The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-17

appointment of railroad commissioners and the laws governing them were Vised by the railroads How could any or these governors be other than base, if the charge be true that the appointment or railroad commissioners, made by these same governors, "was vised by the 4ail- roads" and the legislatures,' whose acts they approved, were under their con- trol?" Yet he makes the charge.
 Stoning Dead Governors
 The living are here to confront him, put what of the dead? ONeal. ineorruptibe' ehivalrous, high minded, winning immor- tai glory in the Wilderness. seay, too young to have conspicuous rank, but braV- ing with a frail body the trials of war pure and stainless and loved in all ms after life; Sanford, sturdily bearing musket in his teens, faithful 10 the ehu' living in peace a life that made his nan7 a household word for truth and character and al things for which good men strlVe' Oates. who stood conspicuous for non estv and courage and linked Alabama fame with his own at Little Round Aop and Snodgrass Hill. and gave an arm ll defense of Richmond-one by one, after illustrous service to the state, have gone to their last sleep. Were these men muck sters of the dignity and power or the state, and traitors to oath and trust? It is
 unthinkablel
 Assaults the Memory of the Judges
 But this does not satisfy his appetite for ranting hate. The adjudication of tbe laws" he says, was under the control of the railroads. The adjudication of the laws is the trust the people conide to the courts The judiciary were corrupt ana venal if the charge were true; and ne
 makes it. not even sparing the dead. Were George W. Stone. Robert C. Briekell'
 David Clopton, Thomas N. McClellan' Amos R. Manning and James B. Head
 who sat for many years Tn our hlshest court. debauchers, and at the behest or corporations of the holiest trust man can confer upon man? Did Henry D. Clayton William F. Clark, Leroy F. Box, John Moore, James E. Cobb, James Taylor Jones. James ". Lapsley, Henry C. Speake, A A. Coleman, Jesse M. Car michael Webb Foster, John P. Hubbard and J. C. Richardson, who sat on the CIT cult bench during that period, soil Ihelr souls by delivering judgments molded ana controlled in the interests of corporations? Did servility to man and contempt of oath to do equal justice to the rich and the poor pollute the chambers of John A. Foster. Thomas Cobb, N. s. Graham and S. K McFadden, and poison the justice administered in city courts by Thomas M. Arlington and W. W. Wilkerson? It is un- thinkable
 Invading the Grave of the Partner
 Former Governor Conner is the only being in Alabama who would not nave shrunk in horror from wantonly and mex cusablv dragging into the discussion and attacking "the partner "-''the hired man, as he bitterly characterizes him. He in- vents a partnership, during the period 10 which he alludes, for the triple purpose of forging an argument against judge making a smart scriptural application @nQ furnishing a pretext for assaulting the dead.
 Governor Conner. who has made sucn minute search into my past, knew when beca me governor in 1890, the partner was a local attorney here under my ul- rection. employed and engaged solely about litigated matters in the courts or Montgomery and adjoining counties Tho partnership which then existed related only to the general practise. and was dis solved in 1890 and never afterwards re- newed or continued. Up to that time 'the partner" never had to do with the Fol- cias of the road which as Governor Conner well knew were then entrusted to wee President Stahlman. They were no part of my responsibilities or undertakings then, or at any other period in my llte' ..The ypartner'' did not consult me about
 
 It so happened in all the years after the dissolution of the partnership, we never had offices in the same building, and ire ouently did not meet for months The former governor. nevertheless, inventins the existence Of partnership, during inc period Of which he speaks-referring to the partners alleged power in politics and the evil use he charges he made of lt- says: 'Inside Judge Jones office, IS I,a aa-naTfDarGbiU nd Knowing the uses which the railroads made of :his control he must have been assentins to the stoning of the people, just as Saul of Tarsus was consenting to the stoning of Stephen"
 The Man Who Sleeps at Mountain
 Creek
 The last years of "the partner whom he so wantonly attacks and needlessly drags into the discussion, were largely spent in caring for the Soldiers Home, which was erected mainly through his et- forts, to shelter his war comrades in their poverty and declining years He was noble soldier, a fine citizen, who wor- shipped his God and loved his fellow men. He acted according to his conscience, and whether his advice 10 clients or efforts in their behalf. in the situations which confronted them, were always wisest ma best is far aside the issue. He is not here to say what he did, or answer his ae- cuser. He sleeps at Mountain Creek, where he was borne to the tomb by lis old comrades amid the lamentations or people who came from city and hamlet alike, and from humble homes for miles, around on foot, to pay the last tribute of respect God pity the heart which can wing poisoned arrows at his gravel
 Establishing All Our Legislatures
 During the period to which the former governor alludes nearly two thousand trusted representatives, among whom were many of the most illustrous men Of the times, were sent by the people to our hals of legislation. He charges, and asks the world to believe, that the majority of this large number of Alabamians were all the while the thralls and serfs of eorporc- tions Every one familiar with the per sonnel of our legislatures knows that since the war. with the exception of the legislature of 1868. the state has never had a body of lawmakers of whom it could be said. with any degree of truth, that any considerable number, much less maj )rl- ty of it's members were corrupt or Yenai, or bondsnen of any interest Legislatures in their efforts to meet popular demands often disdain the wisdom and experience of the past, and are frequently careless of constitutional limitations and the burdens they put upon the taxpayer. Sometimes they are led astray by the arts of the demagogue, and sometimes by the drgu- ments of the interested. Sometimes they legisate unwisely from want of prope1 information concerning the problems which confront them. Mistakes of th'n kind are the inevitable result ot human imperfection, from which government ad- ministered by man cannot escape. Elk cept to the desperately evil minded, such' .l.;, .f.u