The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-22
MIR. JOHN w. TOMLINsON.
Makes Announcement of Candidacy fer
 the Senate.

the Senate.
 The following document was re- ceived in The Advertiser office unsign- ed, but bore heading showing that it was the announcement of MT. Tom linson for the Senate and as a part of the news of the day give it insertion,
 In announcing my candidacy for the United States Senate, I pledge myself to the people of Alabama, If I am elected to this high office, to further with all my might the cause of effect i've railroad regulation by the federal government. which at the same time shall recognize the constitutional rights of the States
 The splendid victory won in this State for the cause of railroad regula- ton under the courageous leadership of Governor Conner has already borne fruitinthe enactment of the necessary remedial laws by the legislature These laws, however, have been enioined in the Federal Court
 In the meantime, it has come to be the policy of the administration at Washington to take exclusive control of the regulation of all railroads en- gagged in interstate commerce. and to prevent the State from in any way
 
 It will be recalled that Senators Morgan and Pettus voted against the present federal rate bill. on the ground that 1t would be used as an excuse for the federal government taking exclusive control of all such carriers.
 If the majority of the Supreme Court of the United States should uphold the president in that event. the only hope of any State regulation Is in the pas e. la,, at tah nze the constitutional right of the States In the matter.
 But whether or not this comes about it is of the utmost importance. as the Governor has pointed out. that the leg islature shall elect United States Senator in accord with the people. The overwhelming election of Governor Conner demonstrates beyond question how the people of this State stand
 And yet. 1t Is claimed that the Legis. lature should elect a United States Senator known to be not in accord with the people on railroad regulation, be- cause he received the highest vote in an alleged primary for the election of alternate Senators--a gruesome thing, unprecedented in the political annals of this or any other country,
 This alleged primary I opposed at the time, as did Governor Conner and others on the ground that the plan was concocted to forestall the people who were coming into power and prevent their considering the availability of candidates when a vacancy should oe7 cur by the death of the Senators. which was anticipated and attempted to be provided for by the plan.
 In the first place, the plan itself did not undertake to bind the members of the legislature. In the second place. if there was any uncertainty on the subject, the last Democratic State Con vention expressly repndiated the plan, leaving the members of the Legsla- ture untrammelled even by a doubt
 A revolution has been wrought in the politics of this State. The State has been wrested from the control of rail road influences. A similar revolution Is in progress throughout the United States, and believe that the cause of the people will triumph in the nation as surely as it has triumphed In Ala bama.
 Now. when it shall have triumphed, shall the fruits of victory be blocked and thwarted in the United States Senate? Whether or not this shall be. may be, as Governor Conner has point ed out, dependent upon the action of the Legislature of Alabama in electing a successor to Senator Morgan.
 It Is familiar history how the lament ed Morgan was opposed In the Senate in his great work for an Itshmian canal. and how the government has been forced to take charge of the actual construction by reason of the blocking methods of railroad influences.
 It is also well known that railroad influences prevent, as far as is In their power, the building of canals. the opening and improving water ways and ! hsHhArs because of fear of a aemnA-