The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-25
THE MOST V[TRIOLIC SPEECH
OF CAREER MADE BY COMER
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he told Weatherly that the hunt was off
as he would not be caught in that com
pany pending the Conner laws enactment.
lie said that when the intangible tax
bill was pending Newman of the Ameri-
can. Cities Railway company. owning the
Birmingham Railway, Light and Power
cumpany. rendered the use of his auto
| mobile to the governor and his family
at Atlantic City and that Ii was refused.
lie designated those two propositions as
being typical incidents of environment
| that was so much talked of during the
Conner administration
Says Henderson Should Resign
He said, in getting back to Charles
Henderson, that Henderson should re-
sign the presidency of the railroad COM
mission or quit the race for governor.
The former governor remarked that Hen
derson had the whole organization of
the railroad commission including Sam
Kennedy. secretary, down in the Bell
building at Montgomery, working in the
interest of Henderson. He suggested that
If Henderson really believed that the rail-
road commission could fix the railroad
rates it would be well for the Henderson
crowd to remain at their posts rather
than to be running for the governorship.
He said that Henderson had great ap-
preparation for the work against the rail-
roads, and then observed: Mr. Hender-
son should give the people back that
money or attend to his work"
Wants Congressional Investigation
Governor Conner said in the height Of
his speech that he intended to demand
of Congress an investigation be held here
of the methods employed by the Louisville
and Nashville in the political life of this
state He assured the people who heard
him that the same interests who were
trying to gobble up this state were re-
spohsible for the assassination of Cover
nor Goebel of Kentucky, that they were
in a measure responsible for the Carmack
affair in Nashville, that they had tried
to debauch this state and that the interests
would not stop at anything to rob the
people of their right to rule, for which
war was declared on England In 1776
He said that the lobby in this state
was worse than the Mulhall disclosures,
that 'armor plate was being distributed
in Alabama by the Louisville and Nash
Vile and that the whole state should be
cleared of them. He uncorked his real
opinion as to the press of the state,
charging that Mr. Glass of the News and
Advertiser told him upon being asked
about one advertisement of the LOUIS
Vile and Nashville, that; Anything paid
for goes in these days"
Newspapers Debauched
He said frequently during his speech
that the prominent papers had been cap
tured, bought and controlled and that
while the reporters seated in front of
him were personally his friends, they were
held In control
He dealt at length with the methods
used as he said to debauch the news
papers of this state and was frequently
cheered when he made unusually caus-
tic reference to the press of Alabama.
He referred with the height of sarcasm
to the Montgomery Advertiser as Grand
ma" and said "God forbid that the peo-
pie of Alabama should follow such teach
ings as are handed out by that Mont
gomery paper
Given Glowing Introduction
The former governor was introduced
by Alto V. Lee, prominent leader of
this section, who has never support
ed Conner before, but who is now very
strong for him. Mr.. Lee was unusu-
ally complimentary, referring TO Gov
ernor Conner as a man of righteous
life, of courage and of strength of
character.
The former governor said he liked
that introduction. ut reminds me.
however, of a time when I was in
Barbour county," began Mr.. Conner.
''where I am from. / was to speak
there when a speaker introduced me
as Bragg Conner. The speaker said that
while | might have done some little
something that | was not entitled to
any credit for [ was from Barbour
county That may be true. I claim to
be great governor was stated
However, | must be careful of what
| say for there are seated before me
representatives of practically all the
prominent newspapers of the state The
reporters personally are my friends
but their bosses are not in that cate
gory-at least some of them, Anyway,
speaking of Barbour county, all men
who come from Barbour county are
of the right stuff and it remains for
you mothers to have your children
born there
Conner Legislature
"The people of this state have heard
great deal about the Conner legis-
iature. That body of men were pledged
to make laws for you. the people. II
have heard the papers say they were
afflicted with Comeritis. Instead /
think they were afflicted with peo-
pleites as they did everything they
could for the betterment of the peo-
pie as a whole. The laws enacted were
for the people and gave to the people
what they desired and what was want
ed. We adopted progressive laws and
We adopted them in the interests of
the whole people. you know. That
was right. The laws are right. l want
to say right here that as one of the
papers said | was on the defensive,
l want TO say that the administration
is not on the defensive. | am proud of
everything they did and am in no
sense ON the defensive when it comes
to the acts of the alleged or so-called
Conner legislature. The laws that we
adopted have been upheld. We are pros
pering under them and they are good
laws, even until this time despite eff
forts to discount and make in
effective some of the laws adopted
by that body of men. We were
for good roads. | tell you, that 1t
is as necessary for you farmers to
build good roads as 1t is necessary
TO get good rates out of the railroads
The better roads decrease your rate
to market and when that is done you
save. | am for good roads, and
hope that you will be caused to be
built all over your county good roads
so that the rates may be decreased for
the haulage on your wagons as 1t will
surely be. They are the same as low
er freight rates and you know we want
them.
Conner or Anti Conner
This is a singular and unique cam
paign. 1t is solely Conner and anti
Conner. | don't care who the candi-
date is or what he stands for pro-
hibition or what not, every time one
of them comes out he takes a club
and lambasts me. | ask YOU why are
all the candidates and the press OF