The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-09
Read at Forbes Meeting


 the following:
 At public meeting of Mir. Teagues supporters at the court house on tns night of the 9th inst President Dent in a speech denied that MT. Teague was the candidate of ring, and declared that MT. Forbes was the candidate oi Tease to Of pIsdes Iho g9se a"ee to certain things, and, on his refusal, induced MT. Forbes to do so.
 At meeting at West End last Tues; Tue sa as saying that MT. Forbes is sur. rounded by a circle. which, If ne were elected, might dictate his policy JUS. as much as it is claimed that the rihs will rule MT. Teague should ne De elected"
 The undersigned citizens of Mont gomery believe that the alluslons 10 the circle" in these utterancess refer to us and others with us ana that these public utterances demand a statement of the leading facts connect l! ed with our conferences and their pear l ing on this campaign.
 About three months ago we ano others met together to consider the public gambling house situation in this breaking up the evil. After careful deliberation 1t. was. decided that the most practicable, effective and perma. nent means to that end was to try to
 bring about the election of Mayor who would appoint 6 chief of police willing and determined to enforce the laws ana IL also the opinion Of the conference that there were other urgent reasons why | man of superior ability and character should be elected Mayor at this time When this decision was made. the
 next step was to consider the names of such men as seemed likely to be in sympathy with these purposes . Several ardent friends of MT. w. M. Teague were in this conference and MT. Teague's name was suggested as a man who might stand for what was | desired. At this juncture, member stated that he had talked with MT Teague and knew that he was willing to be a candidate for Mayor. but feared that he would not be just the man found in conversation with MT. Teague that he had decided leaning toward MT. Gerald; that MT Teague did not believe it would be good politics to oppose Gerald openly; that he wanted to be elected, and if he kept quiet, he | could get votes from both sides-Ger- aid and anti-Gerald.
 After consideration, the conference decided to invite MT Teague to meet it at a future meeting and to get him to state his views on the coming campaign. and, particularly, how he stood in the matter of retain | ing MT. Gerald as Chef of Police. | At the appointed time MT. Teague met with us, and at first he was not | inclined to express himself positively. | He seemed willing to meet the view
  | on his candidacy, should 1t bcome known that he would not reapoint MT. Ger | aid. However, he finally agreed, in | cosideratioh of support of ourselves and others that should he make the race and be elected Mayor, he would not retain MT. Gerald as Chief; but he was unwilling that his position in the | matter be made public at that time | and made 1t a condition that should | our negotiations have any hitch, he | should have the right to withdraw his | agreement with us as to Gerald, and | make such other arrangements as his | interest required
 | Later n subcommittee of three from | this conferece waited on MT. Teague and told him that 1t was not proper | or wise to keep his promise as to Ger aid quiet, as he wished. He then re- luctantly consented that should any one, who might be opposed to Gerald, ask | the question as to where he stood as | to Gerald, we might tell them that if elected Mayor, he would not retain | Gerald.
 Finally, it was agreed between the sub committee, representing the whole | body, and MT. Teague that the sub committee should address formal let | ter to him, setting forth the principles and policies agreed upon ,and that he should write a reply containing his ap- | proval.
 This interchange of letters took place, and MT. Teague's reply was signed and delivered. Tn this reply the name of Chief Gerald was not mentioned, but the following expression in It was | framed and understood by MT. Teague | and the conference to mean as plainly as general terms could make 1t that Mir Teague would not continue MT l Gerald in office.
 q fully agree with you that the law | should be enforced in steady and uniform manner, day in and week out
 and to that end l pledge myself to select for the head of the Police De- | partment some man who l believe is capable and willing to carry out such a policy"
 A letter press copy of this letter is | in our hands.
 It was agreed that the members of our conference was to go out and can vass for signatures of representative citizens to call upon MT. Teague to run | for the office of Mayor on the declar- aton of principles and policies agreed
 upon, and that after publication or | this call, he was to respond to our
 announcement of his candidacy and
 publish the letter containing the | above statement
 All our arrangemhnts were. made to circulate this call, but on the morn
 ing the work was to begin, MT. Teague
 requested a delay. which he prolonged from time to time for two days, at a 1 juncture when we considered time very | important. During this time we heard | rumors that Mir. Teague was conferring | with Gerald. He set time for glv-
 ing us a final answer, but failed to
 keep his appointment. After waiting half a day longer, we were compelled l to construe his failure to keep his ap- point as a rejection of our offer of | support. and a refusal to run on the
 principles agreed upon. Of this we
 notified him promptly, and he replied l that he, too, had about made up hls
 mind that he could not win on that | platform any way, He asked the re l turn of his letter to us. and that he be released from any agreement, so that l he could he free to pursue such policy as he thought best for his own in
 terest. His request was compiled with.
 On further consideration of the situa- | tion, we requested Captain A. G. Forhes l to meet us and to state his views. We | found him to be already In hearty ac- 1 cord with those principles and policies, and became convinced that he had the l qualifications necessary to lead in this | juncture in our city's affairs. l Captain Forbes then announced his 1 candidacy and platform and assumed | full control of his campaign. Our entire purpose and actions have
 been for what we conceive to be the l best interests of the entire city. Bradford Hardie, F.. R. Taber,
 J. w. Black, Michael Cody. Fred s. Ball,
 F. P. Glass.