The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-09-06
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Ing over.
 The time is fast approaching when W, will have to turn our minds from tn,
 supreme anxieties of the great wal
 abroad to the home fight for the chair
 manship of the city commission.
 Just at present the intricate and press.
 ing problem is, Who shall we select tc
 rule over us in the diplomatic stage. The candidates are quietly grooming
 themselves and uttering platitudes aboui the high tone plain upon which they will pitch their campaign, but believe
 me, 1t won't be many moons before the gouging and biting will begin and
 shrieks of combat will pierce the air and
 tail feathers will litter the pathway of the combatants.
 | have grown bit suspicious of news paper advice to the gentlemen who seek public favors to conduct themselves as Chesterfields. It is tommyrot, pure and simple. Who wants to go through a campaign conducted la A1phonse and Gaston? It would bore us all to death and not enough enthusiasm would be generated for us to care a thrip who knocked down the plum. It is silly to talk about peace at home when war fills the air.
 It's also a beautiful theory that the municipal campaign should be settled on lines of principles without regard to per- sons, and that every man should vote for | r11ea 0d when town of this size begins to move in such rarified atmosphere I will feel like emigrating to cline where folks have red blood in their veins and not pond water. The Lord deliver us from a milk and cider contest Let's call names, hit bard blows, and get out and pull off our coats and work for the man of our choice
 If politician can't stand the gaff let him get out of the political game Any candidate with feathers on his leg had better get them shaved off before he I am against chicken-livereds statesmen. Give me an office seeker with grit or I'll do my dead level best to make him show the white feather, and thereby save my city from being governed by any one save a dead game fighter
 
 I never took any stock in hand picked candidates. If politician is so timid that he has to be chaperoned he will be sure to cut sorry figure when a mans size question comes before him for set clement. I detest timd, apologizing preacher, and I loathe a fawning, cring- ing office seeker. Give me fearless preachers and bold politicians and I will trust the people to follow them. I do not want to help put anybody down at the city hall who lacks courage. To use a bit of expressive Indian nomeclature this is no time to put in young man afraid of his horse' The call is for a bold rider who can take ditches, hur- dies and barricades on the run.
 
 If any man wants office, let him come out in the open and fight for it and be his own man, and not hide behind a com- mittee or wait until his packers tell him what to say. I believe in the good old English way of "heckling'' candidates. l I want my candidate to be ready any time of the night or the day to stand up and tell where he stands on any ques- ton in which his constituents are vitally interested. The people have a right to know what man believes before they | put him in office, and it's an ostrich-lilke ! policy of the public to permit any man in this day of publicity to hide his head | in the sand and refuse to go on record | because he has not been able to look ! into the question. Voters who allow this | are letting willy old political birds throw sand in their eyes
 I have as little use for the office seeker | who cannot talk as I have for the one | who cannot see. A blind and dumb poli- tician when he gets into office will be | unable to see or hear the people, but will | be led by his packers and will respond to his masters voice. want my man to be | open-eyed and keen of hearing. l want him to not take mere peep, but to go up and down this old town and find every dark spot in it that ought to be lighted. and then stand up and tell the people what he has seen and how he proposes to remedy it. I don't want him, how ever, to look only for something to criti- cize, but ask him to praise anything which merits it. But most of all, want him to use his eyes and not be shown by in terested onlookers. want him to speak his own thoughts and not echo those of any interests big or little.
 want public discussions of public mat ters. If any man is unable to defend his views, then he hasn't the necessary power to put them into effect if he goes into office. If We want to safeguard de- mocracy at home, we must thresh out the problems which confront us. Debate is the safety valve of democracy. If a man isn't strong enough to overthrow the dangerous doctrine preached by an opponent who boldly proclaims them, of what use are his own views, though they | be ever so sound? It is squarely up to the man of sanity to clear the atmos- phere of poison injected into the body | polite by any theorist who seeks to mis- lead the people. Let the same man drive the crank out of public life discred- | ited and disgraced before the people
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