The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-12-26
RumOr Persists He Will Run
for Congress From the
New Tenth District
is NOT NECESSARY
TO BE A RESIDENT
Counties of New District Are Recog-
nized as Containing Hotbed of
HObsOn Sentiment in
the State

| Despite reports from Washington which
| tend to discount the rumor that Richmond
| Pearson Hobson will return to Alabama
| and make the race for Congress against
| William 3. Bankhead from the newly
formed Tenth district the idea will not
| down and still continues to be live
| topic of discussion. The friends of Hob
son, ever since his defeat for the United
States Senate by Oscar Underwood. have
been considering the political situation
with a view to aseertaining what the
next move of the Hero OF the Merrimac'
| should be. That the captain will not give
up his political career is the statement
| of his friends, and for that reason the
question of what will be his next move
is live issue
| Many and plausible reasons are adj
| vanced by the friends of Hobson as to
| why he should and probably will offer
| for the place in Congress from the new
| Tenth district. In the first place it is
| known that the law allows a man to run
| for Congress from any district he may
desire. regardless OF whether he resides
! in it or not. Then, it is commended, that
| the counties of the Tenth district are
| largely those which were in Hobson's old
district, and in which he was for some
years invincible. Even when he contested
tho right OF Oscar Underwood to sit in
the United States Senate, every county
ir the state which Hobson carried, with
the exception of his own home county,
Hale, is now in the Tenth district.
MUST BE BEFORE VOTERS
Many of Eobsons friends thought after
his defeat by Underwood that his next
venture would be in national politics. as
a candidate for President or vice president
on the prohibition or some other ticket
But since everyone seems to realize that
the situation has not shaped itself so as
to make that action attractive to Hob
son, his re-entry into Alabama politics
is freely predicted at an early date Polit-
ical leaders point out that it is neces-
sary for Hobson again to get before the
voters of Alabama If he expects to make
the race for the Senate in 1915 Two more
years without public office and of absence
from the state would, in the opinion of
many, effeCtually eliminate him from Ala
bama affairs. Then there remains the
fs ct that Hobson, in Congress, has tho
use of the government frank, and also
the power of getting unlimited publicity
for his views Men well posted on polit-
ical matters are authority for the state
ment that no man in the history of the
American Congress ever made such eff
feotive use of the government frank, and
none was ever able to get more purely
pc litical campaign material into the con-
gressional record than was Hobson. In
other words, as Hobson himself said, In
a previous campaign, he could use the
office of congressman as "fulcrum" to
step into n higher one.
Those who believe it would be a good
political move for IIobson to enter the
race from the Tenth district, as well as
those who fear that he will do so, state
-
not deter the captain. They point to
the fact that he has an established record
as a breaker of precedents. He broke q
precedent when he sank the Merrimac
Another precedent was established when
he resigned from the navy on account
OF poor eyesight and defeated the veteran
John H. Bankhead for Congress in a dis
trict where he QTobson) had not been
for years Another precedent was smashed
when he, a southern democrat, voted for
the reinstatement of the negro soldiers
who had insulted white women and had
shot up southern city. In fact, it has
been definitely proved that Hobson is not
bound by the usual political presidents.
SMALLEST IN POPULATION
The Tenth district has the smallest pop
ulation of any in the state, being only
one-half so populous as the Second. OF
the seven counties which now compose
l1lS UlSlflCC, f1ODSOn carried -FOUR OF them
even over Underwood, and received ma
jority in either one of two of them con-
sderably larger than the nlajorities for
Underwood in the three which Underwood
carried. In fact. it Is contended by polit-
ical leaders that In framing the new
Tenth district, the legislature, uncon-
sciously, of course, chose the hotbed of
the Hobson sentiment. Hobson's friends
contend that tho legislature cut Hale.
Hnhgnnfq home COlIntV. our of the old
Hobson district, and placed it among
counties which are hostile to him. There
fore, they say, IL Hobson wants to go
back to Congress, the only thing for him
to do is to go to the district where his
follow ers and his loyal friends live, and
ask them to return him to his former
seat.
The Alabama friends of Hobson who
take the position that he should make
the race for Congress from the Tenth
district do not claim to have any author
ity to speak for him. In fact. many
men close to Hobson state that they have
no idea what his future plans are and
they do not believe he has confided In
anyone. 1t is believed by the best posted
politicians in the state that Hobson will
lreturn to Alabama for his field of politi-
cal activities and that many days will
not pass after the new year before he
will make known to the voters of the
state his desires in the matter of political
preferment.