The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-06
GREENSBORO HEARS GOV. COMER SPEAK Initiative, Referendum and Recall" in Alabama HE CRITICISES JONES Urges Extra Session of Legislature to Take Up Rate Situation as
 Advocated by the Recent
 State Convention
HE CRITICISES JONES

Greensboro, June 5-(Special.) )-The feat
 ure of commencement week at the South-
 ern university was the address delivered
 today by former Gov. B. B. Conner.
 The governor spoke on the initiative,
 referendum and recall, and applied these
 to Alabama affairs in a way that will no
 doubt attract attention all over the state.
 He took occasion to condemn the action
 of Judge Jones in the rate cases, saying
 that Judge Jones' recall of the decision
 of the court of appeals was entirely im-
 proper. The early part of the governors address was given over 10 advice to the
 young men who were his hearers. He said
 in part:
 Tn making a church baccalaureate, 1t
 Is right that I should have an ethical subject, that l should lead you through the slough of despond, by the Castle of
 Despair away from the snares of the
 black one across the valley of the
 shadow of death,' through Beulah land and to the top of the delectable mountains, and there show you, as the Lord from
 Pisgah showed Moses the promised land. "I refer you to the first chapter of Gen esis first clause of third verse, God said, let there be light.
 The system of day and night, lumi- naries which God hung by gravity. trans | cends conception and satisfies nfnity. | The sun millions of miles away dazzles l the eye and lights the world, the stare, 1 bahyhoods twinkllns lights, astronomical suns, the milky way, the zone of crudes- cent stars beIting the midnight; the north-
 ern lights, the lightning's flash, all with out power house. insuators or poles, | makes Gods great white way.
 Preachers of the gospel who do their duty by their state and country, as well as by their church, have many illus trious prototypes among the great ones who have gone before. My text in its
 sanction of light may easily, readily and appropriately be extended to embrace the
 more serious and important questions of state policies as proper to be discussed
 upon an occasion like this. The initiative referendum and recall are words that can be made to spell revolution or self govern
 ment according to the predilectons and environment of each individual man. Each
 of the great political parties is subdivided into conservatives or standpatters or re- actionsts on the one hand and progress sives, also called demagogues and Neuro- tics, on the other These factions, both democrats and republicans, either align themselves with big business or seek to obey the just demands and submit to the wis. control of the people.
 Tn ENIdence Tn Alabama
 This alignment of contending forces within the parties Is just as much in ev- dence in the democratic party Of Alabama as in the republican party north of the Ohio. The standpat republicans who af- hict the democratic party in Alabama must continue to afflict us because they have nowhere else to go being unable to join the republican party because of the negro. So they pose as democratic conser- 1yaH rf1 adr,@+ +fate tI. ...1 ,s V g of the property interests. declaring f 'nselves from the housetops as the u-onopolists of sanity and safety. They believe in the prerogative of wealth, that taxation should be rather per capita than fin proportion to capacity. They fear the legislature where the people have the making of the laws. and they denounce those laws which curtai special privileges and equalize taxes. They oppose the ref erendum or any disturbance of the status quo They believe themselves the only leaders Good men, sincere men, but have they treated the people right?
 The initiative, referendum and recall have been exercised by every self govern ing people. England by referendum and recall at Runnymede wrung Magma Char ter from King John. England again by referendum and recall cut off Charles the Firsts head. And what was of much greater moment denied and destroyed the Kings preroeative to tax the people without their consent
 England has just gone through a civic revolution involving the equallzing of the taxes by forcing the big interests, the lords, to pay their just share. Premier Asquith and Lloyd George made three leferendums to the people before they succeeded in recalling the power of the lords to veto their money bills. While this shook some of the foundations of biz business vi ipfo for and for the state.
 Since the battle of the Bayne, Ireland has looked upon the orange as the color of defeat For two and a quarter centuries her people have struggled to recall the British practice in the green Isle of taxa tion without representation, to establish by referendum the sacred right of home rule, and to abolish the monstrous in- iGuity of absentee landlordism. At last tie orange is fading, the shamrock is growing. With the people of Ireland we may devoutly thank God for the glorious success about to be won through the i, peaceful operation of the initiative the referendum and recall.
 From the lowest depths of human op- pression that titanic earthquake known as the French revolution recalled the lost right of the peoRe to govern and protect themselves. Only a little while ago the people of Germany by the referendum of an election recalled the French war pol icy of their Emperor and saved the world from an orgy of blood and an ocean of tears. The recall of the Manchus in China shows that the march of the people into their rights is a world wide movement. In our Methodist church dissatisfaction with the pastor is followed by the initiative in a petition. referendum to the presiding elder and recall by the bishop. In some other churches the members refer the matter 10 themselves. and exercise the recall direct. In our schools and colleges private. denominational and public, teach | CTS are subjected every day to the refer endum and recall. In Alabama we had A referendum on the liquor question and the people recalled statewide prohibition At | his pleasure the governor may put the recall into operation on his bank exam l iners, his tax commissioners and his ex-
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