The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-17
GoU. O'Neal Issues Formal
 Stafen1e nt On Candidacy
Discusses At Length the 18th Amendment and VaIstead Act and Methods Pursued in Enforcement of
 New Prohibition Law

Former Gov. Emmet O'Neal. candidate Tor the United States Senate, yesterday issued statement to the democrats of Alabama.
 Governor o'Neal devotes most of his attention to the eighteenth amendment and the Voistead act, and his comments will interest all over the state. His state- ment is as follows:
 To the Democrats of Alabama:
 In making my formal announcement as candidate to fill the vacancy in the United States Senate, created by the lamented death of Senator Bankhead deem it my duty to briefly but frankly Estate the political principles upon which ] stand, and which will govern my course if I am elected by your generous suf- frages to a seat in the United States Sem ate.
 believe that the liberty, the happiness and the true progress of the people of this republic depend upon the preserva- tion in their full vigor and unimpaired Integrity of those principles of govern msnt which have hotherto been regarded Ss the fundamental and vital doctrines of the democratic party. These principles compressed into the narrowest compass, as as follows:
 1. The support of state sovereignty and local self-government.
 ?. Equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political'
 3. Taxation to such an extent only as is necessary to provide for government economically administered.
 4. The least interference by government with personal rights that is consistent with the public welfare.
 In announcing my adherences to the doc Urine of state sovereignty and local self government, I reiterate that which has ~,l, tl,1 <1f fl,o 1atta f- cratic party, and reaffirm my allegiance to that political principle which is the foundation of our personal liberty and political freedom. In the language or one of the greatest democrats of modern times, "The doctrine of home rule, as understand it, lies at the foundation of our free institutions and cannot be too strongly insisted upon. The devotion to this principle will lead us to resist strong ly all impatiencls of constitutional limita- tions of federal power, and to check per sistently the increasing tendency to eX- tend the scope of federal legislation into the domain of state and local Jurisd1c- tion, upon the plea of subserving the pub lie welfare. The preservation of the parti- tons between proper subjects of federal and local character and regulation is of such importance under the constitution, which is the law of our very existence, that no consideration of expediency or sentiment would tempt us to enter upon doubtful ground
 The exigencies of the great war forced us to centralize in the federal govern ment powers almost aurocratic- in their character. With victory crowning our arms and the restoration of peace We should at once commence the task of de- centralization and restore the nice pal ance between state and federal power es- tablished by the constitution. The time las come when all lovers of our free institutions should unite in strenuously resisting the tendency so evident on the part of the states, of surrendering ana transferring to the federal government the larger part of those reserved rights upon which their sovereignty rests, ana to create at Washington consolidated government necessarily exercising func- tions hitherto considered local in their character, and the preservation Of w2lch, by the states has heretofore been con sidered as necessary to the perpetuty of our beautiful federal system.
 Those who advocate a policy of con solidation should remember that there IS one fact which stands out in bold relief in the governmental history of the world the fact that central power is not yitalizng" and that 10 strip the states of their power to manage their own local affairs and the habits of their citizens and to transfer them to federal govern ment would in the language of Wood row Wilson, Be a vital blow to their economical and political growth and would be but forerunner of their slow decay and dsntegration." The lessons of history teach us that those governments that have longest endured, and longest enjoyed the blessings of free institutions, are the. governments which have most sacredly preserved the principles of local self-goyernment the most cherished pos- session of the English speaking races.
 helieve that every power still re-