The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-14

The personalities of John Hollis Bank | head and Richmond Pearson Hobson I who are contesting for the Democratic nomination for Congress in the Sixth Ala Eama District, are interesting.
 | The nation honors these men. They are national figures In every sense. Thls 1 term National. figure has been used I facetionsly on the stump. but It Is psoET eriy applied to Bankhead and Hobson. A national figure is enc known to tho l,ration. The youngest child in the schools Of walia waila, Washington. or Sagn- tuck. Maine. could tell of Hobsons s xlo- r.ous feat in sinking the Merrimac. The htmblest student of rudimentary Amer ican politics might stand up and beiax catechised, respond that Bankhead haA I heen one of the foremost Democratic Congressmen many years and as mcni- Der of the House Committee on Rivers and Harbors has visited every State in the Union. He might add, also that Bankhead is nearly the dean of the Dem ocratic side of the House. Certainly he is the dean Of the Alabama deIegati m. and his advice on political matters IS sought as the wisdom of q sage.
 Bankhead is s1 years old. Hobson has I just turned into his 34th year. So. Bank | head is modest. Hobson is not. Bank head reserves his ego. Hobson is always conscious and puts 1t forward. Bankhcad repeIs the suggestion that he Is "na- tional figger," saying that he is just a plain Alabama hill billy" Hobson de- | lights in being a national figure" be- lieving that he Is thereby enabled tc
 draw attention to his native State. whose people he loves with a devotion that no one can misunderstand who has eve: been associated with the young naval officer.
 | Hobson has been in the navy and ab- | sent from his home. Greensboro, Ala, since he was IA years old. Devoting all | of the years of his young manhood to naval affairs he naturally knows little | of plain, everyday politics. He is pro- | found student, however, and one Is sur prised at his evident insight into great national and governmental questions. Bankhead Is what the world calls good | politician. He has been closely associ. ated with men who rule in Alabama since | he came home from the greatest war the world ever witnessed, in which ne
 was gallant soldier. As public man | he has shown favor to other public men | whom Hobson has fashioned with the title machine politician" These SO | called machine politicians. or men of re cognized political influence in the nine counties of the District, are bending ev-
 cry energy to nominate Bankhead.
 And so, there Is small wonder that ths
 contest between these two leading Ala bama figures has attracted much atten. iton. The nation is looking on. Tho lyeomanry of the Sixth District Is to de eide between a young and talented hero
 who has won the plaudits of the world
 and an old and experienced legislator
 This is the first time Hobson has come
 to his people asking for something and | l. An. Vfnfr <m4fkk
 Alabama's Senior Congressman.
 Will the Sixth District rebuR Hobson
 the hero, after the sights, the criticism
 he has suffered elsewhere because he wat a Southern boy?
 Will the Sixth District retire a Con. gressman who has served nine terms and thereby stife his ambition to sit in the
 highest Legislative body on Gods earthi
 These are questions asked of Sixth District voters while we hold our breath. lThese are considerations that make the contest in the Sixth District of far more
 than State interest These are the things that cause managing editors to put we poor slaves of the typewriter, pen and pencil on the trail of Bankhead and
 Hobson., with instructions to stay there until the trail grows cold.
 The true newspaper correspondent
 serves in judicial capacity He is sent to the scene to describe what happens there as vividly and as interestingly as the facts and his attachments will all
 low. He cares nothing for the men. He views them as automatons He writes lof what they do and of what they say. He must be scrupulously honest to hold the respect of his readers If he does
 not adhere to theee simple rules. he does
 not write for respectable journals.
 Travelling with Bankhead and Hobson
 in Walker and Fayette counties a week, T was enabled to form an estimate of these candidates who are appealing to Sixth District voters for their support IT had known both of them before, and in their widely different spheres of ac-
 tivity I had admired them.
 Hobson Is a speaker of surpassing at.
 tractlveness. He is handsome. his voice
 Is robust and his meteoric naval carer makes fS2 picturesque. His experience as lecturer has developed him into a lplatform orator of convincing methods He states a proposition with the draw so apparent in his early efforts at ora, tory. Then, he reaches his argument speaking faster and faster and with ar
 intensity that is thrilling. Deducting the conclusion from the argument hC fires his climax like the discharge of lthirteen-inch gun, and one does not have to go around and wake up the cla1uers
 The applause is awaiting the discharge and 1t is invariably long drawn out
 The naval officer may be lacking ir Ilogie-indeed some of his schemes for gov. ernment betterment are absurd-but hC believes in what he says, and he believes
 in Hobson. His honesty, his sincerity
 his enthusiasm are not to be doubted by
 any student of humanics. He would be called sentimental if his sentiment was
 not backed up by deep earnestness and abnormal virility. He sees everything
 as he would have 1t, and he is so en- grossed with himself and his cause that
 failure is not written in his plans.
 'I love men and women," says Hobson, speaking privately, and this love for
 men and women comes of a religious | training from which he has never stepped aside--a devotion to the pure and the l good which earned for him the haunting sobriquet "Parson," when he was a cadet at Annapolis
 When you hear something evil of an-
 other." again says Hobson. divide it by four. When you hear something good of another multiply 1t by ten, and you'll invariably reach a correct conclusion"
 Applying these homiletics to daily inter- course with his fellows, Hobson Is un- consciously the best politician who ever ranted from a stump. There is nothing of the demagogue about Hobson. He loves men and women without hauteur. By the same simple reasoning he knows Hob son is an extraordinary young man. His character force Is so strong that it is compelling. The amenities of life have his constant attention without studious effort. He is thoughtful. chivalrous. cour- teous, ever gentle. The more humble his companion, the more engaging is Hobson. IL. l.