The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-11
Judge Jones and the
 Railroads Question.

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 The first Governor to send message to the Alabama Legislature urging ac. l tfon that would curb the free passx evll was Governor Thomas c. Jones. m | the year 1890. The pass was not an issue in the politics & Of Aiaaama 6 srrittan insn
 The people we're indifferent, to the | free pass and few considered It Ill the | light of an evil But VIII Wila ,siro Ine Gnv- ernor Jones in his first message to ths Legislature urged 1t to pass a piil Whacn would prevent State officiabs from a4- cepting these favors from the Faic~ He urged the Leg!slaturas In the same message to refrain from extend- 1 ing improvidcnt grants or power o corporations, and to restrict the giv- ing and receiving of such favors &s would bring law makers and oneers charEed with the execution or the lay under sympathetic obligations 70 these corporations seeking lurshe1
 bill enbodying the recommenda. ton of Gov~yaor Jones was prepaTea a and introduced! It failed put not Ao. lack of his own personal interest Ih if. but because his recommendation was in advance of public sEntiment- .
 The dramatic seenE iIf the ConsIitn- tfona1 Convention or 1SV1 Wnen S1s 5s.,- ernor Jones had his misunderstanao,ins an, with the President of the ConYention. a misnnderstanding of which much was said and written, grew out or tn ~, question of parliamentary priVl'ese M disposing of a matter relating 10 passs and corporate favors. ~
 Governor Jones as a member or the Convention heartily favored placing III the Constitution sen executiVs pro vision on the pass question, a pro vision whick would itself and without aid from the Legislature prevent tne receipt of and use ~f passes oy otate the Legislature and which was finally embodied fin the Constitution.
 These are some bits of political his tory that are brought forward Tn the interests of fairness and justice. Those which are already set down are per haps not so significant as those that are later to be gathered and put doWn for 1907 reading when the rallr4se 9se public mind-when prejudices are awakened and misrepresentation cuts a prominent figure in the presentation of great question to the cohsiuefa-
 But the record has been written. It is not to be changed. And when N was made, 1t was not made with tnls day in view, but in the fair and Just adjudication of each question as It
 The railroads are in the courts. where they claim protection from what they allege to be harmful and i'll ad-- vised legislation. The agitators and their followers. by covert words ana innuendoes would teach the public to believe that the judge who must pass upon them cannot act fairly, because he was once the attorney for one Of the roads. Men whose guide is their own interest and who judge other mems action by what they would do in the same condition and under the same circumstances, by intimidation innuendoes would seek to throw dis credit on the action of a man whose own strength and probity they can-
 There are men, who knowing their own inclinations, can not give credit to the man who does not fear to do his own i,terest-who does not fear to do the right, regardless of his past and regardless of his future: They are willing ID put their disbelief of the character into a sheer and an innu- endo. They can speak of a judges action being dictated by the influence of his past environment
 Some good men may accept as truth the significance of sheer or the sig nificance of an innuendo.
 In the celebration which followed the nomination of Governor Jones by the Democratic Convention there was carried a transparency which bore these words a quotation from one of his campaign addresses
 'I would rather have your respect That much, at least, has always been given him by the people of the state It has been given freely, because the strength and 4ntegritv Of his public fife has defied criticism. but an in- neundo is a cowardly thing that re- fuses to come out into the open. The respect that has gone 10 the United States Judge who was Governor of Alabama. has the Splendid basis of the record of a long public career lived out in the open. The record was writ ten in other years and there was then no forecast of the issues that are arisen today. Out of the record some incl dents are here lifted to snow the man. her of man he Is who was Governor and Is the judge who will f1rst pass upon theliustice of the legIslatlon, now halted bY a chaNenge. The record for ! a brief bft is tosbe studied-that good men who want the truth may find il, and finding it so make their conelu> sions.
 Late in the seventies, Thomas G. Jones, then a promising young lawyer. was d member of the nrm of Judge Samuel F. Rice's law firm. The firm represented the south ana North Rail- road The junior nember or the firm was also member of the City Coun- eil,
 The depot of the South and North was situated near the present Lotus l vile and Nashville yards. beyond the eulverts that empty Into the river. If was a hard and inconVenienr situation for the people of Montgomery. It was equally inconvenient for all through passenger traffic, for when the trains arrived in North Montgomery, passen- gers had to take hacks and baggage had to be loaded on wagons for trans fer to the depot of the Mobile and Montgomery Railroad situated near the site of the present station.
 The South and North had entered in to a contract with the city to bring their tracks over the culvert and erect A depot at the foot ot Commerce Street, but there was a delay in the beginning of the work, long delay which led to the belief that the raod wss disinH1i cd to spend the large sum