The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-26
HEFLIN AND SMITH BEGIN
 CAMPAIGN IN FIFTH DISTRICT

immediate Congressional aspirations had birth.
 They were sent out before MT. Hefin had secured his divorce from the Stall ings crusade After he had announced his candidacy. MT. Hefiin decided to take advantage of the opportunity to speak. and arranged with MT. Stallings for part of the time. Upon learning that MT. lief lin would speak. Senator Smith one of his opponents, asked for and was grant, ed joint discussion.
 The crowd which gathered in the court room was not large. numbering. as 1t did about 150 voters. No especial warmth i or enthusiasm was aroused. The speech es were not heated enough to stir enthu- siasm. They were brief statements of the public records of the candidates, with their positions upon pending questions. The addresses were very brief. Mir. Hefiin spoke less than twenty-five min utes, and Senator Smith occupied less | time than than twenty minutes. The three speeches were delivered in less time | than an hour and a half.
 The meeting had no chairman. As the | Grand Jury was discharged, MT. Henin | took his position and there being no one else to introduce him. Judge Richardson | did it in a few words and retired imme- diately from the stand.
 | Mr. deu1n Speaks.
 l Mir Heflin said that the last time he had the pleasure of addressing an Au- l tauga county audience, he had appear ed there with the lamented Charles w. Thompson in his successful campaign for Congress. He eulogized the dead Con- gressman, and contrived to draw atten- ton to the friendship which he, said ex- i isted between ,s4em.
 'T am here, fellow citizens," he said, | asking at your hands the Democratic nomination to Congress from the Fifth | district. I was reared in the district, and in it toiled upon the farm, and there I spent the happiest days of my | youth"
 | He spoke of his membership of the | House of Representatives of two Legis- | latures. He drew the attention of the l crowd to the fact that he had been a | member of the Constitutional Convention, | and he dilated upon his services on the | stump In the campaign for the adoption | of the constitution.
 "And fellow citizens," he said, eff | have not been loyal to every trust you have placed upon me. I am not worthy l to receive the nomination I am asking" | He told his hearers that he was a mem- Der of the State Board of Assessment, which had just met and raised the tax | on railroad property. He told them | further as a reason why they should vote | for him that he had assisted in the Con- stitutional Convention in reducing the tax rate of the State.
 Separation of Taxes. He declared that he was in favor of separating the taxes of the whites and the negroes for school purposes.
 He announced that he was for good roads and said that if elected he would
 vote for the Brownlow bill. He said the l Federal Government should take some of the money that 1t was spending in the
 Philippines and put 1t in improvements in the public roads of the country.
 To go to Congress, he said, had been | a cherished ambition since his boyhood. | The ambition, he said, had been disap- | pointed once or twice before. He made | the claim that at one time in the Con | gressional Convention of that district he | lacked only one vote of being nominated. Death. he said. had created a new con dition in the district, but the condition
 was one that forbade a thorough can | vass, because of lack of time. He closed | after speaking ten minutes.
 l Senator Smith was introduced by his
 opponent. In opening, Mir. Smith said
 that he had pledged his opponent that
 the fight would be a clean and a square | one and one with no personalities.
 Although 1t was his first visit to Autauga
 County. he said that he had acquaint-
 ances among some of the best known
 citizens of the country. He told his
 hearers that he was the representative in the Alabama Senate of the Thirty l fourth Senatorial District composed of
 the counties of Clay, Cleburne and Coosa.
 He endorsed heartily the sentiments that
 Mir. Heflin had expressed on the question | of white supremacy and he recalled that
 in his district out of 7,5O0 registered
 voters. there was only one negro. l The Good Roads Platform.
 "I am very much pleased said Mir. Smith. Ito learn that MT. Heflin has gctten on my platform of good roads. You probably noticed that I stated my position on the question of good roads iu this mornings Advertiser I am Ge- lighted with the quickness MT. Hefiln has shown in mounting that platform stand, too, in favor of the extension of the rural free delivery system We have six of those routes in my county and they have proved of great benefit and service to the farmer. If I am elected I shall labor to extend the service in ev- cry part of the district, as understand you have no rural routes in Autauga County.
 "I do not claim to have inherited the
 mantle of the lamented Charles W
 Thompson" said Senator Smith, looking
 significantly at MT. Hehin, but 1 dc
 claim to have had his friendship. If
 am elected, it will be my ambition tc
 serve the district in Congress as faith.
 fully, as honorably and as conscien.
 tiously as did Congressman Thompson. II
 Four years of his life, he said, had
 been spent in Washington. qualifying
 himself for the practice of his profes-
 sion. He had been a close observer of the
 workings of Congress. and he had a
 considerable acquaintance among its
 membership.
 Smith Against Hearst.
 Senator Smith dId not hesitate to state
 hIs position on national affairs. II do
 not think the nominate of Mir. Hearst
 by the Democratic Party Is advisable, '
 he said "I think some high minded , Democrat, like Judge Parker. should be
 selected to lead the Democratic hosts against the broncho buster In the White
 House. I favor, too, the sending of an uninstructed delegation from Alabama to
 St. Louis. Mcclellan of New York, who
 has won the only notable Democratic
 victory in the past year, is my second
 choice.'
 The race in the Fifth. he said, was a race between young men. He was' he
 said. older than MT. Hefin when the lat
 ter made his first race for Congress. , In alluding to his opponent, Senator
 Smith said that there was good ded
 ot the philosophy of the old Quaker
 about him. The old Quaker had an ire
 spOnsible acquaintance, whom he would
 not call a liar. "Stin." he said, If thu
 Mayor should say to me, T want the big gest liar in town I uuottId say tO thee