The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-25

| lot didn't your The father said yes
The boy then said: Well. l told the
teacher that today and it was the
wrong answer
MY friends, one million is great
amount of money.
IF he 6O'NeaD knew that was true,
and If the papers knew that was true
and he said that we left a deficit OF
| 81 100000. he stu1tified himself For
when a prudent man sees his money
gone and himself hopelessly in debt he
calls the wife and children around him
and cautions them to cut expenses
They hold UP. But what is true of the
| ONeal crowd? Every law of the Co
! nler legislature was upheld. They never
| repealed a single one of Importance.
They never cut an appropriation. on
| the other hand, they increased the APP
propriations and If we left them in
a hole and they continued that pro-
gramme. they are the biggest fools
that were ever seated In Montgomery.
| II they did they We're Jim Dandies
| The mention of Jim Dandy brought
smile and the former governor
stopped long enough to explain about
the charge that he sent meal in flour
sacks to get the rate and thereby
| saved slight amount of money.
Refers to DeFuniak
&c. A. DeFuniak Of the Louisville
and Nashville" he continued, "sworc
| that. He Is the easiest swearer that
know Of He would swear anything
that was for the interest of the Louis
Vile and Nashville railroad
Il have here in my hand a certified
record from Montgomery with the great
seal of the state on 1t testifying to
Its truthfulness. 1t was issued by the
secretary of state. Cyrus B. Brown. 1t
SHOWS the amount of money that the
Conner administration left in Mont
gomery and 1t is true and indis-
putable set of figures. They show that
when left Montgomery in February
1911, there was in the state treasury
approximately $4,000 That does not
look like an empty treasury. The facts
are that the ONeal crowd used that
money and that none was borrowed
until the fail of 1911, as they used
what the alleged extravagant legisla-
ture left there to the approximate ex-
tent of $1,000,000. That is not a deficit
of s1,O0O.0 600, as they would have you
TO believe in some of the papers They
tell you that we were extravagant and
that we spent millions. We spent it,
yes. We gave that money back to
the people. None of 1t Is floating down
any of your rivers. None of it was
thrown away. The money belonged to
the people and as sure as goodness we
no place for the money of the people
to be boarded Now is the time for the
people to join hands and sweep this
state of the lobbies and elect another
progressive administration"
Shakes Finger at Reporters
At this juncture of his address the
former governor grew exceedingly
spirited and with the most unusual
emphasis shook his fingers at the re-
porters, called them by name and
shouted until the very limbs of the
trees shook
'They only say this money was
spent. l tell you, for Gods sake, don't
accuse a man of wasting your money
until you know where 1t has gone
Don't make insidious charges unless
you can lay your finger upon the
waste. If a man is a thief ealI him
thief. II he is murderer, call him
that, but for Gods sake don't deal in
innuendoes that are murderous They
say that we increased your taxes. tell
you that we made the railroads and the
big interests pay their proportion. We
made the corporations and the Louis
Vile and Nashville railroad disgorge
We increased the Louisville and Nash
vile alone over $40 COO 600 and yet
they tell you that we only raised the
taxes of the, people. 1t Is right that
you ire worth that | should pay 10
times the taxes you pay. That is right"
Touches on Education
The former governor went into the
educational proposition in this state
and defended his legislature in its
spending of the large sums of money
for school purposes. He said that the
schools of this state were getting when
he went in $1,000, 900, and that the
appropriations were increased to about
S22,O0O,000. In this age of progress
siveness there should be spent millions
more on the educational system of this
state" he said.
The former governor related that of
every dollar of the. increased taxes one
mill of 1t went to the old soldiers and a
larger amount to the schools. He said
that he had been charged with having
taken the old soldiers money away from
them and giving 1t to Samuel D. Weak
ley and Brooks Lawrence. He asked: "To
whom did O'Neal give 1T? Where did his
money go? l won't say that he gave II
TO Charles Lewis. the alleged whisky
man, but / will say that he was under
enough obligations to him to give 1t to
the whisky man. When they told me of
that awful charge that the old soldiers
money was taken. | said and / repeat
now that any man that would do such
thing sinned against the Holy Ghost. and
that | would suffer my right arm being
severed at the shoulder rather than to
ever lift one finger against the grand old
soldiers of this state. That whole prop
osition was what you women make soap
out of. In other words plain lying"
Doing Everything
The former governor said that any man
who created sentiment against more
schools and bpttqr echonla ITO dnirtr tlsx
wrong thing. He then read an extract
from the Brewton Standard, quoting Wal
ter d. Seed. candidate for governor,
as saying that he was In favor of taking
the money away from Alabama, Auburn,
Montevallo and all such schools and Civ
ing 1t to the rural schools of the state.
The governor referred to the Conner
schools at Auburn and Alabama. He
averred that all over this state we're
schools that had been built by his leeisla-
ture and that he would build even more
schools for the rural folks if elected again
to the governorship.
He said that he had hunted big game
out west. bigger even than Milton II.
Smith. He corrected himself and then
said that Milton III. was the biggest he
had ever hunted. That was in connection
with story about Pixies peak where the
governor rang in an extract from his
well known lecture on Character" in
which he tells about how the fellow who
builds on good foundation will succeed
while the other fellow who is an anti
prohibitionist goes the other way
Takes Up Taxing Problem
The governor in approaching the taxing
problem said that the back tax commis-
sioners were appointed after creation first
by Governor Johnston He said they
fl,af,~ 4.