The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-07
The Cleveland contingent.

Selma Times, March s.
 The Times opened It's batteriss on Col | W. W. Screws of The Advertiser yester-
 day on account of the manner in which his paper is treating other candidates for the Presidency. The Advertiser has crit icised German very severely and never fails to belittle' the aspiration of Hearst.
 In season and out of season that paper has sung the praises of Grover Cleveland and in it's eyes there does not appear to
 be any man in the Union ft for the | Princeton"
 As an editor we concede to Colonel
 Screws the right to be a Cleveland wor- | shipper, If he wants to. As "a candidate gate to the St. Louis convention. we have the right to oppose him if we wish. This we propose to do.
 Right now at the outset we want to define our personal feelings toward the distinguished editor of The Advertiser. We regard him as a gentleman. every inch. He Is good man. personally, in the broadest acceptation of the word He Is man who has done a great deal of good in an hundred ways. No man in distress ever appealed to his generous heart and was turned away empty hand ed, if in his power to furnish assistance. He is a fine writer, a man of brains. in fact, one of the best equipped newspa- per men in the South. Personally we would like to see him accumulate a for tune out of his paper and be able after yeaR or two to retire from the editorial harness, If he wants to, and spend his declining years in the pursuits of liter ature and other congenial surroundings, honored by his friends and contentedly happy in the bosom of his family. In making war on him as a delegate to the St. Louis convention we want it under stood that we are not actuated by the least personal motive against him, for We like and admire him as a man.
 It is the principle he represents and the paper he edits that we are after. We do not propose to throw a single personal stone at him in our war on his political record. It is his splendid personality that has rallied about him strong following, who will try to send him to St. Louis. But for the vicious attack of his paper on William R. Hearst we may not have raised our voice against him. We could not say anything derogatory of Col. w. w. Screws if we wanted to. and would not if we could. We only propose to fight him on his utterances as a newspaper editor. We do not believe that major ity of the Democrats of Alabama en- dorse the course of The Advertiser in it's | wholesale abuse of all candidates with the exception of Cleveland and men of his way of thinking. We do not believe that they are willing to turn over the machinery of the party into the hands of the Cleveland clique, and surrender, all that has been won in this State dur ing the past eight years. MT. Cleveland nor any man who thinks as he does
 along financial lines, is the choice of a
 majority of the Democrats of Alabama
 The issue should be made and made boldly. Robbed of his personality and placed before the people solely as po- litical issue, Colonel Screws, represent
 ing the views that he does, would not
 stand ghost of a chance to go to St.
 Louis, The Advertiser, the most power
 tul organ in the State, wields great
 influence, and this coupled with Colonel
 Screws's personal popularity, are the
 blanks that he expects to win on.
 Every Cleveland Democrat in Alabama may be relied upon to rally to Colonel
 Screws's support. We do not regard a man as Democrat who has absented
 himself from the polls for two presiden- tial elections, as Cleveland has done. and , we cannot support man to the St. Louis
 convention whom we believe will try tc toist that old stay away from the polls on the party again. These are the lines
 upon which We propose to fight the dis tlnguished editor of The Advertiser.