The Mena weekly star., 1908-01-16

thus caused could be made up b,
 increasing taxes of railroads. He dwelt at considerable length upon the capitol question, giving in detail examples of alleged thievery of public moneys and oi confessions of bribery and cor ruption on the part of Caldwell | & Drake, and said that Hinemon, in advocating that these con- actors be required to finish the work had fallen into a bad trap; that the original contract had been so changed that 1t really did not amount to a contract any more, but would be but a means of further stealing from the peo- pie. The speaker made his charges very clear and lent force to his remarks by daring Cald- we'll x Drake or any friend of theirs to bring charges in court against him of libel or slander, saying that they all knew he could be made 10 pay any dam- ages any court would assess against him. He referred to the fact that the legislature lacked only four votes of dischargIng those men. He said that if he was elected governor he would recommend. the discharge of Cald- we'll & Drake for corruption and thieverv, the architect for con- nivance therein and the c. pitol commission for incompetency and failure to protect the people from thieves and bribers.
 MT. Donaghey contended that Kirby was not honestly elected to the office he now holds despite a strenuous nine. months campaign backed by the entire machinery of the state government, and was counted in by manipulation of voters after he had been fairly beaten at the polls. He also said that Kirby has always been an office seeker and never got one office that he did not use 1t as a step to another, giving his own time and spending the peoples money in furtherance of his own interests. He charged that the present attorney general had not spent more than thirty or forty days in his office since his elec- tion, giving all his time and the peoples time to canvassing the state as a candidate for governor.
 The speaker said that Kirby had tried to push him overheard from his capitol platform and claim it himself despite the fact that he (Kirby) had never made d move to stop the stealing and bribery that had gone on under his administration as attorney general.
 No reference whatever was made to McFarlane, the other candidate.
 Mir. Donaghey condemned the convict lease system as a relic of barbarism and said that he should work to abolish 1t if the power was given him, and would use two-thirls of the convicts on the public roads of the state and one- third on the convict farm, guaranteeing to not increase the burben now borne by the people and to construct millions of dol lars worth of much needed high ways.
 Mir. Donaghey said he would urge an amendment to the consti- tution to pu. in use the initiation and referendum, the former 10 stimulate lukewarm representa- lives to pass good laws and the latter to give the people the power to repeal bad ones. He be. lieved the people should be trusted to conduct their own affairs as they saw fit.
 He praised the movement of the farmers to build cotton ware houses as the greatest plan ever inaugurated for the protection of the producers. He said that cotton was worth Is cents and that when the people of the 1 twelve Southern states, which S- At | !.