Birmingham state herald., 1896-10-30
PLAYING IN A NEW ROLE.

people of Birmingham conclude that the two railroad attorneys who spoke in the opera house Wednesday night are not able men and forcible speakers simply because those gentlemen proved disap- pointment on that occasion to those who did them the honor to turn out and hear them speak. Captain Faulkner and Gen. eral Harrison are men away above the average in natural ability. They are able lawyers They are good speakers. They are men who draw beautiful salaries to represent the interests of corporations. Corporations do not engage the legal ser- vices of men who are not able to take care of the interests intrusted to them To proclaim man a corporation attor- ney is to proclaim him good lawyer for corporations do not engage the ser- vices of any other kind of lawyers.
 Messrs. Faulkner and Harrison are suc- cesses as railroad counselors; they are successes as railroad practitioners. They are good speakers. That they proved woeful disappointments to those who went out to hear them Wednesday night we must confess, because any number of those who heard them have been heard since to say that as public speakers on the side of the subject they attempted to represent Wednesday night Messrs. Faulkner and Harrison were pretty con- siderable failures.
 Now it should be borne in mind that these gentlemen were playing in a new role. They are new in the business when 1t comes to representing the cause of the average employe of railroads. Captain Faulkner and General Harrison have al-
 ways been on the other side of the ques-
 tion until right recently. They have been
 all the time heretofore looking after the
 interests of the railroads, and not after
 the interests of the employees of the rail- roads.
 The reputation of these two distinguish ed railroad attorneys had preceded them to this city, and of course much was ex- pected of them. The people, we are sure, did not consider the fact that the reputa- tion they bear is with reference to their ability to represent the roads, and not the employees We are pretty certain that
 the interests of the employees of the rail- roads never caused Captain Faulkner and
 General Harrison to lose any sleep until
 after the democratic platform declared
 against government by injunction" True, they may have lost sleep before that on account of railroad employees, but it
 was not that they were sitting up to keep the employees from having their wages cut down or from having to pay out too much of their wages for the necessaries of life. It was probably to help the railroads, whose interests they have up to very re- gently exclusively-as between the rail roads and employes-represent figure out some way by which wages could be scaled and strike prevented, or how to prevent the relatives of some deceased railroad employe from receiving a verdict for damages against the road for having caused in some way his untimely taking away.
 On that side of the question Captain
 Faulkner and General Harrison are suc-
 cesses. They have proven themselves justly entitled to the reputation which they bear. The very reputa ton which tended to make those who turned out to hear them Wednesday night expect so
 much more of them than they received. The very fact that Captain Faulkner and General Harrison have attained suc- cess as the representatives of the inter- ests of corpora tions Is proof that they are possessed of the ability to enable them to attain success as the representatives of wage earners, provided they remain on that side of the question and persist as they persisted on the other side. They are new hands in the field they are now
 attempting to cultivate. Just how long
 they will remain in the fight for wage earners we are not prepared to say. They may retire from that field after next Tues day. The proba bilities are that they will. If they do, they are bound to go down as
 failures as advocates of the interests of
 wage earners; but it will not be because
 of lack of ability. It will be from the
 lack of interest and practice.
 This Is the first year since the country
 has had what are known as railroad at
 torneys when those attorneys showed any willingness to save the wage earners from
 the ravages of the democratic party in
 these parts, but then that can be account
 ed for on the grounds that since the cleo
 tion in 1892 that system of government known as government by injunction" has been discovered It has solved the question of how to reduce wages in spite of organized labor, and proven very &C., ceptable to the great railroad corpora tons or the country. Ine demOcratlc par l ty has declared that if 1t is placed in pow CT there shall be no more government by injunction" and hence some of the rail- road attorneys-and among them Captain Faulkner and General Harrlson--are en- gagged in patriotic CD effort to save or ganized labor and wage earners generally from the dangers of the democratic party --e<
 MIR. HERBERT THEN AND NOW. The presence of the Hon. H. A. Herbert in Alabama just at this time. togather with the announcement that he is here to speak against and do what he can to de- | feat nominee of the democratic party for congress, adds interest to the follow l ing letter, which Mr. Herbert wrote to | MT. Ben Lee Allen of Athens, Ala, about | year ago:
 Navy Department, Washington, Sept. 13, 1895. My Dear Mir Allen: regret very much to see from yours of the 7th instant that you and 1 do not agree upon the silver Wa however