The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-09
CRITICISM OF ROGERS' ACTS
 BRINGS REPLY
Displeased At Exception To His Plans Of DetOuring
INSISTS LONGER WAY = @ BY HOME IS RIGHT
Age-Herald Editorial Character ]. ized As Tissue Of Malice,
 Ignorance And FalsehOOd
(sTATE CAPITAL BUREAU)

(SIATk, .CAFlTA1Sa BUREAU fse E
 MONTGOMERY, Ala, March S.
 John A. Rogers, chairman of the state
 highway commission gave out state
 ment today, defending the detouring of the state highway to go via Gaines < vile, his home town, and expressing : disconfent with the editorial policy of :, The Age-Herald, which has contended Ithat the $25 5,0OO, 900 bond issue should
 be spent for the. benefit of the people of Alabama rather than to accommodate
 members of,tbe highway commission.
 Chairman Rogers also defended the
 action. of Colonel ". A. McCalla, as
 sistant state highway engineer, for his : approval of the Shelby county road com
 tfact; which has since been disapprOyed :. and disavowed by the two other mem ], bers of tliek kstate. highway. commission. z Following is Mir. Rogers statement: :. .1s The editorial of The Age-Herald of 7 March z, headed The Engineers Opin-
 ion,' has been called to my attention: am answering this editorial, not in
 my own. defense, for the yapping of
 the little fellow that edits this paper
 does not affect me. This editorial is
 tissue of ignorance, malice and false1
 hood, l,. O. .s.-- 'e--r- 2 ,-
 Take this statement: "The federal
 engineer cannot pass on-anx highway
 off the federal aid system, and the state
 highway engineer, Mir. Keller, is not,
 on record as having approved thel
 Gainesville detOur.'
 Says Keller Approved It oIIox kn, ! indorsed this road. Section 6, federal , raod law, reads: Before any projects are. approved in any state, such state, ! through it's state highway department, ss shall select or designate a system of Highways, not to exceed : per centurh 2 Of the total highway mileage of such
 state as shown by the records of the '. state highway department at the time of the passage of this act Y .7 The federal engineer then goes over such designated road and recommends | its acceptance or rejection by the fed
 eral bureau of public roads.
 This article slurs at Colonel Me Calla. It brings him in as approving the construction of the road in Shelby. Mir. Wells, the federal engineer, joined F with Colonel McCalla in his approval 7, of the Shelby county road as it is now { heinz constructed. ,...5s,.55, ,s. .,5.ts r'Ses anu; making this statement because Il have unprecedented confidence in the !, Integrity and ability of Colonel Me
 Calla. If I doubted either it would be ,r my duty, or his, to ask for Colonel
 McCalla's discharge. The highway
 commission has authority to discharge
 anyone in its employ.
 ,s->s Invites Filing of Charges -S faV !. Der of the commission, or any citizen ,: Colonel McCalla, these charges will be given public hearing.
 ie This is the manly course to pursue. nTI It is the only course that an honorable man would take.
 | <, T think it best for the public to
 know something of the antecedents of
 Colonel McCalla Colonel McCalla went to France in 1917 as major of en-
 gineers in command of the 504th En- F gineer Service battalion, and was placed r in charge of construction of the A. s. 9 F. c. No.~ which was the main air
 service shop of the A. E. F., and was
 promoted in France to lieutenant-col- Onel and was made ehevalier of the
 Legion of Honor by the French govern , sInent because of the splendid character s of the work he did as an engineer while a in France. He has been engaged in the y engineering profession continuously a from 1886 to the present time, and this is the. first time that his integrity or his competency has ever been called Into question. -t~
 ss "MeCalla lived in Tuscaloosa from
 the age of six. Everyone knows him,
 knows of his unimpeachable character.
 To have his character brought into , fquestion now simply because The Age 6 Herald does not approve of his recOm- nendation is an outrage.
 Just one werd more about the so- g called Gainesville detour: In 1915 the
 legislature designated the road from 1, the Tuscaloosa county line via Eutaw to Gainesville. In 1917 the state high
 way commission made a road map of
 the state and federal roads. That com
 mission designated the read from Flu
 taw to Gainesville. was made a s member of the highway commission in 6 October. 1919, two years after the road , had been designated as a state trunk
 road. It is great pity that the state } has to contend with an organ of hate ,l and malice like The Age-Herald.
 This paper will broadcast islander |:
 1t will not publish refutatiOn of clan s der 'sl --