The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-09

B. B. Conner, candidate for the Dem- ocratic gubernatorial nomination, made his first appearance in Montgomery last night as a candidate for the chief executives office.
 MT. Conner spoke in the circuit court room at the county court house. The court room was filled and the speaker was given respectful and now and then enthusiastic ass~ation. Few lett during the two hours and half MT. Conner was speaking. although the candidate during his remarks went ov' CT the same ground two or three times.
 But MT, Conner is an orator. He is no longer the quick businesslike speak CT with a thousand statistics at his finger .-ps, he was when he started his campaign for president Of the rail- road commission two years ago. His hundreds of speeches over Alabama in ..e interest of his candidacy for Pres ident of the Railroad Commission and Governor have taught nim his lesson and he is a quick pupil. He made his usual plea for me elections of legis- | lators who coincide with his views and severely criticized his Associate Rail- road Commissioners.
 The candidate has developed elocu- tionary qualities that are admirable and he has discovered that an audience will shout with decidedly more fervor over a commonplace metaphor than over the most confounding set of fig | ures that ever came off the adding | machine.
 < tsThe DOyvntrOdden ePople." Since Mir. Conner last appeared in Montgomery he has learned that peo- ple like to hear candidates say that | they are downtrodden." He Is like wise coglizant of the fact that II Is we'll to impress his hearers tnat they | "are wearing shackles Of political thraIldom" and he knew there would be a laugh when he shouted why not l let George Jones name your State or ficers and make the laws for your com | menwealth?"
 MT. Conner has undoubtedly improved | as an orator and he never failed to pc interesting during the two hours ana a half of his discourse.
 His audience was representative Montgomery audience. It was decldeuly l slow in warming up but toward the end of the speech there was considera- ble enthusiasm manifested. There were quite & number of ladies present. | At the close of his speech Mir. Conner was given a gOodly number of protesta- tions of support by members Of the | audience.
 l He was OS oOh | eral John w. A. Sanford, who said that he had been requested by friends of Mir Conner, among whom he mum I bered himself, during this canvass to | present the speaker. He said that MT | Commer stood for government for the people and not for any particular class or corporation and he heartily | endorsed such a platform. He then | simply presented Mir Conner. Wore n Happy Smile. The candidate arose smiling. The smile is usually there when he is speak | ing. It Is a broad smile. and rather | good natured smile. When the smile comes off though, he is invariably strenuous, almost dramatic It Is his method to pace out into the audience or to strike a transfixed position and | keep it for two or three minutes, while his voice is working under full pres- | sure.
 He smilingly acknowledged General l Sanford's introduction. He said that | General Sanford had been with him on the present fight for a long time
 He declared that the fight Is not 2 | battle of Comerism but Is contest of Peopleism and a fight of true De- mocracy.
 He declared he had stood for true | Democracy all of his life adding "and
 please God I'll be with you at the | finish"
 He said that he had been intimately connected with Montgomery for many
 years. His first trading was done in Montgomery. He began trading with
 Montgomery merchants in 1872 and
 was considered one of the best buyers
 the merchants had He had bought thousands of dollars worth of goods
 on credit and mo one in Montgomery will say I ever robbed them out of a cent"
 MT. Conner referred to his success as
 A farmer and a country merchant, and declared that Montgomery Is more de- pendent on the farmer and the country merchant than any city in the State
 save perhaps, Selma
 You have little manufacturing in terests here" he said, "a few middle interests, although your lumber trade is growing rapidly. The success oi Montgomery lies in the success of tho
 farmer and the country store keeper As one builds the other builds, as ont
 suffers the other suffers. If you don