The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-03
LUSITANIA LETTER
 IS READ TO SHOW
 ROBSON VIEWPOINT
Merrimac Hero Defended Position of Germany When Great Liner Was Sunk by Submarine
By LEON c. BRADLEY

for Congress in the Tenth district is
 rapidly developing into typical Hob
 son campaign.
 Despite the assertion made by the
 captain just before opening the con- test that he would indulge in no per sonalities, that he would not deign to mention so small and insignificant Q
 matter as the redistricting bill, and
 that he would have nothing to say
 garding the declaration for nation n-wide
 prohibition on the part of William B.
 Bankhead, all of these questions have since been injected into the race by Captain Hobson. Lik kewise has the cap
 tain seen fit to make attacks on his
 opponent personally and other mem-
 bers of his family.
 I That the people of Jasper, the home of Will Bankhead, do not indorse the
 style of campaign being waged by Captain Hobson was indicated by the crowd at his speaking and in the city yesterday. Ban1head declared that he found from reading a stenographic re- port of Captain Hobson's speeches that the captain had made nine false accu- sations against him.
 q had hoped that this campaign
 could be waged on a high plane." said MT. Banl<head These charges made by Hobson, which are untrue, are simply attempts to becloud the issue and prejudice the voters by injecting inn
 material questions into this race. The real issue in this campaign is local self government and home rule' LUSITANIA STATEMENT No feature of Mr. Bankhead's speech
 Saturday created such a sensation as
 the reading of the signed statement
 made by Captain Hobson at the time
 this country was engaged in contro-
 versy with Germany over the sinking
 of the Lusitania. Under date of May
 15, 1915, Captain Hobson wrote the
 Washington Post from Waterbury, Conn.,, defending the position of Ger many in it's submarine warfare and declaring that because merchant ship, even though unarmed, might ram a submarine, it had no rights on the open seas and the President had no ground for his contention that an un- armed passenger ship must be warned before being torpedoed.
 "Captain Hobson in this statement"
 said Mr. Bankhead declared that he
 had information showing that the sink
 ing of the Lusitania was the result
 of a conspiracy on the part of the Brit
 ish government Of course Captain
 Hobson did not know at that time that
 Germany was to admit that one of her
 submarines sank the Lusltanla IT
 Captain Hobson had this information,
 as he said he did, was it ever furnished
 to the state department or the Presi- dent?"
 That Captain Hobson had not dealt
 fairly with the people of Alabama onthe question of national woman suffrage was charged by MT. BanlShead. 1.-Two years ago Captain Hobson declared in the press and on the stump that he thought the question of woman suffrage should be left to the people of the several states, and not settled by the federal government. This was the position taken by President Wilson and the other great leaders of the party However, no sooner had Hob son returned to Washington than he voted for the resolution for federal wom- an suffrage.
 'In the course of the debate on this question, Representative Henry south ern democrat, and one of the party lead- CTS, asked Captain Hobson, as shown by the Congressional Record, if the states did not now have the right to regulate the question of suffrage? Captain Hobson 1 admitted that they did, but he still fla vored the resolution. The amendment on woman suffrage proposed by Hooson would mean that every negro woman Tn
 the south could vote on an equality Wlth the white woman. In this position Hob | son does not represent the views or one man in this audience" declared Mr.
 Bankhead, amid the cheers of the crowd.
 NAILS OTHER STATEMENTS | MT Bankhead called attention to num- 1 Der of statements which had been made l by Captain Hobson .h his speech at 1 Double Springs and at other points over | inc district which were characterized as false. q am going to point out these false statements to show you the kind of campaign my opponent is waging,
 said MT. Bankhead. And I want you to bear in mind that these charges were
 made almost before the ink was dry on his interview in which he declared that he would not inject any personalities into the race, Hobson declares that l am op-
 posed to a rural credit system. That
 statement is entirely untrue, as most of vou recall that in my race for Congress two years ago rural credits was one or
 the leading blanks in my platform
 My opponent charges that Bankhead &, Bankhead are attorneys for the Ala bama Power company. That charge IS
 absolutely false. Hobson charges that
 when I served in the legislature 10 years ago did not vote on 10 per cent or the roll calls That statement is false, as IS shown by the record of the session Hob- son charges that Banllhead x Bankhead are promoting patent medicine That is untrue I have not one cents interest in or connection with any concern pro- noting or manupfacturing any patent medicine. Hobson charges that I prac- ticed law in New York with firm of Tammany lawyers. That statement is | untrue. as was not even licensed to prac- tice law when I was in New York. l
 was engaged in another business there. But there is one important difference be- T. tween my experience in New York and that of Hobson. I lived in New York a | short time but I came back to my na- N tive state and have resided here and lived | among the people ever since. Hobson left \ the people of his own state and did not l, come back here until he was ready to | run for office. Hobson came back from | New York to Alabama by the postage II stamp route. while I came back in per- \ son.
 Il CONNECTS IN MINES |' "Hobson charges that Bankhead and Bankhead sold their political influence