The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-13
CITY HALL FIGHT CHAINED TO AID
 ALDERMAN RULE
Leaders Ready To Launch
 Move. Mass Meet Called

While another bitter factional fight ragged at city hall, leaders of the move to smash the commission form of gov ,ernment and set up a mayor and board of aldermen, made ready Thursday to ! launch their fight Friday afternoon.
 A committee of prominent lawyers will meet with Hunter Armstrong, cam paign leader, and go into legal aspects of the drive. An open mass meeting will be held in about ten days.
 The committee of attorneys includes : Tom J. Judge, John c. Arnold, Horace Wilkinson, J. O. Smith and Clarence MuAin.
 One of the strong talking points" of the reform leaders will have to do with the "ever-present turmoil and factional strife among those who are administering the present government" Mr. Armstrong asserted. He is enthusi- astic over the prospects for a sweeping victory when the people vote on the proposed change.
 The latest city hall row, which broke out over the manner of obtaining third audit of the books in the comp troller's department. where the recent shortage that sent William l.. Lehman to kilby prison was uncovered, proba- bly, will come to a head. next Tuesday at the commissions regular weekly meeting.
 Politics Charged
 President D. F. McLendon feels that Commissioners w. l.. Harrison and Mary Echols played politics. when they went out of their own departments last Tuesday, fin violation of established custom. and put through resolution for another audit" He insists that a local auditor should make the check and suggests that the four leading bank. presidents of the city be allowed to name the auditor. At the next meet ing, he will move to repeal the Harri- son-Echols resolution and adopt this ' plan. In this fight he may have the support of Commissioners w. B. Cloe and W. E. Dickson
 Harrison and Mrs. Echols, announc- ing they would fight the commission heads move, issued a sharp statement charging that McLendon had always opposed probes of his department and that this, made it necessary for them to go over his head. This is heatedly denied by McLendon.
 Bankers Named
 Harrison and Mrs. EchoIs want the audit handled by an accountant to be named by the state association of audi tors. McLendon asserts that the asso. clatlon might send a man who could not dig in" successfully, and insists that the next auditor be named by Os- car Wells, T. O. Smith, w. W. Craw- ford and John H. Frye, Birmingham bank presidents.
 Without exception, the commission hnr T the facts. if the recent audit did not clarify the situation. Commissioned Cloe, however. feels that the grand jury should act before the city spends it's money for another auditor. He opposes spending city money to investigate charges made by a confessed criminal.
 The suggestion was advanced by of- fieials Thursday that young Lehman had made his chrages, which. tend to end to duplicate others in the shortage. n an effort to tighten his own sentence. 3y turning states eYidence, it was>sug- gested, Lehman may be hoping to get much of his sentence. Topped off. He has been sent up for three years.
 Others Look On
 Commissioners Harrison and EcholS declqred in their statement that Presi. dent tMcLendon was following his usual course of charging politics and impugn. ing motives" They said he had harped on this every time they sought ito in qulre into affairs in his department, and that he had been an unwilling party to every effort to straighten out and adjust conditions which are mani festly very deplorable.' They asserted that an auditor named under their plan would be entirely free from direct or indirect influence by the commission or any member of the commission. Their only purpose, they said, was to ''get at the truth"
 Meanwhile, the mayor-aldermanic forces were watching the warfare with great interest. Their movement is looking hetter everv dav thnu snr