The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-25
INDIAN0LA CASE
 AIRED IN SENATE
Continued from First Page ]

----------------~>------- towards Justifying the charge that the conduct of the meeting was brutal.
 Proceeding. Mir. Spooner said the Pres ident knew that Mrs. Cox did not wish to resign, and he had accordingly re- fused to have the office vacated. The people themselves, to all intents and pur- poses had closed the office. In pursuing the course he did. the President had act ed upon principle vital to the strength and virility of the preservation of the government, namely, that the federal gov ernment shall be allowed to conduct it's own affairs without regard to local press ure. The maintenance of this principle, MT. Spooner said, was essential, and he declared that the President had acted upon this principle in refusing to receive Mrs. Cox's resignation
 Letters From Candidates Read.
 MT. Spooner read two letters from A. F. Weeks, one of which caused considera ble amusement, as Weeks was a candidate for the office He also read letter from I. l.. Davis, mayor of Indianola, who wrote the inspector that he thought the Lest way out was for Mrs. Cox to resign, add Ing that he wanted no Unpleasant af- fairs to deal with as mayor"
 The civil war, he said, was fought upon the principle of the right of the federal government to control it's affairs every where without the consent of the states McLaurin Makes Reply.
 Mir. McLaurin of Mississippi said he had not In his former speech discussed the propriety or the impropriety of the President in closing the postoffice at In- dianola and he contended that nothing he had said had justified the remarks of the senator from Wisconsin. He had not, when he first spoke, believed that the people of Indianola had earned the l epithets of "lawless" and brutal" which had been applied by the Presidents sec l retary, and he repeated that 1t had not
 even now been shown that the charge was | justified. On the contrary, he contended, l the best feeling exists between Mrs. Cox | and the people of Indianola barring the. | prejudice of race. That this prejudice | exists. the people had freely admitted. | and there was no disposition to deny 1t. Ut exists" he said throughout the | south. Aye, he added. and throughout | the north also"
 The people had exercised their right to | petition and had done no more and he
 had never before heard it argued in the
 senate that the people had not the right to assemble and make known their wants l In this case the petitioner did not want | Mrs. Cox as postmaster, and had frankly | said so. Moreover. 1t was their right to present this petition to Mrs. Cox, If they preferred to do so, and there was no | grounds for the charges on that account.
 MT McLaurtn stated that notwithstand- | ing that three-fourth of the people at | Indianola are colored, five-sixths of the
 mail received and sent from the post
 office is to and from white people.
 Had Not Seen Correspondence.
 Mir. McLaurin said he had not seen all
 the correspondence in the case; that he
 had requested copies of it, but had been
 refused by the postmaster general and
 had been referred to the President He | asserted that there had been no threats | of personal violence and he added none
 can be found, unless 1t be found in the
 fertile brains of the President. postmaster | general and postofice inspectors"
 Even granting there was intimidation. l was 1t not still the duty of the President 1 to furnish the people the best possible I postal facilities? In directing that the Indianola mail be supplied from Green l vile the postoffce authorities had
 placed upon the people of Indianola an additional hardship.
 MT. McLaurin said he did not believe ] the people of Indianola had done wrong In trying to get rid of a postmaster of an