Birmingham age-herald., 1894-11-15
AT ERSWELL HALL A Large Crowd Gathered to Hear
 and Learn WHAT WOULD BE DONE
  By the Performers" if Allowed to Manage the City's
 Affairs.
WHAT WOULD BE DONE

with Birmingham citizens who had gone | there to hear Mir. VanHoose and 're' l formers'' discuss matters pertaining to city affairs.
 Judge J. M. Arnold called the meeting to | order and put the ball to rolling in speech | of twenty or thirty minutes duration, 1n | the course of which he said: "A great hls- | torian has said when Rome began to de- | cline, there was party for Cesar, party | for Cassius, party for Brutus, but there was no party for Rome. l am rejoiced to see that as bad as Birmingham is there is party for Birmingham. We are here to
 discuss matters of great importance to every citizen of Birmingham, whether he be white or black, democrat, republican or populist. The election next month is the most important in the history of Birming- ham.
 Birmingham, Jour homes where we have planted our fortunes, is on the down grade as a municipality. The bonded debt of the city is more than $1 ,500, 900, and the fixed annual interest greater than the income" Judge Arnold dwelt mostly on the fire and police departments, charging that they were too small and inefficient, and blaming the present administration with 1t. The water pressure, he said, could not be turned on. Whose fault it was he did not
 say. He said 1oO, ,o0O. GOO gallons of water was
  | which the city government couldn't con. | trol at the time of the Caldwell fire. He jumped on the present adminIstra- l tion, of which he charged MT. Warnock
 schools closed in September; for grassy l parks, full of cattle, hogs and dogs; the bad condition of some streets and side- walks, and wound up by saying bank | ruptcy stared the city in the face unless there was change, which he said would | be effected by the election of the VanHoose | ticket.
 "Bad govern Dent, extravagant govern ment, insufficient government, govern ment by partisans, administered in the | interest of partisans, caused the defeat l of Tammany in New York, |" he said, "and l that's what we've got to do here." "They claim to be city democFsls.--WVHe- l are bigger than thstr. We are county, state l froEar6eherson, Madison or Jackson that Lman's democracy was to be tested by how 1 he voted in a city election."
 He introduced
 MIR. J. A. vANHoosE, 1 who, holding the platform adopted by the
 the same and to "touch" the city admin l istration and the democratic nominees for l mayor and aldermen.
 l lie spoke of what handsome and intel. | ligent audience confronted him, and of | how proud he was of it.
 This isn't a political gathering. In this
 campaign I know no politics, creed or vo-
 cation. am not here by my own volition,
 but under pressure ao man could resist. l
 tired to put 1t away from me, and will sit | in that chair until the receiver puts me out. This ism t race with MT. Warnock am
 running-it's race with dark horse, darker than midnight; 1t is between re- ceiver and myself. don't care anything l about the average politics, but it is busi- | ness m interested in. The race is to keep
 the receiver from sitting in that chair and | not MT. Warnock. We saw our children | shut out of the schools for one month, but | recognizing that there must be retrench-
 ment we accepted the situation. We knew | there must be, reform, retrenchment. l speak of measures and not men. Hardly
 sixty days later they had plenty of money | and officials salaries were restored. That l wasn't the proper thing to do.
 Talk about eiecting iHsn mayor-the
 dickens; you hire him. It is not wise
 days. I believe in abolishing the re-
 corder's office and impose his duties on
 the mayor. The mayor ought to do this, | he ought to know what Is going on in the
 show and I believe them, but all the same
 wet see 1t done; we won't go off to foot,
 ball games, nor prayer meetings, but will | stay right here and see it done. Here MT. VanHoose told what he thought | a mayor should do. He should act re-
 corder; he should go over the town and
 into every nook and crook and hole in it;
 he should prowl around the streets at | night.
 1t is reported, said the speaker, that I'll | close the barrooms and open prayer meet.
 ings. I have no idea of closing the saloons. | They pay tax and we need that now. | Eight or ten of the purest and whitest men | in Birmingham are saloon Men and they
 have pledged me their support l haven't
 had time to visit all the saloons, but am ! going to all of them. have walked right into eight or ten of them on business and
 treated the barkeepers as men. l never did | anything to injure any of them. They say | IWou't let @ merchant wash out his store or
 write letter in his store on Sunday; that I'll close all the fruit stands. You knowI | wouldn't do that. The Jews have their re- ligion; I have mine. If we don't have fair
 elections the city is doomed. They have
 don't do it will not utter a threat, but
 the blood that courses through white mems | veins will have it.
 He opposed the issuance of any more
 bonds He wanted the policemen and fire
 men paid well. He wanted two more fire
 engines, one for South Highlands and one
 chase of the water works. He advocated
 refunding of the city's debt at lower rate
 of interest. How tbis was to be done he
 done he believed the city was doomed.
 "No man. said he, 'sis barred from our
 board because he is republican, democrat,
 populist, Jew, Catholic, Episcopalian or
 any other denomination.
 E. H. CABANIss
 was introduced by Judge Arnold and made
 a short speech in which he arraigned the
 city administration for the cily's financial
 condition, and numbers of other things he said were not what they should be. Mir. Christian F. Enslen was called for
 and made few remarks which were hear ! xi Oho rad aff vxykai ha a.