The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-16

Ito spell up" to place where he can be of practical use in the real work Of congressional solonism.
 Congress cannot be, and if it could, it will not be, stampeded by a conhagration of the Potomac river, a piece of incendi- ary work perpetrated by a new member, even if that member were a Tom Mar shall. William J. Bryan found that out, though he did set Lake Michigan afire and stampede a democratic national con- vention after he left Congress. The first time I ever saw Tom Reed was during the life of the Forty-sixth Congress, his second term. Nobody then supposed that there was in him the making of half the man he became, and that he would not have been had rotation held good in Maine. The same was true of Dingley and Boutelle, and is true of Hale and Frye. Experience in the legislature Is what dis cipline and drill are in the army.
 Adamson is one of the most popular men, personally, in Congress-in the class with Ollie James on the democratic side, and Fred Lands on the republican. Ev- erybody halls him as Charlie" It is a habit Georgians have-"Bob" Toombs, Ben" Hill, "Alec" Stephens, Joe" Brown, Jim" Griggs, and so on. This diminutive of Christian name is usually a tribute to the heart and the good-fel- lowship of the man. Give me match, Joe," said the little Gauvouche of Penn sylvania avenue, and who needed a bet ter insight into Joe Blackburns charac- ter-its democratic openness and open hearted fellowship-than that familiarity discloses.
 It was on the Dingley tariff that Adam son made his maiden effort, and it was not only characteristic speech, but an able argument. John Sharp Williams never flew at the throat of a subject more accurately or more viciously. It was no such speech as Carlisle's against the Mckinley tarlff, and 1t was even more radically different from Aldrichs in favor of it.
 One day the great Toombs made one of his terrific assaults on a bill of Judah P. Benjamin to dispose of some public lands in Louisiana. Benjamin began his reply with this: Tt is evident that the senator from Georgia is not familiar with the principles of the civil law that main- tains in Louisiana" to which Toombs roared in retort: That is possibly true and if a familiar knowledge of it inoapac- itates me to recognize stealing when it Is right before my eyes, I pray God may always remain as ignorant of the civil law as I am this blessed minute"
 Adamson did not understand the philos- ophies of the tariff as expounded by Adam Smith, the free-trader and George Bentham, the protectionist, Few do but like Toombs, Charley distinctly saw the stealing in the bill and pointed it out in some delightfully."- blunt passages. It was a most successful beginning, and Adamson from that day had the respect of Congress a aS "a xxf1I of Der who made his acquaintance.
 When he came here he succeeded in retaining in their position several ladies whom MT. Cleveland had ap- pointed postma sters in his district He defeated the nominations of four negro postmasters out of five in his district He broke the red tape of the circum- locution office, had the Chattahooch ee river cleared of Instructions and thus gave the mills of Columbus cotton weeks sooner than they otherwise would have received it. Later he got an adequate appropriation in the rivers and harbors bill for that important stream. His popularity was as great with the heads of departments as it was with his associates on the floor, and to please him many democrats were restored to the Blue Book in his dis trict who had been turned out at the beginning of McKinley's first term. He had the good sense to oppose the Spanish war; though the democratic side of the F'ifty-fif Congress took the mysteries every time the word Cuba was pronounced during a sitting. de- spite the fact that it was foolish war, the prosecution of which was bound to add strength to the republican party in the nation. He got fish hatchery at Bullochville, and it is claimed that there are more delicious pen fish in his