The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-04-06

nave BuSlllHcp,
 cotton and stock exchanges. He denied ever having bought or speculated In any stocks. cotton. sugar or ether cemmodl- ties in New York. The only stock he ever invested in, he said, was in home
 companies. and very little of that. tff-
 teen or twenty years ago, he said, he in-
 vested in some mining stock, held it six
 or seven years and disposed of t at
 profit of 500 or s7o0, and that that was the only one he ever engaged in He de- elared the contrary could not be proved
 He asked his hearers to demand proof of charges against him,
 ATTITUDE TOWARD LIQUOR
 "It is said by people who want to
 condemn me that I am tool of the liquor interests. As long as the question
 of prohibition was confined bc the limits of the state of Alabama, voted in Cons gress to let the people of Alabama carry out their win in the liquor matter. Agi- talton was carried on for years to pro- teot the prohibition states to prevent liquor from the outside being shipped into them but they were never able to bring it to a vote.
 'T was selected leader of the House. and the leader holds largely the veto power in his hands. and l consented for the Webb Kenyon bill to be considered and gave it the right of way and voted for It. Tor l believed the people of Ala
 bama should have the right to decide the prohibition question for themselves" He opposed the federal prohibition amendment, he said, because he believed it to be violation of states rights, but when it became part of the law of the
 land he voted for it's enforcement. His attitude on woman8 suffrage he l stated to be the same as on prohibition. ''Never in my whole history have I fxyAI I~IT- people, the liquor interests, and never l represented them" he declared. Nor 1 let them tell me what to do, nor do I I now represent or let them tell me what i to do."
 MUSCLE SHOALS WORK Referring to the development at Muscle Shoals and suggesting the great benefits to the farmers of the coun- l try and the influence by the industrial development of the Tennessee valley, he said he made the first speech in Congress calling the attention of the government to it's unpreparedness and l the necessity of producing nitrogen. 1 That was eight years ago, and he said he had pursued that question ever since.
 He said after Congress appropriated S20, 900, GOO and authorized the President to select the site for a nitrate plant to make nitrates for powder in times of war, and fertilizers in peace he eon- vinced the commission appointed by the President that Muscle Shoals was the best place for it.
 The developments at Muscle Shoals. he said, will open up the Tennessee river to navigation, thereby enlarging the markets of the farmers of Alabama and the production of ntrates will cheapen the fertilizers. The Tennessee river he said, has potential power of 100000 horsepower, or double that of Niagara Falls, and electric power, he continued, increased production and ieshened the cost of production.
 He declared that No, 2 dam at Muscle shoals would be built and undertook to guarantee that the money for it would be appropriated whether he is re-elect- ed or not.
 DISCUSSES LABOR QUESTION
 Turning to the labor question, he said:
 T have been in Congress twenty-five years and have never been unfriendly to lahor.
 Labor must have the opportunity to battle upward if the nation is to be permanent, l always believed life and labor were entitled to protection 1 never believed that the public should be ground down by labor My record
 is an open book. 1 challenge the men who are charging me with being un- friendly to labor to point to the record and show where I was unfair to labor.
 The command has one out from the nigh commander in Washington that should no longer hold the commission and represent you.
 If l am to be your representative. I am not to wear the collar of any man or set of men. Now, what has hap penea2 Threat after threat has been made that unless the director of the
 railroads, Congress and the govern ment yield to labor in certain matters there would he universal strike in the country. That meant the cutting off
 of production. an industrial battle and starving women and children. That's what a railroad strike meant, and labor said if we attempted to put anything in the bill against the strike they would put on the black lift the man who op- posed them"
 ORIGINATED STRIKE CLAUSE He reiterated the statement made in his speech at Birmingham a few weeks ago that the strike clause in the Cum mins bill was originated by him in 1916, when he suggested such a clause be included in the Atkinson bill 1t was defeated then, but adopted in the Cum | mins bill,
 1 He explained the provisions of the Cummins bill relating to adjustment | of disputes between the operators and the employees of railroads. saying that the public, which pays the bill, has an equal voice with the operators and tho owners in these settlements.
 1 The leaders, he said, were not will- ing to give up the power they were at- ffr,er ta nfx.a