ALABAMA. 



$2,500; for tax commissioners, $2,400; the Audi- 

 tor's salary was raised from $1,800 to $2,400; 

 the Adjutant General's was fixed at $1,500. 



An important act was one exempting from 

 taxation cotton in the hands of the producer or 

 purchased for shipment and pig iron for one 

 year; after that the rate will be $2 for 100 tons. 



Another act authorized the examination of the 

 titles by which sixteenth-section lands are held, 

 and the bringing of suits to recover in certain 

 cases where they have not been properly paid for. 

 These are the lands that were sold for the bene- 

 fit of the school fund, having been given to the 

 State upon its admission by Congress for that 

 purpose. Authority to sell the land was granted 

 to the State in 1827, and the greater part was 

 sold within a few years from that date. 



The special tax for relief of disabled Confed- 

 erate soldiers and* the widows of deceased sol- 

 diers was raised from half a mill to one mill. 



The law on the consolidation and adjustment 

 of the bonded debt was amended by changes in 

 important particulars. The Governor has power 

 to refund the debt in long-term gold bonds, the 

 principal condition being that he shall secure a 

 lower rate of interest. 



A bill in the interest of temperance provided 

 for dispensaries in about 17 counties, to be under 

 the control of local authorities. 



Other bills were: 



To authorize courts of equity jurisdiction to 

 direct the sale of property and franchises of 

 quasi-public corporations. 



To punish the making or certifying false and 

 fraudulent abstracts of title. 



To provide for regulation of corporations trans- 

 acting life insurance business. 



To appropriate $7,500 to the Alabama Indus- 

 trial School for Girls, at Montevallo, and to pro- 

 vide for additional buildings there. 



To establish a charter for Birmingham. 



Providing that the convict fund shall be trans- 

 ferred by the Treasurer into the general fund. 



For the preservation of game in Montgomery 

 County. 



A. H. Alston was elected supernumerary judge 

 by the Legislature in joint session. 



A bill requiring persons convicted of larceny 

 and some other like offenses to work out the 

 value of the property taken was vetoed as being 

 opposed to the spirit of the constitutional pro- 

 vision forbidding imprisonment for debt. 



Conventions were held for the nomination of 

 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, but 

 in April the Governor issued a circular letter to 

 members of the Legislature asking their advice 

 as to the advisability of calling an extra session 

 of the Legislature to repeal the act. The State 

 Convention of the Democratic party had given 

 its approval to the measure, and recommended 

 the party to support it at the polls. The reasons 

 for the special session were given in the circular 

 letter as follow: 



" A number of Democrats have urged me to 

 call a special session of the General Assembly 

 for the sole purpose of considering whether the 

 act authorizing a vote on the question of calling 

 a constitutional convention should be repealed, 

 and whether any amendments to the Constitution 

 should be submitted for ratification. The argu- 

 ment used in this appeal to me is, that there 

 is serious division in our party on this question; 

 that many loyal Democrats are opposed to a con- 

 vention; that the Democrats in the Legislature 

 and the late State convention were almost evenly 

 divided; that many Democrats will not vote for 

 the convention; that if it should fail it would 



seriously damage our party and tend to build up 

 a formidable opposition." 



It also urged that since the declaration that 

 the Constitution framed must be submitted back 

 for ratification a plain amendment framed by the 

 General Assembly would accomplish the same re- 

 sult and avoid the cost of a convention. 



The answers to the letter were summarized as 

 follow: In the Senate, 16 in favor of repeal, 5 

 opposed, 5 doubtful, and 15 not heard from; in 

 the House, 51 in favor, 26 opposed, 10 in doubt, 

 and 9 not heard from. The Governor therefore 

 issued a proclamation convening the General As- 

 sembly in extra session May 2, naming the fol- 

 lowing subjects for consideration: 1. The repeal 

 of the law submitting the question of calling a 

 constitutional convention to the people. 2. An 

 amendment regulating the suffrage in the State 

 to be submitted to the people. 3. A primary-elec- 

 tion law. 



The proclamation was accompanied by a state- 

 ment given to the press by the Governor, offer- 

 ing among others the following explanations of 

 his reasons for asking the repeal of the act after 

 having signed it: 



" The General Assembly, by narrow majorities 

 5 in the Senate and 10 in the House decided 

 to submit to the electors the question as to 

 whether or not they desired a constitutional con- 

 vention. While this was not in accord with my 

 views, I did not feel at liberty to withhold my 

 assent from a measure that permitted every voter 

 in the State to decide for himself whether he 

 desired a convention to be held or not. Since 

 then a Democratic State convention has been 

 held, and, without the question ever having been 

 submitted to the Democratic voters or hav- 

 ing been considered by them, an attempt was 

 made to take away from them the right given 

 by the Legislature to decide for themselves 

 whether they desired a convention or not, and to 

 bind them to vote for a convention, whether ap- 

 proved by their judgment and conscience or not. 

 This has been followed up by the threat that 

 nominees of county conventions shall disobey the 

 wishes of the conventions which nominated them 

 and declare for the Constitutional Convention or 

 be driven to resign. Instead of the nonpartisan 

 convention designed by the General Assembly, 

 the plan now seems to be to give us a constitu- 

 tion framed by partisans seeking only political 

 advantage for those engineering and directing 

 the cause. Some of the friends of the convention 

 claim that the pledges given in the platform 

 practically confine the convention to a considera- 

 tion of the suffrage amendment. If this be true, 

 and the pledges are faithfully observed, I am sure 

 that the 133 members of the General Assembly 

 are quite as competent to frame amendments and 

 are quite as patriotic and representative of the 

 people of Alabama as the delegates elected to the 

 Constitutional Convention, and can do the work 

 at one tenth the cost of a constitutional con- 

 vention. 



" The pbdge to submit the proposed Constitu- 

 tion to the ratification of the people is ominously 

 silent as to who shall be qualified electors to vote 

 on it. The convention seems to have the power 

 to deny to those disfranchised by it the right to 

 vote on ratification. Even if we can trust every 

 member of the convention to keep in good faith 

 every pledge made, and the previous record of 

 some of them does not inspire confidence, then 

 the pledges did not go far enough. 



" Our present Constitution guards with jealous 

 care many rights dear to the people. Among 

 others: 



