Birmingham age-herald., 1894-09-28
THE CAMPAIGN OPENED.
 .s a3sal1s5 fs Hons. 0. W. Underwood and Thomas Knight the Orators. @ SU8LETT HALL THE PLACE Two Speeches With the Ring of the True Metal
 Delivered.

Hon. Oscar W. Underwood, democratic nominee for congress in this district, opened his campaign last night in mag nificen speech delivered in the presence ot q large audience of voters of Jefferson, Hale, Perry and Bloont counties.
 Sublett hall was well filled with men who listened attentively to democracy's standard bearer discuss the issues of the present campaign.
 The Elyton club, seventy-five strong, occupied the seats to the left of the speaker. The members of that club are enthusiastic democrats and attracted great deal of attention as they marched up the street.
 The speaking was under tue auspices of Young Democracy, and MT. Nathan L. Miller presided over the meeting. At the conclusion of his introduction of MT. un derwood Capt. Eaank F. O Brien offered set of .esalnt1 tha6a. presant to support the deInc--aIIc hCs1linees Tor me city officers.
 The resolutions were discussed by Cap tain O'Bren and MT. B. A. Thompson, after which a gentleman from Elyton- raised the point that the resolutions were out of order, that a large number of those present did not reside in Birmingham and that the meeting was not regularly organ ized and could not adopt resolutions.
 The chair ruled that as no objections had been offered when the resolutions were read the point was not we'll taken. The gentleman appealed from the decision. and on a rising vote the chair was overruled, the Eyton club voting for the appeal, and the balance of the audience, with probably a dozen exceptions, declining to vote either way.
 MIR. UNDERwooD's SPEECH.
 When MT. Underwood came forward he was loudly cheered He said as that was to be his opening speech, and ln it the pace for the campaign would be set, he had written the speech out and would stick to the man uscript nearly all the way through the speech By far the greater portion of his speech was devoted to the tariff, and he quoted from the census statistics to prove his position.
 Some tariff, he said, was necessary to run the government, but he thought the burden of taxation should bs equally dis tributed, so as to burden none. He said his opponent advocated protective tariff and defended the Mckinley bill, evidently thinking that this being the principal man ufacturing district in the south the false principles of dying republican tariff might allure some democrats to them. The speaker said he would accept the gauntlet thrown out by his opponent-that he stood where Jefferson, Madison, Jackson and Cleveland had stood.
 
 in 1884, andduring his administration the man ufacturing industries of the country were prosperous. This district, he said, was never more prosperous than in the period from 1885 to 1899. Cleveland, at the end of his first administration, left S330,- 000, 900 in the treasury, and Harrison four years later left as heritage a depleted treasury and the country in the throes of Q terrible panic.
 He said that since the passage of the new tort frad un ipU ranr oafixr and factories were starting up. He said he had been reliably informed that the pig iron proeuction in this district within the next ninety days would be greater than it had ever been.
 MT. Underwood quoted from a table of statistics showing that the consumption of wool In the United States was 2 05 pounds was imported The government receives a tariff or little more than a third of the wool consumed in the country, and that the price for the foreign wool, plus the tariff, which under the Mckinley bill was 100 per cent, fixed the price for Am erican- grown wool. The average reduction in the new bill is bout 21 per cent.
 Up to 1890 the tariff was much less than under the Mckinley till and the industries of the country were in far more prosper ous condition than after the enactment of the Mckinley bill.
 Jefferson county, he said, with over SS,- 000 population, would save on the matter of wool by the reduction in the new bill S.3 400.
 he republicans now say the tariff is not to protect the factories, but the lahore said Mir. Underwood linen, by producing statistioi, he showed that tue American laborer receives less wages in proportion to the amount he produees han the laborer of any other civilized country.
 He said the new tariff bill was in the