The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-09
ACOMRADE BARBER" ] MAY HAVE WAGON PITCHED ID STAR Some Indications That He
 Aspires to Higher Things Than Commissioner
PECULIAR POLITICS
 ONE OF HIS HOBBIES
Even His Socialist Brethren Disap prove of Some of His Methods of Retaining the
 Limelight
By RICHARD F. LUssIER

Is Arlie Barber planning to run fol President on the socialist ticket?
 This is the question that is causing much comment on the downtown streets and at the city hall. Friends of the socialist commissioner neither deny noi affirm the report, which, however. is given credence through the efforts of MT Barber, who is known amongst the elect as "Comrade Barber in his verbal at tacks on all monopolies.
 Amonst local socialists the efforts o1 Commissioner Barber are said to bt viewed with some degree of alarm anc pessimism by the more conservative members of the party. It is well knowr fact that socialists are very jealous o1 their creed and it's lofty teachings o1 political economy, and that they have an inherent aversion with being classet as idealists, radicals or anarchists Thus it is averred by some local socialists that Arlie Barber, once elected commis- sioner should have proceeded with mod eration in order not to bring the stigma of anarchy on the local camp of the followers of Eugene Debbs. On the other hand, ardent admirers of the firebrand or the GUY COfnIulSSlOu CdlIily aver tLe MT. Barber's speeches against the cor porations have won for him the respect of all classes and that he will be the standard bearer of the socialist party this fall
 Whatever the truth of the report it al least reflects the fact that some degree of fame is the reward of Arlie Barber's ora torical efforts.
 LOOKING TO FUTURE
 But then there is no reason to believe that the report is untrue. It is wei known fact that Commissioner Barber ever since entering the city hall has beer looking forward to assuming in the flu. ture position of greater responsibility in order to render more service to the peo- pie. It was thought for many weeks that he was casting eyes at the chair now oc- cupied by George Huddleston in the lower house of Congress, but it is assumed that he abandoned that idea when, witt the astuteness of political seer he realized that Senator Thomas Judge hao beaten him. to it. Then again in the corridors of the city hall it was whis- pered that Arlie Barber was making his set speeches merely as mental food tc the people as a predicate for his cam paign for the governorship of the state two years hence And some were even SC
 
 merely preparing to oppose George B Ward for the presidency of the city com mission at the next election. However, z careful survey of the situation and espe cially of the fact that MT. Barber's speeches are national in scope in that they are usually attacks on the Standard Oil company and predatory wealth il general points to only one angle-and that is-the presidency.
 Powerful and able as Mir. Barber recog nizes he is, he shuns to make the at tempt to wrest the democratic nomina. tion for the Presidency from Woodrow Wilson and will also give the republican and progressive camps a wide berth. Bu he feels that the socialist nomination is within his grasp-and some aver that he will grab soon
 But here again are some difficulties for Mir Barber. It appears that the SO cialist party. unknowingly of course, have already nominated Allan L. Benson ol New York for the presidency to oppose President Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt or whoever the republicans offer. But then, who is Benson? No one locally has ever heard of him and MT. Barber's fame is already spreading far and wide SC that by midsummer it would not be