The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-14
MONEY BEING SPENT IN
 GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN


 are supporting Mir Conner? How many lumber companies are supporting Dr. Cunningham and how many are sup porting Mir. Conner? How many whole sale grocery corporations are support ing Dr. Cunningham and ohw many are supporting MT. Comer7 How many fertilizer factories are supporting pr. Cunningham and how many are sup- porting MT. Comer7
 The truth and the simple truth is l that Mr. Conner is being supported I by more corporations than is Dr. Cum ningham and every well informed man knows 1t.
 The cotton mills are turning every stone to effect the nomination of MT. | Conner Most of the cotton mills of 1.-the State enjoy the valuable privilege of paying no tax on their property. A l liberal estimate places the value of cot ton mills property at eleven million doi- lars on which no tax Is paid. Mr. Co., mer and his friends are. and have been l ciamoring loudly about the privileges enjoyed by the railroads. and they have rung in the charges that the railroads l enjoy special favors granted by com l plaisant legislators. But the railroads
 in Alabama pay taxes. The cotton mills do not.
 | The lumber companies as a rule are
 staunch packers of Mir. comer's cam | | from the railroads. The railroads, they would have the people believe. are making too much money on their in- | vestment. All commercial and all in dustrial Alahema knows, however, that l the biggest profits made by any in- | dustryi in the state is made by the 1 lumber concerns. These companies, a few of the larger ones have bought l up practically all the Alabama timber | AT in n dictate the price of lumber.
 The Lumber Interests.
 I weli-informed Alabamians know that | there is a close corporation of prom | inent lumber officials who hold regular | meetings and secret meetings to dis- cuss the condition of the iumbefN trade. The men who gather at these meetings report has 1t. fix the price of lumber
 and lumber has been going up in past years until 1t Is sky high. But the lumber interests of the state are like the infant industries" of the north. | They are making money. but the cry Is 1 always going up that they need help and protection That the lumber inv terests are making big profits no we'll informed Alabamian doubts. especially l If he has been called upon to buy any i lumber at the present high prices.
 Now as to the third feature of the organized opposition which Dr. Cum | ningham encountered in his trip through Ta1ladega and Shelby coun- ties, the ex-employer of convict la- bor who wants to wreak vengeance on Dr. Cunningham for couceiving the plan for increasing the revenue of the state from the returns of convict la bor In the four years previous to the administration of Governor Jelks, the total income from convict labor was only s106.Ooo In single year now the returns are upwards of S300,- 900. The man who hired for s9 a month a convict for whom the state is now receiving $35 month must have made a neat profit and the rage of the man who made money under the old system towards the man re- sponsible for the new system can
 be easily understood.
 So much has been said about the
 acorporate influences" behind the can
 didacy of Dr. Cunningham that the
 whole truth of the part corporations
 are playing in this campaign should
 be known. Moreover, the Conner lCampaign Committee is spending an
 enormous amount of money in this fight. It may be that all the money is being spent legitluately. but the money is being spent just the same. MT. Conner in his public addresses says that he spent Ss.000 to be elected President of the Railroad Commis- sion. The contest he is waging for Governor is costing him many times that amount No one can deny that. MT. Conner may be spending his own money in making the contest. or the rumors that his committee has re- | ceived benefits from industrial "in- | terests" which will be benefited by | true.
 Wherever the money came from. an l enormous amount of 1t is being spent. A new era has come into Alabama politics It would seem that the only man who could hope to be successful in a primary is a man with large fortune and that the door of public life is shut in the face of the poor man. And after all. why should the money spent two years ago by the John V Smith Campaign Committee be l called A fund for "debauching the vot- l CTS of the State" while the equally isrge sums spent by Mir. Conner and his committee is called " fund for the education of the people"
 All of this was brought to mind by
 the Saturday visit of pr. Cunningham
 to Childersburg, in Taliadega County,
 and Vincent in Shelby County. Friday 1 Dr. Cunningham spent over in Clay | County on a n-political occasion At
 a cornerstone laying he addressed per haps 5000 persons at Ashland After Il the speaking nothing would do his friends but that he should drive
 through the country to Lineville. where
 he delivered his second speech in Clay H County.
 He had an hour or so in the city of TaIladega, which he devoted to good purpose Escorted by a friend, he | passed around the square and met | scores and scores of voters. many of whom came from the country. His ITalladega County friends were agree ably surprised to hear men they had considered for Conner and men whom they had thought were on the fence, pledge their support to Dr. Cunning ham.
 Change at ChildeFsburg.
 He reached Childersburg at l o'clock lin the afternoon. Now, Childersburg | has been considered solid for Conner. T The Conner men at one time were brag- ging that cunningham at one time had three votes in the beat-three doe- ltors-but one of them later changed to 1 Conner. They are not saying that any more.
 A committee of half dozen of the Heading citizens of Childersburg met
 Dr. Cunningham at the depot He was 1 escorted up town, where he met humber of voters. A large number of
 farmers had come in to town, and when pr. Cunningham arose to speak, his crowd numbered upwards of 150 per- sons. He spoke from the sidewalk. which Is raised above tho street sew
 eral feet. Although he had number