, he will issue a statement giving details, his supporters say, and they add that he may be persuaded to become an applicant for the post of county school superintendent.
 Two hundred and ninety y-seven addi- tional names have been placed on the registration list in the past two days. These names were left off the original list through error and will be published Tuesday. The total registration now stands at approximately 50,OOO. and Registrar Bowen predicts a total vote of from 30,000 to 35,000.
 Meetings throughout the county have been scheduled by various candidates for this week. The well-known "politi7 cal bee' has begun to buzz in earnest.