The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-05-09
HEFL|N GREETED BY BIC AUDIENCE
 FOR FINAL SPEECH
Ridicules Opponents and Polls Crowd at COnclu- sion of His Ad-
 dress

An audience of men and women that
 packed the community sing stand and amphitheatre in Capitol Park last
 night heard Congressman J. Thomas
 Heflin present his claims for success sion to the late Senator John H. Bank
 head.
 All the seats were taken and sew eral hundred men stood. The speech
 was punctuated vita applause and cheers greeted many of the pointed attacks made on Seth and Si.' mean-
 ing Capt. Frank S. White and former Governor oNeal. and the special pleader," meaning Ray Rushton.
 Mr. Heflin was introduced by J. B. Aird. who said the candidate had no strong newspaper backing and was minus, the backing oe politicians. but was bringing his cause with effective- ness before the people single and alone.'
 Mir. Heflin said John W. Aber- crcmbie was a good man and a wise one. His retiremen, from the race reminded him of aefinition of '"rhe Quick and the Dead" Asked what that ex- pression meant, countryman said See that Pierce Arrow Car coming. Them that gets out of its way are the quick; them that don't are the dead" MT. Abercrombie. he said. was quick, be- cause he got out when he saw the Heflin car coming; the other candi- dates. those remaining in the race would be the dead ones.
 He said Captain White summoned Abercrombie to Birmi ingham for con- ference. They got Abercrombie in Whites office and locked the door The two sons of Captain White voted that Abercrombie steo down and out Ahe rcrombie and his manager voted that Captain White step down. Cap tain White cast the deciding vote and Abercrombie was out,
 He styled Captain White and O'Neal as Seth and Si.' Both agreed that prohibition was the onlv issue. When O'Neal would forget it. White would prompt him to rem amber that; when White would forget It O'Neal would remind him.
 He recounted the cid relationship between White and O'Neal/ He said O'Neal had lots of troubles when he was governor and each time he called on Captain White to help him out Of his troubles. but somehow Captain White was unable to accomplish much In that line. A voice in the crowd kept suggesting the little pine box" The speaker declared that box had proven so elusive that ONeal and White combined had never been abls to locate it. There were loud and vo. ciferous cheers.
 He said he has been asked why O'Neal had expressed himself so forcefuIly re- garGing lynching to a graduate class at Tuskegee Institute. provoking the lusty cheers of "eight hundred niggers.'' lie did not profess to know exactly why, but he heard that Booker T. Washington. then living, was credited with influence in the appointment of federal offices and that it might be thought that, in case Judge Grubb was promoted, and there was a vacancy in that federal judge ship maybe O'Neal might want assist ance in receiving appointment to the va cancy.
 He had been ridiculed by O'Neal for shooting negro in Washington. He said he had no apologies to make for defend- ing a white woman, when insulted by 'nigger" anywhere or at any time. He believed in treating the negro, right, but the negro question must be settled in the white mans way and there will he lynch ing so long as the negro commits as- saults on white women.
 He attacked Ray Rushton for seeking to prevent adoption of the statute provid- ing for inspection of all schools, asy- 1ums and the like to the extent of ex- empting Catholic convents. The speaker was opposed to exceptions in favor ot any public institution, and he had no pa tience with anything that sought to rise above the common allegiance Americans owe the American flag. Loud applause greeted this remark.
 Returning to O'NeaPs candidacy he said that when he was a young fellow on his fathers farm, he used to take an old hide and drag it through the woods so as to establish false scent for the training of young hounds The old dogs would know better and not follow it. He de- clared O'Neal was now dragging an old wet hide" through Alabama to fool folks but that it was not getting many
 He said it was false pretense to hold out the promise of light wines and beers to the people of Alabama in the face Of the bone-dry Alabama statutes, compared with which the Volstead act was mild May morning.
 At the conclusion of his nearly two nours' address. the speaker called on the men and women present, who felt like supporting him to rise and for those to raise their hands. The re- sponse was almost unanimous.