The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-22

AA/ .(Special.) - Whenever any | W body puts anything over on Thomas w Lawson of Boston they will certainly have some right to swell up and feel chesty. Thomas is right on the job every minute and with both eyes wide open watching out for the peoples interest If the system" even thinks a thought with a little bit too much emphasis to it, Thomas gets it on his ticker, and the next thing the system" knows it has been crimped, baffled "foiled' and all them kind of dark missy and murky things. Thomas has put binders on the system and hobbled it, and leads it round with cotton string and makes it eat out of his hand.
 For years the system and Thomas have been camping on each others trail. The system has been trying to slip up on Thomas and Thomas on the system. The public looks and oft times wonders which is the system and which is Thomas, what will happen if the system swallows Thomas, or if Thomas swallows the system. In the mean time, during all this dreadful con- hict between Thomas and the system, in which the system has exposed Thom- as and Thomas the system, until it would seem that there is nothing left of either to expose-in the mean time both have prospered wonderfully and the people wonder some more as to what is the answer. Who are the goats? Which shows-according to the rude and suspicious opinions of some lpersons--that the system and Thomas with their entertaining bit of horse play, have attracted and held the at- tention of the public, while they cheer fully and thoroughly relieved them of the burden of their surplus earnings Thomas has just been before the Clapp committee. Thomas slipped care fully into the Senate office building and taking the Clapp committee by the arm escorted it way back into one of the very darkest and most remote cor ners of the building and carefully and In well trained and modulated Bos- ton voice with baked beans accent, said Hist" The Clappp committee .,Histed." Then and there did the said Thomas take the C1app committee into his confidence and tell them of deap laid plot. concocted, boiled, laid and fried on both sides in Wall street by the Sinister System to raise big slush fund of million dollars to nom mate a democrat at Baltimore who would promptly turn over the keys or the treasury building to the system right after election and let them loot it. and if necessary take hand as llooter himself, or words to that ef- | feet.
 But" says Thomas, T beat 'em to it.. Me and Bill Bryan jerked scientific crimp in the plans of the system put Bryan wise and we defeated their ne- farious designs" Saying which Thomas waited for the Clapp committee to re- cover it's equilibrium and to stick its eyes back in its head and burst into applause.
 | But the Clapp committee merely said, Gee. you don't tell us," and refrained | from being very much impressed with Thomas' statement further than to de- yelop a consuming curiosity concerning the details. This was unkind not to say rudely discourteous of the Clapp lcommittee Thomas never was much | on details-he does not make it rule to bother with little things-and when Thomas was asked for names and dates and figures, he could only say that he had left them at home on the piano, and only knew in general way" what the system was trying to do.
 Senator Pomerene, who is a democrat, member of the Clapp committee did not take kindly to the startling informa-
 ton which Thomas was kind enough
 to give the committee. The senator
 demanded MT. Lawsons authority for | the statement that a million dollars
 had been raised to control the Balti-
 more nomination, and he demanded 1t
 in peevish and resentful manner. Mir.
 Lawson said, haughtily and in way tout on the ice" tone that he believed that the senator's enquiry was not in the Jurisdiction of the committee. That
 settled Senator Pomerene. When he got
 fresh MT. Lawson properly put him | in his place all right Senator Pomerene
 made a valient effort to come back by asking MT. Lawson if he under
 stood the 'committee's scope and pow Ter" but that didn't settle the question
 of jurisdictions
 It was plain that Senator Pomerene ldid not like the style of Mir. Lawson 5 information. He seemed to resent the imputation that the szy,tem thought lthey could control the democratic con-
 
 vention with little pot of million bones, when the rumors have 1t that five or six millions were spent at Chi cago It is an effort on the part of lThomas and the system to make the democrats look like 'pikers.' It cer-
 tainly does appear that the system is