The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-03
CAMP PAIGN IN
 THE SEVENTH Burnett Will Down His
 Opponent. TWO COUNTIES IN DOUBT Powell May Succeed in Mar shall and Winston The Present Consressman in His Glory, and Without Fight He Would
 Hardly Credit an
 Election.
BY WILL T. SHERMAN.

Gadsden, Nov. 2.-(Staff Correspond ence. .)--The Seventh District is Ala bama's political Manchuria-
 A hybrid Populistic- Republican op- position is vainly contesting the victo- rious march of the Democrats. The fighting while 1t extends over the en- tire district is fiercest in Marshall and Winston Counties. The hybrid opposi- tion is fighting with hand grenades, sharpened swords, dunn dunn bullets and other means of warfare prohibited by civilized nations. They are trying to make of Marshall Lioyang and of Winston a Lone Tree Hill.
 But John l.. Burnett will be returned to Congress and by majority of 2,500. Not a Democrat of the district doubts 1t. In his heart his Populist opponent. J. W. Powell perhaps does not doubt 1t.
 The campaign in the Seventh Is in one way unique. Thomas E. Watson, of Georgia, is in a large way respon- sible for much of what strength the fusion opposition has developed. We'll informed and thoughtful Democrats say this. They say that Populism was dying of anaemia, even in the Seventh District when the verbose Watson was galvanized into political life from the oblivion of Thomaston. to saw the air and utter epigrams in a bootless. spec tacular campaign.
 Populism would have in few short months they say passed out unwept and unsung to join Greenbackism in the hades of political parties.
 Watson . Saline Solution.
 In desperate cases physicians give saline treatment. that Is they inject as a sort of a forlorn hope. a solution of salt into the body of the weakened patient. Watson's campaign for Presi- dent gave the dying anaemic Populist party in Alabama the saline solution and 1t sat up and raised a howl.
 The Republican party in these hill counties has always had some strength. The smak white farmer. the hill billy" if you please. never had any too much love for the negro on the one hand nor for the planter of the, canebrake or the prairie on the other. He didn't love the Confederacy any too we'll. He has to a considerable extent affiliated with the Republican party. He doesn't like the negro and he doesn't like Roosevelts negro policy but he is "agin the Dimmercrats." That Is sufficient platform for the men who are in the trenches in Marshall, Cherokee and other counties, trying to stop the assaults of John L. Burnett and his IOlIOWtIS.
 This district in times past has been represented by Populists and Republi- cans. It sent Milton W. Howard to Congress, the man who wrote If Christ Came to Congress" a book about which nothing was remarkable save the title. The nomination in the present fight against Congressman Burnett was rendered Milton w., but he refused the proffered crown. It was then passed up to J. w. Powell of Cullman, who is leading a motley political army like unto that squad. which out of shame Jack Falstaff refused to march through Coventry.
 Always a Fighting Ground.
 The Seventh District has always been a fighting ground. The Democrats have always had to whip a fight to get a victory. There Is not a county in the district in which some political hopes are not barred and some of them are Democratic hopes.
 Fighting has broadened and develop ed John L. Burnett. If he was in a district like the Ninth or Third where the incumbents are not called upon to lick either a Democrat seeking the nomination or a Republican ahunger and athirst for job the stalwart little Congressman from the scrappy Seventh would rust and corrode.
 He has a rare fighting record behind him. This is the thtd term he is serving now and he has had to fight his way to Washington every time. Six years ago. after M. W. Howard had completed his second term, the opposition put up by O. D. Streit, but the Democratic Burnett beat him out. For his successive terms MT. Burnett had to beat T. W. Powell his present opponent and the Honorable Napoleon Bonaparte Spears the saturnine gen. tleman from St. Clair.
 And last spring he had his first Democratic fight. It came from Mar shall County and the Hon. John A Lusk of judicial legislation fame was its storm center. The fight was a lively mill. Any member of the Ala bama legislature will tell you that the gentleman from Marshall County is no mean antagonist on the stump and on the hustings
 Lusk and Burnett,
 The Marshall County candidate se- cured through a discharged private secretary some private letters of Con- gressman Burnett asking a railroad president for some trip passes. There was nothing in the letters more than public men. practically all public men, are given to writing. but when the run hdTSidit kOI De- fore the common peepuP he made them a platform and campaign. SarJent Buzfuz never dilated more upon the significance of the Pick wikian messages for warming pan" and tomato sauce" than did the Marshall County candidate upon those letters.
 But all to no avail. Congressman Burnett was ever an aggressive fight CT and when the primary was done he was victor by a wide margin. Fighting like this is bound to develop a man or the entire competitive sys- tenn of civilization is wrong.
 T. w. Powell the candidate of the opposition is an old time Popullst of CulIman. He had even been fond of haranging a crowd and Is said to make an effective speech.
 The district in which the fight is stretches clear across the State. It is composed of the Counties of Etow- ah, Marshall. St. Clair. Winston, Franklin. Cullman, Cherokee and De Kalb.