The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-02

| votes, regardless of its proper bearings
on the cause of principals and right; but
was governed by a solumn sense of con-
viction, as to what Alabama in this
hour of her requirement and need de-
manded as a real measure of service from
MIN to whom the responsibilities of ex.
ecutive leadership are to be given for the
next four important years in her history.
That these views awakened a respon-
sive sense of value and recognition Is
evident in many respects, but in none
more prominent than in the appreciation
of them by honorable competitors to form
the best features of their respective plat
forms as candidates for governor. For
instance, ! was the earliest of the candi-
dates to openly denounce the reign of
official extravaganza into which this
state has been recltlessly plunged, by
top-heavy judiciary system, a useless
multiplication of public offices and long
list of needless sinecures which impover-
ishes the tax payers of the state to MAIN
tain individuals in offices Every sue
eeeding candidate was quick to seize upon
this discovery and to fashion ii as a pre-
ferred plank in his platform. l was the
first to publicly proclaim that Alabama
need the rest cure from the agitation
into which Mr. Corners strenuous admin
and dignity of the state, and pointed out
that another campaign with prohibition
as the fundamental issue would result in
an Inevitable renewal of strife and bitter
ness among the people. My distinguished
friend, Mr.. Henderson, was quick to
troop in behind me and specialize this
luminous truth, and offer it as convince
ing reason why he should be preferred as
a candidate.
Criticizes Mr.. Seed
81 emphasized the need of an aggressive
agricultural policy as the highest measure
of conforming to the demands of the fu-
ture development of this state and Mr..
Seed is suddenly converted by it and di-
vulges flood of theories through which
he would transform Alabama into a great
big model farm.
I. Il demanded regulation, graded to an
idea of reciprocity of justice and fairness,
as the measure of the states policy to-
wards her railroads, and Mr. Henderson
not only frantically takes up my refrain
and shouts 1t with the zeal of a con-
vert but builds upon it the laughable
claim that he is the pioneer and father
the original and resourceful advocate of
rate salvation and railroad regulation in
Alabama.
Thus you see, fellow citizens that each
of my distinguished opponents in this
race has been generous in his estimate
of my conception of what is needful in
the platform of winning candidate.
congratulate them upon their promptness
to acknowledge that 1 have forestalled
them in outlining the wants of the peo-
pie, and | cordially commend at least
these selections from my platform which
they have extracted to strengthen their
cause as candidates. 1t is, however,
pity for themselves that these gentlemen
could not have rested on their appro
priation of stolen Kolb thunder, though
1t would have made my race a harder
one, and the result in the primary a lit
tie more doubtful; and. besides, it would
have limited the choice in this contest,
to a question of individuals, since there
would have been no difference upon issues
of policy.
1T is a pity that Mr.. Seed could not
have staked his chance of becoming
winner on his borrowed claim of interest
and zeal in the toiling masses without
favoring a continued policy of strife and
turbulence in resurrecting an issued upon
which the people of Alabama are hope
lessly and stubbornly divided. 1t Is a
pity that Mr.. Conner could not have let
ideas borrowed from my platform of ag-
grandiZing and serving the solid interest
Of the state spare him the declaration
that he stands in this contest for the
Same OlQ IitiEltu iutdlS VI IdulCdlS1H
through which he came near plunging
Alabama into vortex of trouble that
bordered on ruin during the four years
of his turbd administrative leadership
1T is a pity that Mr.. Henderson in his
assumption of claims that mark him for
the high honor he seeks of you, offers
nothing that he could not do in a broader
measure, in the honorable station in
which he now serves you, and to which
io1i In ,,,b;t
have three times elevated him. Tt is
only when Mr.. Henderson, Mr.. Conner and
Mr.. Seed, in their respective platforms,
get beyond the sound position in which
they have emuated me in assuming that
they reached the point of danger and
trouble and they will find, think, that
before this campaign wakes very old, or
extends far into its strenuous length that
they will be brought up against the In
evtabe necessities for explanation which
it will become them as applicants for your
favor to make.
MIR. HendersOn's Insincerity
Il have an idea that Mr.. Henderson
cannot escape the penalty of explaining
the insincerity of his views on the all
important question of the liquor tarffic
In his latest utterance on this subject
he calls eloquently and loudly for local
option with the county as unit. There
is nothing to object to in this proposal
as mesure of legislative action on a
troublesome and vexatious problem In
this he Is but repeating and following
my own view as a candidate, and l COM
mend the wisdom he displays in doing so,
but charge that in favoring local option
MIR. Henderson is both inconsistent and
insincere. i charge that he supported and
voted for Colonel Mallory in the last cam
paign, when he knew that his vote was
not only an Endorsement Of prohibition.
but that it represented a change in 10y
atty and support of Governor O'Neal
whose candidacy he was previously
pledged to support | charge, further
that within a few days of the last guber-
election, in which the issue be-
tween prohibition and local option was
to be determined, that Mr.. Henderson
wrote and published a letter in the Mont
scmery Advertiser, indorsing the candi-
dacy of Colonel Mallory, and calling upon
his friends and supporters to follow him
In this act of desertion of the cause OF
Governor O'Neal and local option. sub
NIT this information in the nature of a
charge which l don't believe Mr.. Hen
derson will pretend to deny, in order that
the voters OF Alabama may form some
idea of Mr.. Hendersons stamina as a
candidate, and to ascertain how seriously
his view On one of the vital issues of
this campaign may be regarded.
Incident At Uniontown
This is not the only instance In which
Mr. Henderson's inconsistency has been
discreditably evidenced. His fiexibility as
a candidate is very manifest to most of
us in more recent experience of this
And it shows a reversal Of