The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-08
SAM BLYTHE ON GOV. O'NEAL

hibition and giving the counties the local option privilege with such restrictions as were deemed proper.
 While this fight was going on Alabama had a mining disaster in the Birmingham district. More than 100 men were killed | many of them state convicts. What are you going to do about it?" a newspaper man. asked him.
 O'Neal filled his pipe before he said: T | am going to write a lava law that will protect our miners
 Two days later the law was written, and O'Neal saw to it that this law was passed | He had a conviction about the matter, you see.
 | Then there was the delay in the courts | He had conviction about that. being a lawyer and knowing how slowly the courts worked and how congested their dockets were. He sent special message | to the legislature urging the establish ment of a court of appeals, and he saw | to it that said court of appeals was es- tablished. He kept having conviction after conviction various subjects, and most of these he made stick.
 Presently there came to his desk various bills authorizing the commission form of government for Alabama municipalities, and containing provisions for the intia- | tive, the referedum and the recall. Gov | ernor O'Neal is not impressed with the | initiative, the referendum and the | call. but he let these bills go, inasmuch as | they were purely local bills. However he | was not without convictions on this phase
 of popular government, and he spoke | about it last September at the conference l of governors in the east, Gov Woodrow | " Wilson of New Jersey. having arrived at
 a full working knowledge of the initiative. I the referendum and the recall in short | space of time, said few kind words for l the processes, and instantly Emmet ONeal alghted on the angular form of l the political schoolmaster and remarked 1 that the recall are "an insidious popular l Vagary." Naturally there was some small | pickering over the matter. and F.. O'Neal | bickered his full share and got away
 with his end of 1t in excellent style. It | appears there are many persons of the 1 same frame of mind as O'Neal on this
 subject, for ever since that speech and
 debate O'Neal has been deluged with in 1 vitations to come out of Alabama and make speeches along the same lines. No l invitation, however. has been received
 from w. Wilson, governor of New Jer- l sey.
 As may be inferred, when a gentle man named after Robert Emmet, who wears an O with an apostrophe in his l other name, has convictions and makes those convictions stick--or gets stuck by the same process--there have been
 times when the governor, both be- l fore he was governor and since, has met with opposition. He has not only
 met with opposition but he has caught lup with it. run into 1t and has been
 run over by it. Likewise he has had
 his share of thes running over priv ileges. It is quite impossible to turn a person named Emmet O'Neal into 1 democratic politics in Alabama without l thereby arousing various healthy ires. l O'Nears success in this regard has ! been in full keeping with his meth
 ods If you are interested in the ques- 1 tion you can find plenty of Alabamians O'Neal should be fmpeached. If you go
 farther you will find scores of persons | who will speak so violently about him
 that their language will fill you with
 astonishment and cause you to nut
 ter: Can such things be?
 Then, if you will walk round the cor
 ner, you will find a large and enrnu-
 siastic gathering of leading citizens who will inform you that EJminet
 oNeal is positively the finest perform
 CT in the way of a governor they have ever known. with better idea of his responsibilities and clearer conception
 of his duties to the people and higher
 motives behind his public acts
 As I have intimated O'Neal has con victions, has courage and has sense. l When you combine these qualities anu
 fuss in politics you never get any luke
 warm results. Either you are the best
 or the worst. ONeal Is a fighter. Be-
 ing a fighter, he fights and is fought
 Is 1t to be wondered that most of them
 love him and some of them hate him" II trow not.