The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-25
CANDIDATES BUZZ | AROUND AND HUM OF POLITICS GROWS All Are Apparently Feeling Around Before Making
 Announcements WEEK JUST ENDED SAW DEVELOPMENTS Even in County and City Circles a Close Watch Is Being Kept on
 What the "Other Fellow"
 Is Doing
p. HUGH W. ROBERTS

If the public will refer the matter tc the candidates themselves, no one Is campaigning in the state of Alabama al the present time-sighing like a furnace in an effort to serve the people, down trodden and sorely perplexed.
 And yet the political situation is on' not without It's interest. teeming as 4 is with humor and pathos.
 During the past week, Congressman Hobson has been doing yeoman-llke ser vice in the state. Reuben F. Kolb has eeen shaking the hands of the farmers and reminding them that he was count ed out" twenty years ago. Walter D. Seed has been indulging in oratory among sons of toll and knights of fra ternal organizations. B. B. Conner has been assaillng the Louisville and Nashville railroad. and incidentally. Judge Thomas G. Jones. Governor O'Neal Is carefully erecting a platform of reformation in the procedure of courts and equity in matters of taxation.
 The story is without conclusion And today. Senator Johnston reaches home to attend to his political fences. and soon will come Henry D. Clayton
 No one is running for office; but every one Is preparing to run.
 Governor Conner has not made up his mind as yet whether to yield to the yearning of ambition and run for the Senate or whether to occupy the gov- ernors chair and renew his battle against the railroads. There may be de- veIopment this week, for he announces that he will make. a speech Friday at Greenvile. n
 Reuben F. Kolb has tentatively an nounced for the governorshIp and de- clares that he will soon make formal announcement At the present time. however, said he yesterday, T am. not discussing politics.
 Congressman Hobson has announced himself candidate for the Senate, all though it is understood that he has as yet struck only preliminary blows fin the way of organizing the state.
 Walter D. Seed declines to discuss poll tics at all, although his clarion voice may be heard at any time echoins around the hills of purely rural dis tricts.
 If the suggestion were made in the pres ence of Governor o'Neal that he is laying a predicate on which to announce for the Senate, he would very probably point to the constitutional inhibition which tends to bar that contingency. But his warm ad- mirers are stating on the street fcorners at the present time that he would be a more formidable candidate than his ene- mics are willing to admit.
 The situation is nebulous, true enough but the principal actors are showing their hands plainer every day. The fact that the dates of their trials are far distant Is not deterring them fin the energetic display of their several points of merit And soon someone will touch off the fire orks and the general explosion will fol low.
 In the meantime the grind continues Governor ONeal issues interviews which may impress the people of other com nunities that his efforts to secure equity in taxation in Jefferson county are due entirely to the resistance of local cor poratlons~ Governor Conner takes an oc- casional fling at Judge Jones and never ceases to preach his doctrine against what he considers the efforts of the Louis yille and Nashville railroad to boss the state. Captain Kolb is talking with the "old guard" concerning the tricks that were played on him in years long gone, and perhaps Waiter Seed occasionally refers to what he did in the last cam paign in the interest of statewide prohi- bition.
 Out of it all. however, comes the cry for peace and plenty, and rest from po- litical controversy and factional agitation
 In this regard the attitude of members of the legislature is significant. IL is ap- parent that they are determined if such