The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-22

Roosevelt and being monomaniac in
my personal hatred of him. l beg to re-
mind senators that when we were about
to have vote on the rate bill I gave
him all the credit for having compelled
any railroad legislation and being en-
titled to gratitude for whatever benefits
might arise from it. l may be narrow.
and prejudiced, but l try to be just, and
when / criticised him about Indianola;
about usurpation in Panama. about his
San Domingo policy; about his conduct
in the Minor Morris case, | felt justified,
and while l may get no credit for sinceri-
ty or conviction in this Brownsville mat
ter, ] plant myself on the bedrock prin-
ciple that the innocent should not be
punished for the sins of the guilty, and
i that men should be presumed to be III
nocent until they are proven guilty.
Senator Tillman concluded at S:21 p. m.
when Senator Spooner arose to reply.
Spooner Replies.
In his reply Senator Spooner said he
declined to be tainted or beguIed into
competition in the use of offensive cpl
thets. The senator, he said, would look
in vain in the record for an insulting or
offensive epithet he had applied to the
South Carolina senator. He was not a
senatorial censor If he was one, he
would not attempt to teach the senator
(Mr. Tillman), because the latter mad
deliberately characterized his colleagues
by name at the outset of his speech. His
estimate of Mr. Tillman was that ho
would regret some of his words today
as he later read them in the record.
Mr.. Spooner said the senator could not
be more mistaken or unjust than to
charge him with holding malice.
HE has never given me cause said
Mr. Spooner. at was appropriate for
him to say he criticised the attitude and
uttterances here and elsewhere of the
senator and j withdraw in no respect
what ] said to the effect of those
utiterances.
IF he should utter words which would
inspire the black man of the south to
disregard law and place more difficulty
I'm the way of the white people of the
south, he could but expect criticism, and
senator who could not receive such
| criticisms without regarding them as a
personal attack. was unfortunate"
Mr. Spooner said some of Mr.. Tillmans
utterances as quoted by Senator Patter-
son had appalled, and shocked him. If at
later date the senator from South Caro-
lima did not regret the epithets he had
] today applied, Mr.. Spooner should feel
then for the first time he had not known
the senator.
| Mr. Spooner repeated that no man who
advocated taking life without a trial
| had a right to critcse the President for
| discharging the negro troops. If this
was an insult to the senator it was not
his (Spooner's) but Mr.. Tillman's own
| words.
Position on Lynchng.
| Mr. Spooner said that the senator had
said today as to his attitude what he
would not have taken with credit had it
been repeated by any other man. He
reviewed what Mr.. Tllman had said as to
| his position on lynching.
Government without law is tyranny,
said Mr. Spooner. land the world has
| come to regard how vital it is, not to
the man involved, but to society"
To lapse from this fundamental prin-
ciple was to lapse into anarchy and bar
barism, he added
Perhaps, Mr. Spooner said, he had no
adequate appreciation of the situation in
the SOUTH He knew 1t was delicate
one-one which would tax to the utmost
the tact of those who must deal with 1t
for the black man he knew must stay
there 1t was fruitless of anything but
danger to discuss the equality of these
races and to his mind it meant applying
torch.
Leaving out politics Mr.. Spooner said
with great emphasis before the law the
white man and the black man must be
equal" There was no man so wicked
that he was not entitled to the protec-
ton of the law. Saying he would not
discuss that unspeakable crime committed
by both white and black men, he con-
tinued:
THE senator will not claim that the ap-
probation of womanhood and the crown
jewel of the woman's existence, her chas-
tity Is limited to any locality.
1.-THE men of the north SOUTH east and
west equally love-aye. in the palace or
cabin; equally love the home"
Even this, he said. did not obliterate the
fundamental principle that a man so
CHARGED had right to a trial in a court
of law
In all this, he said. he did not attack
the senator from South Carolina but his
doctrine. ut has remained for the sena-
tor to be the only one since have sat
In this chamber to have given utterance
to any justification of trial by mob"
In concluding Mr.. Spooner said he would
say again with all his heart that the solu-
ton of the question must be on the basis
that the black mans right to life. liberty
and the pursuit of happiness is his.
Carmack Severe on TiIman.
| When Spooner took his seat Senator
| Teller obtained recognition but said he
| would yield briefly to MIR. Carmack who