The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-09-06
ADDRESSES ETOWAH DEMOCRATS First Gun of Campaign Fired
 At GadSden ATTENDANCE IS LARGE The Congressman Scores Trusts and Corporations and Declares That ne
 Party Will Be Successful
 This Fall.

Gadsden, September 5.-(Special.) )-Re- gardless of the fact that the weather was threatening, preventing many farmers from coming to the city, crowd of more than 600 people greeted Congressman J.. Thomas Hehin, when he addressed the Bryan club here today, The speech de- livered by MT. Hefiin was the first gun to be fired in Gadsden in the democratic campaign thls fall. He made a severe attack upon the trusts, corporations and the tariff. He ridiculed democrats who refuse to accept Bryan as the leader of the democratic party, and declared that the statesman of the west advances the most pronounced democratic principles of any candidate since the days of the virile Hickory" Jackson. The speaker was pronounced in his declaration that the democrats will be successful at the polls this fall and he said that in Bryans cleo tion the people will demonstarate that they are in power and that it is the peo- pie who speak and not the tariff barons and trust magnates. Following is "a synopsis of his address:
 The democratic party wants laws that look to the well-being of all the people, and not laws that look to the enrichment of a few people at the expense of the many. With the growth and development of our republic has come an aggregation Of private interests clamorlng for special privileges at the hands of the government. They have no principle; they care for no kIA d. lNos- bidding, pass such laws as they suggest and defeat such laws as they oppose.
 That party stands ready today to grant special favors to any man, or set of men, who will contribute to the campaign fund and help keep the republican party in power.
 House Tyranny.
 The tyranny of the house rule is enough to defeat the republican party. They have changed the lower house from what was once deliberate body to what is now a body absolutely within the control Of one man. l care not how meritorious your measure, if the speaker for any req son is opposed to 1t, he will not recognize you to bring it up for consideration by the members of the house.
 The trust has entered almost every field of legitimate business, and has slaugh- tered competition on every hand. few men compose these gigantic trusts and absolutely fix prices to suit themselves. There can be no national prosperity while a few men control national necessities. Shall we have change in our national affairs or shall we permit these unscrup ulous trusts to become a greater power than that of the people? Which shall pre- vail, the democratic idea of equal rights or the republican party's practice of spe- cial privilege?
 
 The democratic party believes that the government was established for all tine people and that it should be run in tlte interests of all the people and not in the interest of a favored few.
 Tariff on Leather.
 Just before a republican Congress put a tariff tax on boots and shoes through the duty on leather, MT. Blaine, who op- posed this tax, wrote Mr. Mckinley that 'it would increase the cost of shoes for farmers children and closed by saying: That such movements as that along protection lines would soon defeat the republican party" Under the dead ly influence of the robber tariff, the farm CT as a class has suffered greatly. In 1850, under democratic tariff laws-tariff for revenue only-the farmers owned over half the country. but now they own less than one-fifth. From 1850 to 1860, under democratic tariff laws, the wealth of the people in the rural districts more than doubled, but it has not done so in 25 years since that time under republican tariff laws.
 MT. Byron w. Holt, an American econo- mist of note, has computed the tariff taxes paid annually by farmers. He es- inmates that upon the average that the farmer buys $23S worth of life's necessities annually Of this amount he says that SIS go to the government and S37 to private monopoly, the protected trusts making $55 in all. Now then, the farm CTS of America constitute third of our population and we have about 90,- 900 ,OOO people. Now multiply 30,0Oo,OOO by 37. the trust tax, and you have I,- no, O,0O0 Considerably more than the value of our entire cotton crop.
 Republican Panic.
 panic-a republican panic the worst that ever cursed the country broke upon us from the gambling haunts of Wall street and the man moderately well fixed in this worlds goods-the man of small means and the wage-earner suffered for the sins of the crafty avaricious money kings created by the republican party. Legitimate business was paralyzed. The army of the unemployed was never so great and the number of mercantile fail-
 
 ures was without aparallell in the history of our country The farmers Of the south and west were helpless in the grasp of conditions over which. they had no control. It was indeed heavy pioW 10 cotton and grain in these sections NO monev could be had with which to move the crops, but New York, the birthplace of the republican panio-the place where cotton and grain gamblers by leave Of the republican party feed and fatten on the toll of the south and west had the ear or the republican party and the secretary of the treasury. MT. Cortelyou' py the sanction of the President, MT. Roose- velt deposited there at one time $34,0O O,0oJ of the peoples money. The farmers and the gamblers both called for help, but the republican party answered the call of the gamblers This is the work and these are the fruits of the republican party and the good book tells us, By their l-h