The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-09-15
Hearst Plays Bryan And The Old Parties For Betray-
 ing The People"
HISGEN REVIEWS FIGHT
 WITH STANDARD OIL CO
Graves Tells of His Love for the South And Says This Section is in Greatest Need of
 Two Parties.

night at the Hippodrome was the big gest thing Birmingham has had in the national political line for many day. The building was crowded to the doors, and more than 9OOO people heard the father and the present 1e. ders of the independence party.
 The crowd was drawn by William Ran dolph Hearst. He was the man they wanted to see. and the applause which greeted him was long and loud. John Temple Graves delivered a ringing, flow cry speech, and was cheered by the enthusiastic audience.
 Candidate for President Thomas l.. Hisgen, while prefacing his remarks with the declaration that he could not make a speech and saying of you want talk and nothing done, I respectfully refer you to the two old parties," made a speech full of humor, and his story of the war against the Standard oil com pany was listened to with interest. There was no mincing of words. Hearst created circus and made Bryan the central figure in each act, calling him , everything from a contortionist to a i human ostrich and a loose-skin man. Rogers and Murphy and the New York democratic leaders were given a dose from the same phial, while Bailey, Has lSell, Taft and many other public men were rudely handled. MT. Hearst called Bryan the loose-skin man ana Taft the overgrown messenger boy
 The crowd listened and digested Some things were said which were not indorsed but when the real, old-time democratic sentiment was expressed they were un- limited in their applause.
 Hearst Introduced
 L. A. Fealy state chairman, presided and with few Introductory remarks pre- scented Mir. Hearst For few seconds the enthusiasm was exuberant The fla nous newspaper man Hooked like him. self," and stood with perfect ease during his address. He held on to his Is and ms and emphasized his words with the ability of practiced speaker, and yet 1 the 40 years of his age seemed far too many for his looks
 T am much complimented by your lively reception" he said q am proud to be among friends, because I am with the laboring people of Birmingham. I am glad to be somewhat among friends. even with the democrats
 Il have come to make an exclamation not an apology nor defense nor an ex- cuse of any kind, but plain explana- tion of why cease to call myself dem ocrat, and have withdrawn from the SUD- port of Bryan.
 T had always been a democrat; my people all of them have been democrats southern democrats, South Carolina, Vir- ginia, Missouri democrats, California dem- ocrats
 My father was democratic senator from California, and I was brought up to believe heart and soul in democracy When Bryan was nominated in 1896 and the revolt against him in a day swept all over the land and reached strong in that stronghold of the enemy's country-New York-I was just attaining success with my New York paper
 q pondered all the day of Bryan's nom- ination and all the night upon what should do I had everything to lose and nothing to gain by supporting him, and did not believe in free silver. But did believe in democracy. I came to the conclusion that the man might not be sound but that at least he was sincere, and that the cause he stood for was the peoples cause.
 ''When, therefore, the morning of the next day broke, walked down to my edi- torial rooms and said to the boys, 'Un- Timber the guns; we are going to fight for Bryan
 "Oh, we fought for him a fight that will be remembered. We were like a solitary ship that was surrounded and hemned in bya host of others and from all sides shot and shell poured into our devoted hulk.
 "Editorial guns raked us, business guns shattered us, popular guns battered us. and above the din and smoke of battle rose the curses of the Wall street gang that hated us.
 "One by one like the falling masts of a stricken ship, fell the material suc- , cesses I had attained Crashing down upon the deck and over the side came all opportunities for newspaper advance ment- Newspaper dealers who carried the paper at all hid it under their stands and only produced 1t when some one asked | for it.
 | Advertisers called on me and said they would take out every advertisement if I | continued to support Bryan, and I told l them to take out their advertisements as | I needed the space in which to support | Bryan. had space enough after that, | and the deficit taken from the book for l the month of October was $15S,OO0. Clubs | threw the paper into the street, friends | dropped it from their homes. But did we surrender? No, in the words of the inn mortal Decatur, we had only begun to fight. And all this time had never seen MT. Bryan. II was supporting MT. Bryan but l was not fighting for him alone. l was mak- | ing @ fight for what I believed were the peoples battles, and what l believed was for the peoples good. We fought and lost ''In the next four years l repaired my shattered ship. In 1900 I was ready for the battle again, and l started my Chi cago papers at the request of Senator Jones on the very day the democratic convention met at Kansas City. We fought and lost again. I was not tired of fighting, but apparently MT. Bryan was. I was fighting for patriotic cause. He was fighting for a personal victory. In 1904.
 "In 1904 he hauled down his flag and