The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-06
MERRITT FOXES FUN AT HIS OPPONENTS IN STATEMENT Refers to Carnley and Ken
 nedy as ''The Gold
 Dust Twins
|CARNLEY'S CHARGES
 'MALICIOUSLY FALSE"
Asks Kennedy if Maj. R. E. Steiner Is Managing or Actively Interested in. His Campaign-Declares He
 Represents the Corporations

Henry P. Merritt of Tuskegee. candi- date for the presidency of the Alabama public service commission. in the warmest statement vet issued in the race for that office, last night charged that certain statements made by J.. A. Carnley regarding him were mali ciously false" And MT. Merritt went further. He stated that MT. Carnley was "falsifier" and that he had so branded him at Luverne in a debate where they met.
 But MT Merritt did not devote the entire statement to Mir Carnley. Far from it. In fact, he merely denounced the statements of MT. Carnley as ma liciously false" and their author as a
 falsifier" in passing, as it were. His main gun was trained on Sam p. Ken nedy, president of the commission, who is candidate for collection.
 THE RATE AGREEMENT
 MT. Merritt takes MT. Kennedy to task for his action while serving as secretary of the commission in calling the meeting of the commission when the noted rate agreement was signed MT. Merritt asks why it was that the meeting was called at the instance Of the lawyers representing the railroads, but none of the lawyers representing the state were notified He also asks Mr. Kennedy what part he played in the effort made at the recent session of the legislature to have his term of office extended for two years.
 MT. Merritt asks MT Kennedy if it is not fact that Maj. R. E. Steiner is managing or actively interested in the campaign for the reelection of Mir. Kennedy. MT. Merritt states that Major Steiner represents the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph com pany, as well as a number of other corporations and railroads and asks if Mr. Kennedy could be an unbiased judge in litigation in which the tele- phone company was party. MT. Mer- ritt closes his statement by referring to his two opponents as the gold dust twins
 The statement of MT. Merritt fol- lows:
 MERRITT'S STATEMENT
 q have been in south Alabama for the past few weeks and everything looks good for me. The people, l find, are still waiting for MT. Kennedy to tell them about his public record that he says he is standing on. l notice that he claims he has found that the people do not want lawyer as pres ident of the. commission. Strangs how it is that MT. Kennedy has again found that no lawyer is wanted as president of the commission. Somebody seems to have thougnu that the states lawyers were not needed when the famous sur render was made two years ago. MI Kennedy says the railroad lawyers called him up over the phone and asked him to call the railroad commission to- gether The commission was called, but no one seems to have notified Messrs. Weakly and Selheimer. the states lawyers, of the meeting and proposed settlement. Did MT. Kennedy, then secretary of the commission, noti- fy these gentlemen?
 And as MT. Kennedy claims to have 1 found that no lawyer is needed as pres l ident of the commission. has he found | out that no lawyer is needed to manage 1 his campaign for the presidency of the | conamission? . Is it not a fact that Maj. R. F.. Steiner, of counsel for the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph company, l tContinued on Page Twelvel