The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-24
FINAL RALLY OF MYERS MEN.
WOUND Up THE CAMPAIGN WITH
SPEECHES.

lie Did Not Attack MIR. McDOROugh,
Only His Record"
The Myers people held their final rally
at Masonic HAN last night. The meeting
was the liyelest Of the three which have
been held by the Myers peop,e during the
campaign The hail was packed to It's
limit. and the crowd was enthusiastic. The
speeches made by Mayor Moldrim and Mr.
Walter c. Harridse, at the last meeting
of the Liberal club, were commented upon
in campaign sty!e. Mr.. Hartridge re-
ceived special attention. Very little new
material was brought under discussion,
however, and the criticism Of opponents
was not such as is likely to cause many
heart burnings after the political thun-
derstorm has passed away.
Mr.. duBignon opened the meeting by
saying that ii had been announced that
he would reply to the speech made by
Mayor Meldrlm al the recent meeting OF
the Liberal Club defending the record of
his administration. He had intended doing
so. he stated, but under the circumstances
he was unable to do so. He had seen
reporC of Mayor Meldrim's speech in the
Morning News on the day after the meet
ing, giving what he supposed to be Mayor
Meldrim's statements at the meeting, but
on the following day he saw a card from
Mayor Meldrim, correcting or contradict
ing some things he had been reported as
saying. This left. him in so much uncer-
tainty as to Mayor Meldrim's position, he
said, that he did not see how it would be
possible to make a reply. He dwelt upon
the fact however, that Mayor Meldrim'
statement showed that the debt created
by the administration in order to pay the
expenses of last year had been paid out
of this years revenues. II was the first
time, he said, that an incoming admins
tration had had the debts of its predecs-
sors settled from the budget with which
il must conduct the citys affairs He had
stated at a previous meeting that from
reliable evidence he believed the city $
budget would exceed its possible revenue
by $4,000. From the information now
given he was inclined to believe that the
city's expenditures for 1899 would exceed
the possible revenue by $4,000.
Further on in his remarks, Mr.. duBig-
non said that il was remarkable what had
become of the deficit in the budget of 1897.
There were some things which were unac-
counted for in the recent explanations, he
claimed. There was Bun street extension,
for instance, where Council had expended
over $4,000 in order to create mudhole.
He called attention TO another matter
which might account for the creation OF
part of the deficit, he said. On June
so, 1895, he said, there was recorded in the
clerks office of the Superior Court deed
from the Hollis estate to fifteen and half
acres of land TO a certain firm of real es-
tate agents for the sum of $4,000, and on
the following day there was recorded in
the same Office deed from the same firm
to the city of Savannah for three and
half acres of this tract for the purpose of
opening streets through the tract, for
which the city paid the sum of 50, 464 In
less than twelve hours, he said, these real
estate agents had been enabled to make
profit out OF the city on the portion of the
land sold by them of over 80 per cent. Why
could not the city have obtained that land
from the Hollis estate for what
The agents paid for 1t, he ex-
claimed. he did not charge collision on
the part of the real estate agents or of
the city's Representatives but he claimed
il showed that there had been lack of
proper care in the conduct of the bust
ness of the city.
Mr. duBignon related an incident in the
history OF the passage of the present cleo
ton law The amount of real estate
which a citizen was required to own IN
order to serve as a manager of a city
election in the bill as originally intro
dueed was $3.50. he said. He was in At
lanta at the time and learning of this
feature of the bill, protested to two of
the representatives from Chatham as I'M
just 60 many citizens who might be free
holders for less amount. The representa-
tives, however, declined to make any
change in this section, and he took il
upon himself to bring the matter to the
attention of Senator Grovenstein. The
latter agreed with him. and when the bill
came before the Senate the section was
changed so as to allow of any freebooter
presiding at a city election. He presented
Judge Twiggs as one who had previously
paid some attention to the election law.
and whose statements concerning IL had
been attacked by the speakers at the Lib
eral Club meeting.
In his speech at the Myers meeting Fri
day night Judge Twiggs attacked Mr. No
Donough as the author of a. bill which
he said, was intended to dsfranchise the
laoorlng men of Savannah, and this asser-
ton was made with frequent and particu-
lar emphasis. In this speech Judge Twiees
so stated the feature of the bill with re
gard to the payment of city taxes and his
attack upon Mr.. McDonough was CON
sidered so unjust that his speech was
strongly disapproved by the leaders of
MIR. Myers party. and many of them so
expressed themselves.
Judge Twiggs was given a chance to re-
deem himself last night, and al
tackled the report of his speach
as published in the Morning News
claiming that he had been ''misrepre-
scented" He took particular umbrage al
the statement that lin spite of his an.
nouncement that he had nothing 10 saw
against Mr.. McDOnough, Judge Twiygs
proceeded to make some severe charges
directly against him." He dwelt on hi.
at some length, claiming that a great in.
justice had been done him in representa-
him as attacking Mr. McDonoueb when
as q matter Of fact, he had only attacked
his record nv
Judge Twiggs devoted so much time tr
these alleged misrepresentation tbat ~
failed to reach the meat of the onestio,
upon which he had laid so much etraes In
his previous speech, except 10 reiterate r.
conclusion that all voters who were moi
able to pay their taxes by Oct were
disfranchised by the bill
he ,r