The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12
GENERALSHIP IS A FACTOR
Interesting Study In Relations That Exist In Trying the Important Cases-Gray and L. 6 N.
 Cases.
BY HERvEY w. LAIRD.


 ceded that the very best talent that can be had has been set to work by the rail roads and no man at all posted in the state will say that the state has not selected men who are known to be matches for the best of them. Any of the men interested will say that the questions involved are well established principles of law about which there can be but lit tie controversy, but the fact remains that good generalship is going to cut very large lot of court ice in the end.
 There is much that is interesting in the study of the relations that exist in the trying of the cases. Judge s. D. Weak ley has been on the supreme court bench as chief justice, and Jurge R. w. Walker as an associate. S. c. Selheimer and Capt. F. S. White have been confidential ly and closely associated with the present state administration, and Horace String fellow has had much practice along this line. This leaves only Attorney General A. M. Garber, who has charge of the liti- gation for the state and will direct the proceedings. He has had long practice in the state courts that lYill stand him in good stead when he getQ into the merits of the cases. These will have the active aid of the members of tke railroad com mission and the clerk of that body, who is an expert rate man.
 For the Railroads.
 Of the men who will represent the Of the men who will represent the rail- roads one of the best known, and a man of Mobile. who is conducting the cases of the Louisville and Nashville and allied lines. MT Smith has become acquainted anew to the North Alabama people by his conduct of the railroad side of the suits brought by Henry B. Gray and others against the Louisville and Nashville. Judge Alex P. Humphrey of Louisville. chief counsel for the Southern, is not so well known in this state as some of the others, but is said to be a great power in the business life of his state. He is a great admirer of Henry Watterson, the great editor of his home city.
 Alabama Lawyers.
 Another man who has become well known to Alabama is General Counsel H. l.. Stone of the Louisville and Nash vile. Colonel Stone was one of Nor gan's men in the war of the states and has not yet lost the aggressiveness that characterized that band of scrappers A Louisville man tells story to this effect on Colonel Stone: "In our town the col- | onel is great church and Sunday school worker. One day he was sitting at the fair grounds when bully about the size of two hundred pounds came up and de- manded that he vacate his seat The Morgan blood came up at once and the fellow soon found himself several seats down the line where the colonel had tossed him with apparent ease"
 Alabama men other than MT. Smith are also to be reclloned with in the fight that is going to be faithfully waged. There is Robert E. Steiner of half a J, hold 1,o of the best in the south A great judge said of him the other day: Steiner has great fund of sense and legal ability, and is about as efficient as any man in the lists" Incidentally it may be stated that Major Steiner is middle Alabama man, coming from the Greenville family.
 Birmingham has presented John P. Till man of the Frisco and the Seaboard, A. G. Smith of the Alabama Great South ern. and J. M. Weatherly, who will have a share in the end to be held up by the Southern. All of them have regulations for getting there that have been won on the hard roads of complicated litigation. MT. Tillman has shown his metal in the Charlottesville and Nashville suits. MT. Smith has set the pace when he had to fight to keep in the game. and Weatherly has been the talk of, his fellow lawyers for some time as man for judicial ermine
 Some of the Others.
 And then there is George w. Jones, dis trict attorney for the Louisville and Nash vile, who has a habit of winning out In his service for his road. Congressman Wiley is taking time enough to fight the battle of the Coast Line and Gen. George P. Harrison is showing the spirit of the sixties in support of the Western
 A man who is just beginning to make himself felt in the railroad service is S. R. Prince. who is representing the Mo bile and Ohio. He has taken much of the time of Major Steiner, claiming him from the other roads for aid to his ever popular line. The Mobile and Ohio has ever been held up as a model by Gov ernor Conner and he has frequently com plimented the vice president and execu- tive head, Col. E. l.. Russell, for the way he has managed the road. However, it is with the rest and MT. Prince stands to make some reputation along with the older fellows. There are many who regret that Colonel Russell is not squarely in the game. as he has many friends who would be glad to have him here often, more frequently than he does come Col. A. R. Lawton of the Central is another popular man in the state who will be welcomed as one of the regulars at least as long as this litigation lasts.
 Clarence E. Walker.
 The litigation brings back 10 the state a man who has many friends to greet him, Clarence E. Walker, expert steno- grapher of Louisville, member of the firm of Walker & Longstreet, and a re- porter of the constitutional convention in 1903. He will be associated with E. l.. May, the local court stenographer, In handling the cases and will very likely have most of the charge when the talk ing of testimony begins
 Mir. Walker tells a good story of tho Goebel hearings in Kentucky, which he reported. A big fellow named Ike Hop kins was on the stand and it was gem erally known that he had killed nine men. The judge asked him if he had ever been in trouble He said he had not. He was asked what about the killing of the nine men, ana replied that there was no trouble about that. He seemed to think that the matter of taking as many lives as are credited to a cat is a small mat ter and not to be classed as trouble.
 While in the city MT. Walker was greeted by a number of the members of the constitutional convention who recalled his good nature and efficient work. He has a number of conveniences for his work that he has patented and he is con- stdntiy adopting new Ideas of his own in the writing of shorthand.
 Gray-L. & N. Suit. Talking of railroad litigation brings up