The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-01-07

cry and had then gone to the front ohiy 10 return to his home few weeks later suffering from a wound which resulted in his dcath later. Then he referred to his great love for the people of Dallas and how ~yhen he nfst entered the race for the office of Solicitor of the First District he went 70 Montgomery to push his claim be- Tore the Legislature. In the Exchange Hotel one night he said he Approached Colonel N. H. R. Dawson of Dallas who
 was the Speaker of the House to urge him to get the Dallas delegation to support his cause. Colonel Dawson told him not to say anything but to go and take his time in fighting where it would help him. for Dallas was with him. From then he had always had warm place in his heart for the people | of the County.
 He said he belonged to the people ,f the State in the great matter of the l improvement of the waterways of the l State. and told of the work upon he ! Tennessee river and of what else was wanted for the improvement of that | stream which was one of the most inn | portant in the State and which would
 mean a great deal to the northern part of Alabama.
 Then the question of the Mobile | channel. the Alabama and Coosa rivers I were taken up and gone over by MT. l Taylor.
 Mir. Taylor said he wanted a l committee appointed to assist him in | the great work. It mattered not | three or of five members. But he
 wanted them to gather figures and l facts and hW these govern themselves in asking for their wants. Unless they wanted something else. they had already about got what they asked for when Congress appropriated $20O,- l 900 for the improvement of the Ala
 bama river. But if they did not think this was enough to show the rivers and harbors committee that it was not by these figures and he would help l i'm getting them what they did want. Mir. Taylor alluded to the great and rapid growth of the South and said it was all caused by expansion. He referred to the late John T. Morgan. who had seen so far ahead of the average man. Senator Morgan had said that the annexation of the Phil | ippine and Hawaain Islands would in few years be the cause of the rapid growth of the South, as 1t would open up the world for it to ship its products to, and that this assertion was becom- ing more pronounced and true each day that passed. MT. Taylor said that he had been one of the eight who had backed Senator Morgan in voting for the annexation of those islands and that he had been pronounced crazy by some of his fellow Democrats in the House. but that he did not believe now that he had been crazy after all.
 From the theory of Senator Morgan about expansion. Mir. Taylor turned to the Panama canal. He told of how he had made trip to the canal a few weeks ago and of how depressed he had been before the vessel arrived at her destination. But after looking at the work and learning something Of 1t he was now confident that it would be finished. The work of digging the canal was being done under the in- structions of a commission of seven civil engineers of the army, who were paid $14.000 a year each. His conf- dence had risen when he learned thar five of these engineers were from the South and two from the North. It had risen still more when he learned that two of the most important of these commissioners were from Alabama. The commissioner who had charge of the work was from Mobile and the next, who had under construction the most difficult task in the construction of the canal. was from Gadsden.
 For some time MT. Taylor spoke en- tertainingly of the work which was being done on the canal. He recited the figures of the construction and told how long 1t would take to com plete 1t and of what great benefit its completion would mean to the South, and especially to Alabama, and how this work would help in the deepen ing of the Mobile channel. The south end of the United States wanted to see Alabama have seaport and that Mo bile in few years would bo one of IL, South but of the United States.
 MT. Taylor returned to the question Of improvement for the Alabama river
 He talked of how the $190.000 a1jro- priation which Congress had already made would help that river. The peo- pie wanted a channel ot six feet, hut that if this amount would not get six foot channel Congress would con tinne the work until the depth was had. Locks would be built and the Improvement of the Coosa river would follow and by helping to improve the Coosa river the people of Selma would help to improve the Alabama river.
 In conclusion, MT. Taylor urged the appointment of a committee from the Commercial and Industrial Associa. tion to get up facts and figures to sub, init tr him in making their wants known. He would always be willing to come to Selma and confer with the people cpon these matters and that if the people would do their share in Ala hama he would look out with great interest and care after the Washington "nd
 After Mir. Taylor had concluded his remarks, J. B. Ellis thanked him for having visited the city and conferred with the citizens He said Mir. Taylor had won the reputation of Icing a man who always succeeded in getting what he went after and that he had now gone after the improvement of the Alabama river and he felt sure that he would get even this.
 Mayor Atkins also thanked Mr. Tav Tor on behalf of the citizens for his visit 10 Selma and for the valuable information he had Imparted to the meeting upon the improvement of the Alabama river
 Mr Tavlcr left this afternoon. for Mobile, where tomorrow he will make an address before the commercial body of that city upon the Improvement Of Mobile channel and the waterways of the state,
 The committee which MT. Taylor asked to be appointed will oe taken up. and his suggestion acted upon