The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-06
ALMOST, BUT NOT QUITE, MIR.
 COMER ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY

1 Mir. Conner was greeted with some 1 plause when he stepped forward B 1 speak. but the crowd was not a' E! thusiastic one at. any stage of r | speeches. Mir. Conner had all tF
 bers of his audience to take s 's l in the central section of t.. Irt house auditorium. so that he ould
 look them In the eyes when he got | ready to fire.
 In beginning. he said that the asser- ! tion had been made about him that he l could not make but two kinds of 1 day-school speech. Mir. Conner did not make the Sunday school speech. He was glad. he said. to stand face | to face with Butler County audience and see those friends who had stood | by him in the late unpleasantness. He | declared Butler County had given him 1 1000 of the 26.000 majority he had got
 ten when he was trying to break the railroad control of the State-a time when he needed friends
 A Broad Invitation. MT. Conner took the view that the invitation to speak on education in its term gave him a wide latitude The discussion of the questions affecting Alabama's welfare was educational. :. The man who didn't realize that had missed his calling.
 The Sunday School is educational,
 said Mir. Conner The children there are taught that there are two kinds of missions, foreign and home. Now l am an ardent believer in home mis- sions. believe that reform, like charity, should begin in our own hearts. l believe that we should learn to do good to our neighbor and I hold that our neighbor is every person with whom we come in contact.
 Out upon that idea which says, I'll take care of me and mine. You look
 out for you and yous. That was not my idea two years ago when I started
 on this work. I was trying to look out for you and yours, and me and mine suffered for and from that cause" With this introduction Mir. Conner rode forth and attacked the railroads. Every now and then he would throw in something for education, but 1t would be wrapped up in the railroad ques- tion.
 Jefferson County he said paid the enormous sum of S150,000 into the school fund of the State, and got back only $50,000. Jefferson County paid one-sixth of the taxes of the State, but Jefferson County was not complaining nor was she asking for any favors or privileges for the taxes she paid. But there is another power in Ala
 bama/ which pays one-sixth of the taxes, exclaimed MT. Conner That power is made up of the railroads. Be- cause they pay one-sixth of the taxes they demand the privilege to rule and dominate you. You understand that, don't you? Education, education. If you people had not had education enough to understand the question that was presented to you two years ago the movement for reform would not have won. Now. at this time, I only ~1r tr fnr aUy m n at Ito stand by yourselvss.,, 2sis' s5sss, He reminded his hearers that he had told the people of Alabama that they had Railroad Commission made up of men who from their environment leaned away from the people and to the railroads. He had told them that there were some men in Alabama who were standing between the railroads and the enforcement of the law. As to His Assocfats. T say to you that Colonel Tunstall and Mir. Sanders, by their environment,
 lean to the railroads" declared MT.
 Conner. They may pc as honest as
 you or I or anybody else, but their en-
 vironment has been against the people science against the consciences of the
 people of Alabama
 The speaker told his audience that the Louisville and Nashville Railroad gave in their railroad property in Ala
 bama to the Auditor at a valuation of
 $7.6o0 a mile, but when the Railroad Commission was Investigating the
 rates of the road the property was
 given in to the Commission at $53,350 a mile.
 Earnings and valua Sons of rail-
 roads are like two parallel lines," said
 the speaker, which run side by side
 but never get any nearer each other
 As earnings increase valuations in crease. In reference to the valuation
 of the property of the Louisville and
 Nashville the earnings stand as they have stood for sixteen years"
 But I want to describe to you that
 meeting of the Railroad Commission some weeks ago when I met forty of the smartest men in the country, attor- neys and others. I have met and been
 opposed by railroad attorneys at every
 step have taken in this cause. We'll, right here on my right sat Colonel
 Wiley Tmstall. a railroad politician.
 Over here on my left was Mir. Sanders
 who had been a railroad attorney when he was appointed to the commission.
 Before us was John V. Smith, late presi-
 dent of the Railroad Commission plead Ing and fighting for the railroads The
 last meeting of the Commission I at
 tended before I became President was pTtSiutu ONef Dy JOnn V. smith. 1ne
 first meeting I presided over he ap-
 peared before the Commission pleading g
 for the railroads. He was at this
 meeting And side by side pleading
 with him for the railroads was Colonel
 All. Tunstall. railroad attorney and
 Speaker of the House of Representa-
 tives. l don't say that he was trying
 to advise his father what to do. but
 I do say that whatever weight he had
 was thrown on the side of the rail- roads.
 What spectacle was all this for the
 free people of Alabama Build up
 your school houses. Educate your chill
 dren, so that they may know the right
 when they see it.''
 A voter from the center of the court
 room called out, Well the people
 selected one member of the Commis-
 sion"
 Yes. they did that" said Mir. Conner
 as q pleased smile travelled over his
 face.
 And we are going to elect the other
 two. when we get the chance" declared the man fin the audience Whereupon
 MT. Conner applauded by clapping his
 hands"
 About RaiIrOnd Attorneys. Mir. Conner wanted to tell of the
 trouble he had when he was trying to
 get some railroad legislation into the
 constitution He said that every mem
 Der of the Corporation Committee was
 opposed to it with the exception of Lee
 Long and Colonel Murfee.
 "A railroad attorney can not make a good legislator" declared Mir Conner
 Now l have a brother who is a rail