The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-10
BURNE;N AND
 LVsK DEBATE Candidates For Congress in the Seventh. THEY MEET IN GADsDEN Great Crowd Divide Applause Between Speakers. Charges end Counter Charges Feat ure of Speeches. The Congress man Produces His Railroad Passes and Shows Them.
 
THEY MEET IN GADsDEN

Il q 0DN91 0@k& &sASW0 88SkAs. Gadsden. March e--(Speciai.l-A erea, crowd gathered at the Court House at Il o'clock today to hear the joint dis cusslon when lion. John l.. Burnett and Hon. ]. A. Lusi. candidates for the nomination for Congress from the ScN- enth District met.
 Burnett Spoke First. Burnett was the tiI st speaker. He spoke thrcc-quarters of an hour. saying thai this was the fourth time he had come be- fore the people asking for their votes. but this time in a way different from the other times.
 For three times came before you without opposition" said he.
 Two years ago l had hard fight, but finally when the votes were counted had the largest majority received at any previous election. Now l am be- fore you for the fourth time, and am met by gentleman from another county also who says ought not to so to Con gress because ride on a pass Now he Jays this is the issue, Burnett ouzat not to go to Congress because he rides on a pass. But I will show you that | there IS another issue. challenge him to show one single instance where rhs passes ever made me vote against the interests of my people. Loud applausc.y ) So then there is an Infinitely more in- portant question at stake Han railroad passes.
 Congress assigned me to the Commit tee on Public Lands and bill was Ia- | troduccd before us calling for an appro- priation of 25O00 acres of lands for nor -mal school purposes, but the committee refused to pass 1t at my own request. Did that look like represented railroads and trusts?
 Another bill was introduced proposing to appropriate all the public lands to the public schools, I did not believe that homestead lands should go this way. But. I said, there are 5000 acres 5f mineral lands and want to amend thfl 1 htil for the benefit of the pubic schools of my State. With my amendments toe bill passed the committee by a unanl- nous vote. and lands worth s1,OO0,oOO vii go into the public school fund in Ala- | barna-
 Issues in Campaign. These are the real issues in this cam paign. not railroad passes.
 Three times Mir. Lusk says he has voted for me, and nothing was ever said about railroad passes until he got to wanting my job and then he rised howl about it. He Is inconsistent for not one word did he ever say about passes until he took a notion that he would like to go to Congress
 MT. Lusk went to the Legislature and took an oath to support the constitution He had $500 stock in a bank at Gunters- vile and although he swore he would examine into the condition of all banks in the State yet. he didn't do 1t. Banks failed all over the State and the hard earned savings of many men were swept away, because MT. Lusk failed to do what he had sworn he would. Now he says if he is elected to Congress the railroad passes will not effect him, when his record shows that a little bank stock of only $500 kept him from doing his duty.
 "Mr. Lusk talks much about certain letters have written at different times which he claims he has in his possession. I want you to know how he got those letters. Fitzpatrick, my secretary, got mad because discharged him and took my private letters and turned them over to MT. Lusls. I ask you how much bet ter is the man who takes private property and uses it against a competitor, than the man who steals that propertyT'
 Mir. Burnett, spoke just forty-five minutes, and when MT. Lusk arose to speak the audience welcomed him with a good round of most hearty applouse. He spoke for an hour and many times was interrupted by applause.
 Lusk on Railroads.
 T am before you as a candidate for Congress, and am a Democrat true and tried notwithstanding MT. Burnett's statements to the contrary" declared Mir. Lusk q have never refused to address any Democratic convention whenever asked and never asked for a pass to go to such convention.
 "I will dscuss only one of the principal Issues involved in this campaign. When simmered down to it's final analysis the question Is this: Shall the Democratic party and through the Democratic party the people of the Seventh District be de- Iivered to the railroads and trusts to be bound hand and foot and gaggedT A great question, and one of vital interest to all the people of Alabama Is the ques- ton of transportation, it amounts an- nually to $25.OOO.OO0 two and one-half times the amount of your State debt. Now how can you regulate railroad rates? Certainly not by the State Legis- lature. Congress is the only power that can do it. but 1t has failed to do so. Mir. Burnett has never introduced a bill of that sort. Others have introduced them but they never passed. because too many railroad lawyers were there.
 John Burnett is a railroad Democrat am just a plain Democrat. The rate on a car of cattle from Attalla to Chatta- ncoRa is SIP but a little further up the road where there are no competing lines the rates are higher, yet the distance is shorter From CollinsviIle to Chatta- nooga the rate on car of cattle is SO, and from Fort Payne it Is $2S.''
 At this point Mir. Lusk called on Mir. Burnett to produce his railroad passes and MT. Burnett dug them up to the great amusement of the crowd. MT. Lusk held the passes high over his head and declared they represented $40 savings for every trip Mir. Burnett made to Wash ington.
 ''Mr Burnett says these letters have of his are private" said MT. Lusk. "Yes they are private, and would forever have remained so had not gotten hold of them Oaughter) but the people have a right to know what their Congressman is doing and what kind of letters he is writing"
 Reads Burnett's Letters.
 At this point Mir. Lusk read the fol~