The annual meetings of the Association have especially been fraught with much good in promoting social intercourse, as well as accomplishing the more serious business of the organization, and the purpose of this letter is to call to your attention that the next annual meeting will be held in this city on July 12-13, and urge you to come.

The meeting promises to be well attended, and to be an important business meeting and social gathering of our brothers. Your personal presence will encourage the members and tend to the accomplishment of much good in carrying into effect the purposes and objects of the Association, as well as demonstrating that one who has held the highest honor in the gift of the Association has not lost interest in the business and social features of our organization. We want you to be present with us at this meeting, and sincerely trust that you may so arrange your engagements as to attend.

Yours cordially,

John Pelham,

Pres. Ala. State Bar Association.

In response to that letter you see before you here a majority of the ex-Presidents of this Association. There are seven I think, before me now; there are thirteen alive. In answer to that letter, I want to read you one short letter, written by a former President of this Association, who has travelled in foreign countries and been far away from us since the years when he was President:

My Dear Mr. President:

Washington, D. C.

I am deeply touched by your kind letter of the 1st inst. I have read and re-read the list of the dead Presidents. Each one of them was. known to me,-most of them were my personal friends. I have a large acquaintance among the members of the American Bar, and I have had

the opportunity of knowing a good many of the
leading jurists of Great Britain, France and
Spain. When I reflect upon them all, I feel that
I can justly say that the leaders of the Bar of
Alabama, as it was constituted thirty years ago,
were the equals of any lawyers in the world. I
wish it were in my power to be with you on the
the 12th. But as my professional engagements
here make that impossible, please express my
sincere regrets to the brethren with my tender
esteem.

With great respect.

Sincerely yours,

Hannis Taylor.

I am very glad to see this attendance, and the interest manifested in this Association. I am inclined to think it will lend interest to the Association to carry out the idea that Mr. Fitts has suggested, but I cannot let it go unchallenged that the old method that brought about the election of Presidents of this Association, commencing with Bragg, Pettus, Smith, O'Neal, Semple, Dawson, Tompkins, Humes, Watts, Taylor and the others, has not been without its purpose, and that the Association has not suffered by the methods that have been heretofore pursued.

Mr. Huddleston: I rise to invoke your ruling on my point of order.

The President:

I am inclined to think that the point of order is well taken.

Hon. Edw. de Graffenreid: I want to say that several years ago, I was President of the Association, and I found out that a great deal of the work of the Association was done by committees, in fact the committees really do the work of this Association. Now I take it that the principal thing that the members are interested in, is as to who will be President of the Association for the next year. It may be that the proper way to do it

is for nominations to be made in the open Association, for the selection to be made in that way, but the motion Mr. Sims makes would also raise certain committees, and I really believe, regardless of what the Association may do about its President or Vice Presidents, that the best way to raise these committees is by a nominating committee-because the members of the committees should be selected with reference to their particular fitness for the work in hand. Take for instance the Central Committee

Mr. Callahan: I rise to a point of order. The chair has ruled that this question is not before the Association, and hence any argument being carried on is out of order.

Hon. Edw. de Graffenreid: It was really not an argument, I wanted to make a suggestion, to see if it would not meet with the unanimous approval of every one present, that a committee be named for the purpose of nominating the Central Council and Executive Committee for next year; that is the only purpose for which I

arose.

The President: The chair has ruled on the point of order raised by Mr. Huddleston, that the matter is not before the Association.

Mr. Sims: A motion by a member of the Central Council is always in order.

The President: The chair is not acquainted with that rule. The order of business puts the election of officers as the very last thing in the order of business.

Mr. F. S. White: There is nothing before the house, as I understand it?

The President: No, the motion made has been declared out of order.

Mr. F. S. White: I wish to state in my advocacy of the substitute, it was not my intention to say that the other method had not been a great success, I know it has, but I simply meant to say that now there would be more

interest aroused in the Association by adopting this method. I move that the letter of the President, together with the letter from Hon. Hannis Taylor, be incorporated in, and made a part of the minutes of this Association. Motion adopted.

Mr. F. S. White: I move we now take a recess.

Mr. Bromberg: I rise for a personal explanation. It is on account of some of the language used by the mover of the substitute on the motion of Mr. Sims. I happen to have been on the Committee on Nominations quite a number of times in the course of my long connection with this Association-was on the committee that had the honor to nominate you for the office that you now fill so well, Mr. President, and I can say that there is no truth in fact in the statement that was made, as a reason for changing the method, that the proceedings of this committee were "cut and dried." I do not want that to go upon the records unchallenged, as it would have done, if I had not arisen. I know that during those times when I was a member of the committee, it consulted only the interests of this Association, there was nothing "cut and dried" about it, but careful consideration was given, discussion as to availability, and why a particular person should be chosen, with regard to locality. I desire to go on record as counteracting that statement. I do not think that measures should be carried through here by appeals that seem to be demagogic in their character.

Mr. Huddleston: I rise to a point of order.

The President: The gentleman will state his point of order.

Mr. Huddleston: That the gentleman is departing from a question of personal explanation to criticise the conduct of another member of the Association. I invoke the ruling of the chair.

The President: The point of order is well taken. Mr. White had the floor.

Mr. F. S. White: I made a motion to recess.

Hon. E. B. Almon: I move that the rules of procedure be suspended, and that the sense of this Association is, that when the officers are elected, they be elected by open ballot as provided by the Constitution and By-Laws of the Association.

Motion seconded.

Person

Mr. Dixon: There are two motions in one. ally since I have been meeting with the AssociationHon. E. B. Almon: I moved that the rules of procedure be suspended when I took the matter up.

Mr. Dixon: It seems to me it has already been brought up. Since I have attended, the motion has always been made about this time to have a committee name those to be elected. I agree with the gentleman that the rules should be suspended, that we ought to determine what we want to do. I agree with some of the other gentlemen that if it is a good thing, it is time to make a move to have it and not defer it. I think it is a good thing to elect from the floor of the Association.

Mr. O'Neal: I ask that the Constitution be read, so it can be understood.

The President: The Secretary will read the rules on suspension in the Constitution.

Mr. W. C. Fitts: So far as I can remember the Constitution, there is nothing in the Constitution that provides that this body cannot determine how it shall proceed with its own business. Am I not right, Mr. Secretary?

Mr. W. C. Fitts: I state this, after long acquaintance with the Constitution, that this body can at any time direct how it shall take up any particular matter. Now the motion of Judge Almon is, that we take this matter up, that is what it amounts to.

The Secretary: It is By-Law XI, which reads as follows: