The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-17
OF HOBSON'S LAST MOBILE TOUR Lavish Promises for Future Development of Past VOTERS UNCONVINCED Would Build an Armor Plate Factory and Big Government Ordnance
 Factory Between Birming-
 ham and Mobile
VOTERS UNCONVINCED
By HARRY J. RIRNEN


 of grand and glorious old common wealth bc compelled to witness a bat tie between a pigmy and a giant? Why
 should a weakline be pitted against d Titan? Why should the erring Under-
 wood be slaughtered to make a Hob son holiday?
 It is true that a vast ma aiority of
 the people of Alabama are not of the
 opinion that the floor leader of the
 majority n the national House of Rep
 resentatives is pigmy or a weak | llng nor do most of the people believe that he is tool of Wall street and
 the liquor interests. But this vast ma Jority is composed of those who have
 not been converted by>the pleas of
 Captain Robson reiterated with in
 creasing rancor and re-enforced by a
 desperation occasioned by the certain
 ty of defeat
 Captain Hobsons main difficulty in the present campaign arises from the
 fact that he is unable to convince the
 voters of the multifarious merits he
 professes to possess. Recently he has l completed a tour of Mobile county.
 Everywhere he was met by large
 crowds, aad everywhere he impresse1 1 his hearers by his earnest zeal. his 1 attractive personality and his plain and l straightforward style of oratory. The people of Mobile county know Captain
 Hobson as the people of the rest of the
 state know him, vigorous young man 1 with big brair and a bigger imagin- ation. His sterling honesty fails. how l
 practicability. His promises are so lavish that performance would seem | impossible.
 With amazing sangfroid Captain | liobson pledges Co make Mobile a ship building center whose plants would rival those stupendous industries which line the banks of the Cylde If he is elected to the United States Senate. he says, he will see that the resources and energies of the United States gov efhment are directed toward hasten lng that day when Alabama will have become what nature intended, the Sfandest, finest. happiest. most pros porous most moral and most beauteous spot viewed daily by Apollo as his 1 flaming chariot wheels its course across the skies.
 An arm 1T plate factory and an enor- nous factory for the manufacture of ordnance for the army and navy? Ger tainly. Alabama should have them and 1T HObson goes to the Senate Alabama VIII nave them. Their location? Oh somewhere between Birmingham and Mobile. ou sec, Captain Hobson is fpioad-mihued. He has no intention Of
 favoring one section of the state Ut the expense of another. And there's many voter who holds residence in cff pf,.Ia Aft l B1rmingham and Mobile. In that vast 1 eXpanse shall be built the armor plate plant and the factory for the manufac- | ture of ordnance. Of course the voter who casts his ballot in Florence or 1 Bridgeport may feel himself slighted m this matter, but there is plenty oe | spare ground between Birmingham and 1 Mobile whereon to erect his residence should he so desire.
 | Captain lIobson has supreme faith l in himself No false modesty ties his tongue when he begins to extol his own qualifications for setting alright Q world sadly awry. "You know" he con l iesses wi1h insouciant naivete. q am Ian engineer and scientist" and he ad- mits that after giving the subject the | careful consideration only possible to be expected from an expert he sees | no reason why Mobile should not be one of the worlds greatest ports And | L. nes and more ships it would be-that Is, if the water, facilities and ships are | supplied in sufficient quantities. some O. the gallant captains soph- | istries are so easily discernible that it ! Is hard to believe that even the worst ! informed are fooled thereby. For in | stance, defending himself from the l charge of absenteeism and neglect of duties, he boasts that compared with l their respective terms of service he has done more toward shaping legislation 1 this his opponent. MT. Underwood. In ! support Of his contention, Captain Hob l son tells of the number of appropria- | tion bills considered by the House na- val2commttee. of which he is a mem- Der. The naval committee. he tells his audience, each year is compelled to frame an appropriation bill, while a tariff bill considered by the ways and | means committee, of which Mir Un- derwood is chairman, has a measure to | consider about once every 10 years. Iiobson IS the master of his own po- litical fate he declares. In his com mittee his word Is law. But poor Un- 1 derwood. He cannot even control tho hirelipe Parker" he does not know | who circulated certain cartoons offen- 1 sive to the gallant captain. Underwood 2 camapign for the Senate is being I financed by the liquor interests. the gentleman from Greensboro asseverates with an indignation as warm as the oc- casion warrants. just as Underwood 5 campaign for the democratic nomina- tion For President was financed by the | buccaneers of Wall street. Underwood | is pronouncedly req actionary, Captain IIobson charges again and again. and | Wall street put up $35.000 to bring about his nomination at Baltimore and | prevent the naming of Woodrow Will son. progressive on the Hobson or der
 | MT. Hooson fails to tell his audiences l that he beat the bushes for Underwood lvotes when the latter was a candi : date for the nomination at Baltimore He falls to refresh the memory of his hearers by reiterating the splendid ar | guments he used to show why Oscar Underwood should be made the bear
 CT of the standard of democracy. It is not possible that Mir. Hobson has for
 gotten all this. It is more probable
 that he merely hopes that the voters
 have. Just why man equipped in ev- lery manner for the presidency should 4 not be qualified to hold office as n senator is a query which even Cap tain Hobsen. with all his adrotness and
 sophstry. has not tried to answer.
 We were wont to think of Wall street as the spot upon earth where money is most plentiful and where the patricians
 of predatory interests matched their no-
 furious plots for robbing the plain peo- pie. It was there. we thought, where the shekels welled upward to spread over the land and disseminate corrup- tion.
 But in Captain Hobson's view Wall l street is tin horn, a piker. when lit comes to buying peoples privileges from them. Wall street, he says, gave S35000 to bring about the nomination l of Underv ood. But the liquor inter i.