The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-01
GEN. OATES PRESIDED AT.
 MUNICIPAL MASS MEETING

strated that one oficer and one clerk could do the work of two when it .7as absolutely necessary.
 It was of great importance to voters, formers. The man who wants to add to the city expenses of the city government should not be elected. The object of the meeting General Oates said, was to have the voters counsel together as to- the &C., complishment of reforms. G
 In response to calls from the audience Captain Finley took the stand. The meet ing, he said. had been called to counsel with the people as to reform. In begin ming his address Captain Finley said that he had been born and reared in Mont gomery and had spent his whole life in the city. With the exception of the time that he was at college and the time he served in the army of the Confederacy he had. he said, lived in Montgomery nearly 60 years. Montgomery, he said, had become cosmopolitan city. To be us Mayor was well worthy of any mans ambition.
 to the alleged activity of city employees Tn the campaign. declaring that the gov ernmental questions affecting the city had been absorbed in the idea as to who should fill tn city offices.
 lie took up the list of questions recent ly propounded to the mayoralty candi- dates by John w. Durr in The Adver- tiser. He explained that at the time the questions were published he had prepared answers which had not. however, been published He had his answers with him and he took up and answered each of the
 questions separately.
 As to the deficit. he said the way to
 meet 1t was to lop off all unnecessary ex- penses. Some of the city employees, he said. had been put on for political pur- poses only and their services could be dis pensed with. He was unalterably op- posed to the granting of a fifty-years or arraQ ft.ux uxtpn I. t~.. this question he alluded to his four years service in the City Council and the fight he made against the granting of the fran chise of fifty years to the company fur nishing gas to the city.
 He went deeply into the question of city taxes and said that the question pre- scented difficulties not generally appreciat- ed by the average man. The city assess
 nent, he said. could not. under the law. be higher than the County assessment. Captain Finley said that he had no club and no headquarters.
 T propose" said he, ito lay my claims before the calm and sober judgment of
 the people of Montgomery. If they are to
 be led away by hurrahs and the beating
 of tom-toms, l am not in it.
 The statement which has been made that only one could finance the city he said was bosh. The Mayor really had
 nothing to do with the financing of the city. Those matters were defined and regulated by law and the Mayor had only to follow the law.
 Captain Finley laid stress upon the im- portance of selecting good men for AL uermen. The Aldermen, who are the law makers of the city. he, said. should be of the best class of citizens. No man should be elected to the office of Mayor. said Captain Finley. unless he was free and untrammeied. The cause of the people was rtrenchment and refor.
 In response to calls from the audience Mir. Meyer spoke briefly but effectively. He reviewed the campaign and was sev- eral times interrupted with applause. He | took pride in the fact that he was South ern born and spoke of his affection for his native city which had grown from | the time he had come to Montgomery as a mere boy to accept a place Witn friend and relative who was the nrst Democratic Mayor Montgomery had since | the war-Mordecai Moses.
 He had tried he said, as Q citizen or Montgomery, to give the best of his time and interest to its affairs. He alluded | to his four years service as Alderman. When l went into the Council, said MT. Meyer. my hands were clean and l when I came out no man said they were | dirty"
 MT. Meyer said that if elected Mayor | he would go into the office unpledged and untrammeled.
 1 Any man, If l am elected Mayor, can apply for a place with the city, sald | MT. Meyer, and get 1t if he shows hls | fitness"
 | As to the question of deficit, MT. Meyer said that he would, If elected Mayor have six months to study that question In that time the experience Of all cities that did not have deficits could be se-
 cured and applied to the propiehs eon- | fronting Montgomery.
 l It was a sad commentary on the com
 mnnity of Montgomery, said MT. Meyer, | that out of the many fortunes made in | the city not a dollar was given to the | city. No hospitals had been endowed by citizens of Montgomery, no libraries. no
 parks had been given to the city, not a picture had been given to the schools. | The people, he said. should be encour- aged to help in the work of building up | the city. He spoke of the generosity to | their town which had been shown by the neopIe of Atlanta. If elected Mayor, he said. he proposed to invite the people | into his confidence and to ask their as- i sistauce in building ID Montgomery. | After Mr. Meyer had concluded, pr. A. St. c. Tennille, one Of the canol- dates for Alderman at Large, addressed | the meeting briefly.
 He would if elected, he said, serve the people to the best of hls ability con
 stantly keeping in mind the necessity oi | an economlcal AomlI's'- aei'A OA | fairs of the city.
 Gen T. w. A. Sanford, having been
 called upon. addressed he meeting earn
 estly in reza-d to he sction of the Cen
 tral Council in enforcing majority rue
 tor the mayoralty candidates but allow
 ing the aldermanic candidates to be se-
 lected by plurality vote. .,so., l He criticised the selection or AIueE
 nv a plurality vote, declaring that II
 o1ened the way for .he election to the
 City Council of men by a minority a,HS,aS vote ;1 Al iermen. ne said. could De eiecIeo r tN | every ward in the city bv a mlnorlty
 wore except one, Ward Three in which
 there were only two candidates. oo.
 The rule, he said. was thing the peo' pie should not sub nit to. It was, he
 said unheard of and Indemocratic. Ii
 was made by men, he said. in favor oi
 domination by the few. The candidates
 he declared, should not submit to 1t.
 After the address of General Sanford | ah