The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-19
VIEWS OF STATE PRESS ON
 GREAT JOINT DISCUSSION

prised at the instanteous result of his call as any man in the audience. | The Birmingham News. Mfr. Corners recognized organ. falls into line and With sophomoric eloquence declares
 that MT. Conner while he was making
 his rejoinder was howled down "by the minions of the railroad oligarchy. That sounds fine, but the impartial witness of the debate will hold that
 there is more sound than accuracy in
 the statement. That the Cunningham men did avail themselves of their pow CT to outcheer the Conner men cannot be doubted. Nor can it be doubted that there were certain causes that led up to the incident.
 In the first place Dr. Cunningham In the final half hour of his address had 1 been systematically annoyed by four or five young men near the lopby or , the Academy. If there was any organ fezd attempt to howl down candidate or to prevent a candidate from speak ing 1t was in the persistent interrup- . | tions oft hese young men. One or them had so'ss sort of n1egaphone affair | through which he relied monotonously. Conner" Conner" thers of his com panions would join In with him yell ing. Railroads. Railroads" "Comer.' l "Comer." Others of his companions would join in with him. yelling Rail roads, railroads" Conner" Conner as Dr. Cunningham proceeded in difficulty with his argument This aroused the resentment of the Cum ningham men finally and there were cries of Put him out" send for the | police" and many clear and sibillant | misses, coming from different parts of | the house.
 This was cause number one. Conner Was Enraged. | Now for cause number two. When fir ar fn me, lyn fc fpiV Jar quiet was soon restored and for sev- | eral minutes he spoke while good or
 der prevailed. But he was plainly en- ragged and as he got further in his speech he seemed to lose his grasp up- | on himself. He had during the entire
 evening seemed to resent the appear ance of Max Hamburger of Mobile on the stage, though to tell the truth, MT | Hamburger was quite as we'll behaved as any other gentleman on the stage 1 MT. Conner broke into his line of ar- gument to say, Now as to what Mir l Hamburger says, I don't mean Mir. | Bamberger, I mean Mir Hamburger
 and I beg MT. Bamberger's pardon. Any man that says I lobbied for child la
 bor or contributed to a fund to lobby
 for a Child Labor law to suit me is | guilty of libel"
 l Mir Corners voice was shrill. excited and so indistinct that many in the au- dience could not understand. Several
 members of the audience understood
 him to use the word Lie" but that i was a misunderstanding. The word he
 used was libel. But the statement set | the crowd off into another cheering | contest.
 In the meanwhile Dr. Cunningham | had moved his chair few feet from where he sat when MT. Conner made his
 first speech. When quiet had been re- I 4l1 | to where Dr. Cunningham had been
 sitting. He was greatly excited and 1 plainly enraged His voice was shrill | and penetrating but his words were so
 indistinct that they were heard by only
 a few the talks about Child Labor | Child Labor" Mir. Conner exclaimed and
 then as he missed Dr. Cunningham from l his old place, he exclaimed excitedly, 1 where is he? Where is he? Oh. there
 he Is. You talk about child labor. you
 talk about child labor and being a
 friend of labor. The friend of labor 1 is the man that gives employment to | labor"
 And as he said this he clinched both fists and holding his elbows close to
 about. And then the crowd protested. l A mighty cheer went up. MT. Gomez l spoke no more that night.
 ] The Chairman of the meeting Dr. 1 Cunningham himself and others sought i to restore order The Conner men again | tried the unequal contest of a cheer with the Cunningham men, but the Cunningham men were on their feet 1 cheering to the last. The Conner men | on the stage were silent, slum, and 1 disappointed as MT Conner took his seat among them and the excited crowd filed out of the Academy of Music. zone Too Many"
 | n1 aP Af the State and one of MT. Corners best
 known friends shook his head the next morning as he talked of the events of the night before. He had one joint debate too many. He had just one
 joint debate too many" he said as he sadly shook his head.
 Dr. Cunningham has received a postal from one of the best known travelling
 men of the State. who was in Selma the day of the debate and the follow ing day and on which he says, T heard, one Conner man tell another Conner
 man today that the joint debate cost
 Conner at least 200 votes in Dallas
 and heard a man say today that the debate was worth 10000 votes in the State to Cunningham" But the impression made upon those
 who witnessed the debate Is best re- flected by the newspaper men who went to Selma to report it.
 Of these there were General Rufus N Rhodes. editor of The Birmingham
 News and perhaps MT. Corners closest political adviser, Editor Erwin Craig | head of The Mobile Register. Editor | M. Hamburger of The Mobile Herald,
 c. P. Jones of The Birmingham Ledger and The Advertiser stan correspondent. All papers represented had adequate accounts of the debate and from these accounts placed side by side and com pared it is no difficult matter to ascer-
 tain the true result of the debate.
 Mir. Crnighead's Opinion.
 MT. Craighead is recognized as one
 of the ablest editors of the South. He is not only looked upon as one of the
 most lucid and scholarly editors on
 the Southern press, but he is given 1 general credit for being impartial and Judicial And yet in his scholarly study
 of the debate, analysing and comparing
 the two men in their joint discussion
 he says in all fairness some of the most l incisive things that were ever said of
 MT. Conner No worse could have been
 said of MT. Conner than the conclud-
 ing sentence of MT. Craighead's sum- | ming up of the debate.
 l Tt is our deliberate opinion that
 MT. Corners most trusted supporters
 were most disappointed in his manner
 of aequitting himself at this critical
 moment of his public career and that