The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-16
WOODWARD IN FOR
 FIGHT OF HIS LIFE
Former Atlanta Mayor Brought
 Trouble UponHimseIf
MADDOX WILL OPPOSE HIM
Woodward Has Raised a Rumpus Among Citizens Who Will Try to Cause His Defeat in Com
 ing Mayors Election.

Atlanta, November 15.-(Special.) )-At- lanta is in the throes of a political revo- lution. The leading citizens of the town. business, professional and those of other callings, have gotten together and repu- diated the primary which nominated James G. Woodward as the city's next | mayor.
 | Extensive publicity has already been given to the causes which led up to this action. The people. largely, had for given Jim Wooward his past offenses. committed during his two former terms as mayor, and many who had opposed him on account of them, voted for him this time. His conduct for the last three years had been exemplary, and then he had al- l ways made a good business executive.
 But when, after his nomination, he fell and under such circumstances as to make his conduct disgraceful. to say the least of it, the people could stand it no longer.
 They talked about 1t for a week before they acted and on Friday the thirteenth but then they didn't think of the date the day the action was taken, it was not known definitely that anything would be done. The business men of the city mere 1 ly got together to see about it. The call for the meeting, held Friday morning was not even published in the newspapers the invitation to each man went by tele- phone.
 | Maddox Chosen. More than 100 of them responded, and they passed resolutions appointing com mittee of 25 to pull Robert F. Maddox 1 into the race whether he wanted to or not MT. Maddox who, vice president 1 of the American National bank, is a pretty busy man, protested and fought | at every turn. He didn't want to do it; I he wasn't going to do it. But it was put | up to him in the light of an memorable civic duty. Well, it was any other good citizens duty as we'll as his; the com mittee, however, didn't think so. It had made up it's mind and 1t was determined 1 to have MT. Maddox, willy nilly. And | it did.
 1 So the race is on from now until De- cember ?, election day, between Robert F. | Maddox and James G. Woodward Though he went into it against his will, Maddox has promised to put up the best fight there is in him, and some of the fore most citizens, men of unimpeachable rep utation, will for one time in their lives 1 take the place of ward heelers'' as it were and do yoeman service in landing Maddox in the mayors chair.
 Fight for Woodward. It's not going to be any easy job. Jim Woodward is going to make the fight of his life. He has admitted that he was drunk and said he was sorry for it. but he didn't think drunkenness is an inn peacnable offense, or one that should cause voter to break any obligation he may have to support the nominee of the primary. That a lot of the voters think differently is unouestioned. More than half of the 15oO men who signed a petition asking J. R. Smith to come out as a candidate. stated that they voted for Woodward in the primary and would now like a chance to vote for some one else in his place. It is probable they will vote for Maddox as readily as they would for Smith,
 Woodward's Following. 1 But Jim Wooward has following that
  Right or wrong they are for Jim Wood ward. This strength has generally been estimated at about 22O0 votes. Then he has the principle of primary nomination back of him. How much that will count remains to be seen. There will be a whole lot of bolting, but how much? Wood ward got 45O0 votes in the recent primary as against 400 for his two opponents combined. One of them was Tom Good | win a young lawyer and the other Jo- seph Hirsch. There are 15,OO0 votes reg istered within thee ity limits. So there are 5000 voters who took no part in the l primary and who may consider they were not bound by it under any circumstances Still the obligation to the primary nom- 1 inee has always been a controlling force | in city as we'll as state and county af- fairs. The question is to what extent | will the voters consider themselves re- | leased from that obligation.
 The opinion among the business men seems to be that there is a good majority | of the Atlanta voters who will welcome any change. any excuse, to vote against | Woodward. Maybe they will, but at any rate the lines have been drawn for as pretty a municipal fight as has ever been witnessed in this part of the country. l It's going to be a hot one. Possibly | very bitter.
 The preachers and distinctively church | element took no part in the nomination of I Maddox. Probably a good many outside the city have asked why not? Those here | know. The preachers were politely asked to keep their hands out of this muss and leave 1t wholly to the repre- sentative business element. It may be wondered at that Dr. Len Broughton did | not jump into the fray in spite of the request; but he did not Figuratively, he | was chained.
 Church Element.
 The better element of citizens who wanted to see Woodward defeated. felt that there would be extreme danger if it were made a church fight. It was thought that there is a certain element which would gladly vote for an opponent to Woodward, provided he were not a