The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-11
THATCHER SPEAKS ON
 GOOD ROADS QUESTION
and Citizens Extended Hospitable
 Welcome to Visitors Yesterday. Few Candidates Present

1 eSllnS IneetlHB. lHt iCdNy ioii's 'ife'i der and lightning storm of the early morning kept many would-be visitors from attending the meeting, but those who dared to face 1t were well re- warded for their trip.
 About 200 people, including dele gates and visitors, were present and lenjoyed greatly the programme of the day. The recess of the day was marked by the serving of a delightful dinner by the ladies of the community, which was greatly enjoyed by the fortunate persons who happened to partake of it. | The meeting was presided over by W. M. Graves, who is affectionately known throughout the county as "Uncle Billy" Graves. The principal speaker of the day was w. A. Nor ris, president of the state organiza ton, while the other speakers were IC. H. West, J. B. Drake, of Birming- ham; Charlie Altman, M M Williams and T. D. Hendricks of R. F. D. No. 1, Adger Tom s. Pounds, one of the candidates for the sheriff's office, also made talk, but not along political lines.
 President Morris Speech
 President Morris speech was one of decided interest to the members of the union. He took a slight dig into politics and urged the farmers not to vote for the good-looking man, the man who has the money, but the man who will treat the farmer right. These men should be servants of the people i; if they don't act as they should to- ward us, why, kick them out, said MT. Morris. The trouble with poli- ticians Is the fact that they come around and look nice say, You sh ould put me in office; I'm the man for the place; I will treat you right and then after you put them in office they put their feet on their desk and do noth- ing until next election day rolls search of votes"
 At this juncture of his speech MT. Morris created quite an amount of laughter by relating an incident in regard to congressman from Indiana who had been appointed on the com mittee of agriculture This man, 1t appeared, had been listening to a few things in committee investigation of stock market and cotton market spec ulation and was much puzzled After leaving the meeting he addressed a southern member of Congress and ques- toned him, Say, do you peoeple raise spotted cotton down south?"
 At this point MT. Morris took quite d krock at the gambling in cotton on W all Street, and told of how the Farmers union was endeavoring to break 1t up. "The Farmers union will advocate any measures to break up speculating in gam bling futures" said he. President Bar rett is in Washington, camped at the National hotel, and he Is going to stay there until Congress adjourns, fighting for the farmers rights and endeavoring to enact laws against this"
 Scientific Problems
 MT. Morris touched on the scientific problems facing the farmer. He spoke of how careful methods in farming re- duced the acreage of cotton, with greater production; of how the farmers had learned to increase the production of a smaller acreage without increase in price received. but how they were learning to get the higher price. and of how they were getting it. He urged the farmers 10 use better methods of farming, to thus | increase the cotton acreage and plant half of their farms in peas, pumpkins and the l like.
 l In reference to Jefferson county, he urged that the highways be bettered and | that the farmers look to this. He hoped to see the day come when the farmers of Jefferson county would be carrying tur- nips to town in automobiles. He com pared the farmer to the city working 1 man, and expressed the wish that the farmers son would not be. pulling the motor of an electric car in Birmingham. but that he would remain upon the farm and develop the country. The beautify- ing of the home life of the farmer he mentioned as one of the advancements of recent years, and urged further prog l ress in this direction. The higher ed ucation of the farmers children was also urged by him.
 MT. Morris speech was listened to at- tentively hy the audience. He is an elo- quent orator. and this, combined with the facts which he was mentioning, made a decided impression. He also made refer ence to the highways. and urged the farmers to take every step they could in this direction, and his remarks in this regard were met by prolonged applause.
 Thatcher Makes Talk
 c. w. Thatcher, the good roads apos- tie, made an address at 2 o'clock. His talk was one of the heart-to-heart kind, and evidently made strong impression upon all of the farmers present.
 He urged a 100000 bond issue for the betterment of roads in Jefferson county, and in his talk made mention of few facts unknown to the people in general l of Jefferson county. Here in Jefferson county you are paying 340,0o0 dirt road | tax" he said. You also have a tax of s2O0,0O0 for other roads.
 "Now, think of this. With a y1 900 900 bond issue you won't be paying cent more taxation and you will put your roads in shape. The $40,0O0 will pay the inter est on the bonds. then $1O0.000 of the other tax will go for maintenance and the other $1O0.0 toward the paying of of the principal. Don't you see you will really be making money by it? Issue this q .000,- 0oO for roads and you can make tho foun- dation for the greatest system of roads of any county in the country. Make your roads wide. and everyone of them good. You will find by spending $1,000.000 on the roads that the farmers alone in Jefferson county will be several million dollars bet ter off,"
 Tom g. Pound made nice speech to . II