The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-27
HEFL|N PRESENTS
 CLAIM FOR SENATE
 ID LARGE CROWD
Candidate Emphasizes His Work for Agriculture and Services to the
 Party
of Birmingham, Ala. Statement February 2Sth. 1920. RECOIIRCEc

Speaking last night to audience that filled the lower floor and part of the balcony of the Jefferson theater, Repre- sentative J. Thomas Heflin of Lafayette predicated his claim to the United States senatorsllip based upon his service to the people of Alabama
 He reviewed his work in the lower house of Congress during the sixteen years he fas represented the Fifth cls- tlict stating that what be would do in the future if sent to the Senate, could only be judged by what he has done in the past
 J. B. Aird, local attorney, in few well-chosen and highly complimentary remarks, introduced MT Heflin, who be- gan by saying he was born fifty years ago on farm in Randolph county and worked on his fathers farm until he was 20 years of age.
 From this service on the farm, he said, he knew something of the condition of the farmers and of She difficulties that confront them. Describing the custom of selling cotton that prevailed in his boy hood days, he used that as an illustration of the unequal fight for existence the farmers were making. They were com peiled to sell their cotton at less than Il cost to make it, he declared, and when the farmer protested to the merchant that less than cost of production was being offered, the merchant agreed but replied if he paid more for it he would have to sell it for less than if cost him. Declaring that 20,00o 001s people in the south are affected by the price of cotton, MT Heflin said after observing the con ditions and watching the farmers sell cotton for less than it cost them to al hn 1oo rfr1er f,atA f1.a< tion; that when he went to Congress he made a trip to New York and visited the New cork cotton exchange. Asked il he were a member of the exchange he replied no, but that he was member of Congress and wanted to go on to the floor. The doorkeeper refused him ad- mission, but directors, after a consulta- ton, consented for him to go m. Hc wanted to see the sample room He re- lated how he was taken to the sam5le room, of seeing samples of the twenty eight grades kept there, none of which would ever have been bought by spin ner, He declared five grades cover the cotton crop most of the time, and that nine grades will cover any crop: yet the exchange had twenty-eght grades.
 q commenced preaching a crusade against the twentyeight grades he said. T didn't have much help, but kept up the fight until I got together eEough members to cut Gown the grades to- nine" He told of the fight he made to make the cotton exchange clearing house for the cotton of the world, where the spin ner could buy his cotton and the pro- ducer sell what he raised, which he won.
 VALUE OF FARM PRODUCTS
 He said it was the failure of the pro- ducer to get a fair price for his cotton that caused him to take up the fight .It, the state. amounting to $500, 0,00o,000 last year, and declaring it to tbe more valu- able than all the minerals of the Bir- mingham district and the state of Ala bama, he asked:
 Don't you think the outside entitled to one senator2 You are going to get one of them, anyway. In the other race there are thrce candidates Two of them l;fe in Birmingham and the third within .sixty miles. 50 you will have one sem ator, whoever wins
 Inc ueciaratIon. You are going to get of them, anyway" was greeted with great applause, which was some what lessened when he subsequently, qualified his statement.
 Declaring his love for Birmingham and : his admiration for the great manufactur- ing and mining industries, he stated that he wanted to go to the Senate. wner- he could be of greater service to the great city.
 Fl ask you Birmingham democrats who cane here from other parts of the state to help me, as the champion of the cot lvn .l.uustry. to get to the Senate, he appealed.
 N hen he first wents to Congress, he ;, said, he asked to be put on the commit tee on agriculture because he wanted to help the cotton grower, and that the hrs, tnlng mat come to the committee was a proposa, to get reports on tne cot ton crop. He waned to know who would benefit by the reports, and was told that the spinner especially and the public seneraIiy was interested. He said he asked ii 1t wouldn't be right for the farmer to hays a few statistics on con sumption, The reply was that it was capital idea.
 II worked on the matter five years. he declared, T led the light and today we get both reports one card: We get reports Of the amount of the crop. the number of bales taken by spinners, the number of bales exported and the num-' Der left over.
 FEDERAL RESERVE BANK
 He told of the enactment of the fed erai reserve bank law, which has placed it beyond the power of Wall street to create panics. and declared. in one or the finest displays of his oratorical abili- ties, that if the democratic party had done nothing else it deserved to remain if. power for twenty-five years for that one act alone.-
 Telling of his speech making campaign in Missouri to help elect a democratic representative and of his declaration there that the enactment of the federal reserve bank act entitled .he democrats to ren,aln in power twenty Ste years if thev had done nothing else, he added:
 And that is not all. I want to tell yor