The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-29
LIBERTY AND TICKS
By DIR. JOHN w. sTAGa

1 Bankhead for Congress from tho Sixth Icongressional district of this state, he l did not at once make known his fuil programme. Congressman Bankhead had
 Succeeded In getting the government to erect some locks along the channel Of lthe Warrior river which were recog-
 nized as of great value to this section and were much talked of. After his suc- cessful entrance into Congress Captain Hobson understood that il was neces- gary to keep the people talking. He had laurels a plenty, tho Merrinac was fresh , In everybodys mind. but these laurels
 didn't look SO taking in a congressman, growing a little thin pated, as they did
 in a young naval officer with full head of sorrei hair. Captain Hobson Twas on tho alert and instead of doing | like Alexander--sitting down and cry Il ing because there were no more worlds
 to conquer (which isn't true) he caught
 the spirit of his century and saw what Victor Hugo had seen long before and
 went to work on ticks. He didn't give
 a d--- about locks in the Warrior river
 so he could find ticks In Sumter county. i The result was that in the last race for Congress no candidate stood chance Iagainst the originator of tick extermi- Ination in this state. Ticks had become
 more formidable than lice in Egypt.
 If Moses had succeeded in tricklng the | J
 Captain Hobson trick the citizens of
 Sumter county with ticks-and he did
 as all the world well knows.
 1 This. unfortunately, put the matter
 of tick eradication into local politics
 which was the same thing as raising
 h., as the public prints at that time
 abundantly confirm, notably the Living
 ston Sun. Into the arena the giants en- tered-I only give the names of those
 choose and for the reasons I have as- | signed. They were the Hon. John A.
 Rogers, c. J. Broadway, J. H. Pinson,
 William Elliott, w. s. Oliver. These
 men could not have agreed among
 themselves upon the writing of a con- fession of faith that would have ad-
 mitted any of them to heaven without
 examination, though all of them stood lsorely in need of such 8 document, and | yet they all agreed on the modus | operandi in handling the tick situation | in Sumter county-and "bucked" the government Why was this? A sim- pie question with an easy answer-lib- erty. They convinced the greater num-
 Der of the citizens of the county that l their liberties were threatened when, as matter of fact. their liberties were not involved at all.
 I The trouble was easily ascertained when the matter was talked over seri- ously. The United States government
 
 county who did not have balance enough to know what the paraphernalia of office signified and in some instances, their conduct revealed the fact that they did not have the instincts of gem tlemen and that they were sadly lack ing in that most uncommon commodity l--common sense.
 Servants of the People
 | The fact that our. country is yet young 1 end that some of her methods are yet I crude and raw was lost sight of. It was | forgotten that, in this country of all the civilized countries on the globe, officials l of the government have not learned that | the paraphernalia of office is first of all l the insignia of a servant of the people. | This notion obtains from those high in 1 authority down to the most obscure con stable and the lower you descend in the scale of authority the more vulgar and | oy erbearing the official becomes. There seems to be ar agreement among a cer- I tain type of officers that it is their right l 10 beat and bulldoze the American citi- zen into doing their will rather than per- suading them to the good intent of the I government in urging upon them meas
 ures for their betterment I had a drug ] sist, not long since, to tell me there was l a certain inspector for the government who visited his place and that his man.
 nor of conducting himself and his manner
 of asking questions were such that 1t was | quite 0 task to refrain himself from knocking fim in the head. This officer
 happened to be negro, and after making
 due allowance, have seen so much of the arrogance referred to, that can well un- derntend the irritation of this business
 man. It may not be out of place here to I say that vast deal of friction and dis satisfactfcn might be got rid of If the gov
 ernment was considerate enough to use
 such negro officials to the north of the
 Mason and Dixon line. As this country gets older and the serving idea takes l larger place in the brain cells of these of- | iiclals this grievance, in large measure, will pass, as 1t has in older and better I managed countries than ours.
 | The officers who came into Sumter county pursued a line of conduct that would have been almost confiscation of the property of some who could i'll af ford to sustain the loss. Tn attempting l to enforce the letter of the law. where public roads were made a barrier to ticky cattle, they prohibited the using of oxen drawing saw logs or hauling timber to and from the mills, as the l case might be. wherever public roads had to be crossed. Goodly sums had been expended in erecting the mills and operating the business but these con- | alterations mattered no whit to these unrelenting officers Uncle Sam was
 back of them and he was a little bit
 bigger than Sumter county.
 Aroused Them
 This attitude naturally aroused the character of men I have referred to-
 men of as great courage and fortitude as can be found on earth--and so the war against tick eradication began, The oratory caught fire and so did the county My friend, the Hon. John A.
 Rogers. raised the first whoop with as fine a piece of verbage. and after he got the wrong premise wrongly laid down. with as merciless piece of logic as Is to be found in any of the great books on oratory, calling for firing all along the Inc. My friends, the Hon. c. J. Broadway, brought out all the old law books that had lain still in Livingston since Wash 1 ington and Cornwallis met at York Town. I He gained such a reputation for legal |