The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-01
MIR. COMER,s INCONSISTENCY AND
 INSINCERITY

MIR. C0MER,s INCONSISTENCY AND
 INsINCERITY.
 In Mir. Corners last address which he seems to be circulating at great ex- pense, he says:
 We further believe that if the Leg fslature would take 100 items of the most common manufacture, production and consumption and use, and establish on them by the Legislature the Georgia Soasa THs wop Sne kate E that sN1oNE yhs by the railroads and fought through the courts. yet we are very confident that the courts would sustain this. In his open letter recently to MT. Harrel, of Oak Bowery. which was published generally in the State Mir. Conner says:
 advocate that the Legislature will pass a rate bill on all the leading ar- ticles of production, manufacture and consumption. compristng about 100. the Georgia rate; Neither could the railroads ENJoIN this.
 Mir. Conner has now learned that the railroads could enjoin this rate. even if made by the Legislature. Doubt less this concession on the part of Mir Conner will prove somewhat disappoint- ing to Mir. Harrel. and certainly to his followers, who have been taught by MT. Conner to have dread of the courts. It is to Mir. Corners credit that he now makes this admission. for it shows that he has taken time from his Gubernatorial canvass to read The Advertisers comment on his Harrel letter. and to post himself upon this subject.
 Is MT. Conner sincere? He says truth fully that he made six hours speech before the railroad commission com posed of John V. Smith, President; W. T. Sanders and Wiley Tunstall. in which he demanded that those gentle men make an order adopting the Geor- gia rate and classification in toto Noth- ing was heard at that time about a de- mand, limited to one hundred articles only. and in fact 1t is part of the his- tory of the State that upon the refu- sal of the commission to make the or- der demanded by MT. Conner, that he made the Georgia rates an Issue and defeated MT. Smith upon that issue. If the people of Alabama in that memo rable campaign in which Mir. Conner was swept into office had known that Mir. Conner was not sincere when he asked the Railroad Commission in a six hours speech, to do that which he now says can not be done, 1t is at least possible that the result might have been different. Was 1t fair in Mir. Conner to demand a thing of the com mission which he himself would not do now if he had the power. The people elected Mir. Conner to secure for them the entire Georgia Rate. they have a right to expect him to keep goood faith with them, and now when he tells them Gas Mir. Smith told them before) that the only way to get relief is by a grad ual process of reduction, it is at least disappointing if not shocking to the expectations of those who so enthu- siastically supported him in his first campaign. After defeating MT. Smith because he would not give the Georgia rate, he now says in his attack on Dr. Cunningham quoting his language It, orally: >.s.
 l We believe further that there Is doubt | as to whether or not the courts will sustain the immediate putting in of l the entire freight list on the Georgia | classification and standard of rate. We believe that the risk is too great to attempt by direct statute. As stated we | believe the attempt to establish the Georgia rate and classification as a maximum by the legislature would endanger the whole proposition and set 1t back for years:
 When did Mir. Conner learn this? If he knew 1t at the time he was running for President of the Commission. then he fooled the people and obtained his election under fraudulent representa- tions. If he has learned 1t since then, he owes 1t to the railroad commission to cease his accusation that their re- fusal to do his bidding was because they were influenced by railroad en- vronment." or Is 1t possible that MT. Corners change of attitude is also due to railroad environment, for every one knows that his present position is far more satisfactory to the railroads than that of his opponent on this ques- tion Dr. Cunningham still adheres to the platform upon which the people elected Mir. Conner on the Commission. MT. Conner has abandoned that position and 1t remains to be seen whether the people will also abandon their position and continue to follow him. Certainly the present commission and MT. Smith must feel some satisfaction in g. sing Mir. Conner come to their position on | this matter to the extent of saying that if they had done what he requested in his six hours speech, viz; establish l the Georgia rate and classification 1t would endanger the whole proposition and set 1t back for years" MT. Co., mer certainly should propose a vote of thanks to the former commission and his present associates for saving him and his followers from this rock of
 ruin to the cause of lower rates in | Alabama.
 | During the campaign In which MT. | Conner was elected president of the | Commission, he did not tell the peo- | pie that this was a matter for the leg
 isIature. but boldly and unequivocally
 promised them that if he was elected | he would secure for them (not as gov | ernor, if thereafter elected) but as