The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-28

the fight of 1907 Hobson was absent
and only declared for the issue when
county after county had followed the
lead of jefferson. "And finally" he
added. "Hobson came to Alabama ano
spoke In behalf of prohibition. This
was in the campaign in the interest OF
the amendment. lie made wonderful
speeches, and we lost the county by g
majority great as that by which
We had previously won it,"
Declares HObsOn Dreamer
| Mr.. Burris then declared that Hob
son was dreamer and offered this a.
a reason why many of the declarations
of the captain do not seem in conform
ity with truth. ."Richmond" he said
| does not mean to lie straight out
| Sometime ago a number of people were
| discussing Hobson and employing the
uglier and shorter word in denouncins
some of his charges against his OPP
ponent. A stranger approached, saying
| Friends. Richmond and / were boys
| together. He does not intend to speak
| falsely. lie is merely a dreamer. He
used to return from hunting with a
| statement that he had killed 10 rab-
bits. whereas he had killed but one and
with statement that he had killed a
covey of quail and only one had es-
| capped, whereas he had killed one and
| the covey had got away.
| This is Richmond | heard him my
self picture in marvellous manner the
| terrible scene of Cervera's soldiers ly-
ing dead upon the decks of their ships
He told the people OF Woodlawn one
| Sunday afternoon that he had seen
! that picture with his own eyes. And
most of the people believed him. As a
matter of fact, he was at that time a
prisoner in Moro castle"
UnderwOod's Work
Mr.. Burris urged his hearers to put
! their common sense to work. He told
them that some years ago they got l6
pounds of sugar for a dollar and that
row they could get 90 He told them
that of $15,000,000 appropriated by the
last Congress for public buildings, I'm
derwood had secured for Birmingham
one tenth of that sum. He told Chen
that there was an excellent chance OF
Birmingham or Alabama securing the
armor plate plant. underwood will
probably secure that plant for Ala
bama," he added. what could Hobsor
do? He has no influence with his col
leagues. He is hardly acquainted with
them" Mr.. Burris then discussed the
| value of the tariff bill and the currency
hill, and charged Hobson with having
absented himself during the terrific
heat of a Washington summer and left
| Underwood behind TO redeem the
pledges of the party, to make plat
form on which a democratic President
could be elected.
He discussed Underwood as young
lawyer and reviewed his congressional
career. He predicted his overwhelming
election, and that he would succeed Pres
ident Wilson as President in 1920. He
declared that Woodlawn would give Mr.
H., 80 tt, uNf
Followed by Blackwell
There was prolonged applause at the
conclusion of Mr.. Burris' speech. Mr.
Blackwell followed. He was introduced
as an Alabamian who had been success
ful in many respects, as a democrat, as
a prohibition, as the youngest living Con-
federate soldier, and as the superintend-
ent of the largest Sunday school in Nor
gan county.
Mr. Blackwell after a few preliminary
remarks, declared that in the present race
was statesman and a politician.
"a politician" said he, ''is man who
is always asking the people to do some
thing for him; a statesman, a man who is
always trying to do something for the
people,
He discussed Captain Hobsons prohibit
ton record. He declared that in other
campaign, the campaign had not deemed
DfOnlDlllOn an issue, lllal ne tldt dIucnllN
supported Captain Bankhead, a local OPP
ZIONIST, against Captain White, a prohibit
| zionist, and that although he had been in
| Congress for seven years, he had not in
troduced a nationwide prohibition bill
| until last December wnen he realized that
he needed a leg on which to stand-that
he needed prohibition in his business.
He then discussed the proposed amend
ment. and after stating that whereas the
. ratification of re states would he nPcpS-
| sary, only one at the present time had
! voted prohibition into it's constitution,
! oklahoma, attempted to show that ii
| would be impossible to secure nation
| wide prohibition within any reasonable
| length of time He declared that if the
prohititionists depended on IIobson to
secure nationwide prohibition, they
would have to wait such a long time that
the age of Methuseleh would seem as
| that of a baby.
Work for Nation as Whole
! The speaker discussed the great work
of Underwood for the nation as a whole.
He pointed out that when a few men
gained control of Persia, Babylon and
Rome, republican form of government
became a monarchy. He then told the
people that 107 men, through the virtue
of interloclSing directories, owned indus
trial America, and that Rockefeller had
twice the wealth of all the men, women
and children of Alabama. lie declared
that it was as a result of republican
protection that millionaires came into ex-
istence and beggars came into existence
lie used these facts to illustrate the need
of the people for a tariff for revenue
only. and then pointed out just how the
tariff bill, the work of an Alabamian,
had relieved the people of $120 100000 in
taxes. In the same logical manner, he
discussed the currency bill
THE democrats came into power" he
said, lin 1882. There We're many brilliant
men in the party at that time. But
they could not agree in concerted action.
AS result they failed and were swept
out of power. They returned in 1892
Again, there were brilliant men in the
party. men renowned for their oratory
and for their craftsmanship. A tariff
bill was enacted. 1t was a poor docu-
/ ment, so poor that Cleveland declined to
sign 1T, and permitted it to become law
as result of the operation of law
THE people We're dissatisfied because the
democrats had not redeemed their pledges
and swept them out of power. We wan
dered for 16 years in Egyptian darkness
and then Oscar Underwood got control y
He proceeded to tell of the patience and