The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-05-10
O'NEAL IS VIGOROUS
 IN RESENTMENT OF
 HEFLIN ASSERTION
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 as he or any other man to protect the womanhood of the south against the assaults of vicious brutes is only in- spired by the hope of exciting popu-' lar prejudice against my candidacy, and has no basis in truth or In fact. except the suspicious of his own dis honest heart.
 LACY THEFT
 In the same speech MT. Heflin, in ef-, feet, charged that I was connected with the Lacey steal No baser on more cowardly falsehood ever fell from the lips of any man. No decent no honest. no brave man would re- peat a islander which has no founda- tion except the uncorroborated state ment of a self-confessed thief, who has repeatedly admitted that 1t was in- spiIed by my personal and political enemies. and under their promise that if he could besmirch my character hs would receive a pardon from the man they were advocating for governor. In adopting such methods to defame my character. MT. Heflin descended to the lowest depths of infamy. and has earned and should receive public con- tempt and public generation. Con- frcnted with defeat. in his despera- tior he has attacked me with every. weapon that could be forged in the foul arsenal of falsehood and slander- II would remind the public that this is the same J. Thomas Heflin who Fcharged fourteen of his colleagues in Congress with being traitors who had accepted German gold as the price of their treachery, and who. when he was confronted with expulsion, shame fully confessed on the floor of Con- gress that he had absolutely not even a scintilla of evidence on which to base his malicious charge except suspicion inspired by his own jealous heart. He is the same man that Congressmep Mason and Norton charged on the floor of Congress with uttering faise- hods, Mason declaring that he had the bravest mouth and the most cowardlyi pair of legs of any man in Congress- He Is the same man who aspersed the, memory of brave Confederate soldier, a former governor ot Alabama, and a. distinguished federal judge. who now, sleeps his last sleep m the cemetery at Montgomery Wien he recently spoke in Montgomery in the city where the memory of Thomas Goode Jones was revered .nd honored, he dia not have the courage to repeat the. islanders which he had uttered in every, other part of the state. This is the same man I challenged to meet me in, joint debate. but he always acts oR th; principle that he who fights and runs away will live to fight another day.
 regret. therefore. that the billings gate, the false and cowardly inuendoes that Feflin has directed against me has compelled me to gibbit him. and from the elevation O. infamy he has placed himself. his friends will not easily take him down When we re- call that such a man has represented a seat in Congress from Alabama, we, car but wonder. in the language of thei poet:
 "As in amber we see the forms of bugs and worms and flies.
 The things we know are neither rich nor rare.
 But We wonder how tie devil they got there.'
 l solemn1y warn rny friends to be on their guard against campaign can ards. and l beg to assure them that all the falsehoods which base malice and islander can devise will not be able to prevent my triumphant nomination. The visit of Bryan to Alabama is a challenge to every democrat who be- | l.eves that the people of Alabama should be allowed to select their own senators without the aid of a man who for over quarter of century kept the democratic party in the wilderness of defeat. and who. if now successful in controlling the convention at San Francisco. will lead us from a slaugh- ter house to an open grave. EMMETT o'NEAL. Birmingham. May 9, 1920.