The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-10-01

dNoldAHStS Whlch so lnucH ehSaSe the concern of men less able and more filled with fear.
 It was generally conceded that in controversy on political or govern
 mental subject, ex Governor ONeal was the most polished speaker and writer in the state. He might well
 be this. for no man in Alabama poll tics ever so stored his mind with facts that concerned the great science | of government, or exercised hls mind
 more assiduously on these subjects. | Our public men are given more to i distinctly practical affairs, they have
 not taken the time to read and study
 the best of what has been said ana
 written. This was not true of eN | Governor O'Neal. Nor did he confine ] his reading and his studies to those 1 subjects which most engaged his
 mind, the administration of law and the application of governmental prin- ciples. His was a broader culture.
 He was not only acquainted with, but was familiar with literature in it's broader aspects. An Advertiser re-
 porter found 1t necessary to call on Governor O'Neal at o'clock in the morning of stifling hot summer night and found him in his room at l the Exchange hotel wearing pair of slippers, smoking a corn-cob pipe,
 and reading with passionate inter est De Toequeville's Democracy In
 America He was in Montgomery
 last May to be the ehairmen of the big mass meeting in the interest of Henry Ford's offer for Muscle Shoals.
 Yet he found time from the multitu- diuous details which devolved upon
 him to read and discuss two recent books that have attracted wide at | tention. Just before he mounted the platform he gave scholarly criti- eism of Wells Outline of History
 and of Hutchinson's "If Winter Comes.' This learning was fortified and strengthened by courage which was at once logged and dashlng. ! There were few men of his time who willingly met Emmet ONeal on the
 musings. facing a large crowd. Ma | ture had been kind to him. He was
 of sturdy, shapeiy figure and he had the flashing blue eye of the fighting
 man. Nature, too, aad given him d ringing musical voice of which he
 was complete master When he was a his best no man heard him indif- ferent to his oratory, or failed to be impressed by the handsome, com manding figure he made as an orator Ex-Governor 0'Nea1 probably held Senator John T. Morgan before, hlm
 as his model, He admired Senator Morsam intensely and they were in- innate friends. He modelled his training much after senator Mor- gans training, the acquisition of q
 vast store of information. wide read ing and profound respect for con stitutional government. Senator Morgan recognized the young mans
 exceptional gifts long before. he had been honored by the people of Ala bama.
 Ex-Governor o'Neal was reared in
 the cultured community of Florence. in the years following the war be- tween the states when the atmos-
 phere of that typically southern com
 munity was charged with govern
 mental and constitutional controver-
 sies. His father was a lawyer of learning and ability who had distin- guished himself in the Confederate army. Both father and son were elo-
 quent; both were moved by enthusi-
 asms and passions so necessary to the orator, qualities that were no doubt inherited from not very remote Celtic ancestors. They afford so far in Ala
 bama history the only case of father | and son both serving as governor of the state.
 Emmet ONeal never made a public address without winning fresh plaud- it's. He spoke on many occasions out side the state, and he never appeared
 on the platform without reflecting credit on his native state. Those who heard it will never forget the im-
 promptu joint debate between Gov ernor O'Neal and President Woodrow Wilson at governors conference
 held in New Jersey. when the Ala bama governor assailed the theory of
 the referendum and recall, then popu-
 lar and supposedly one of the pet
 measures of President Wilson. The
 Alabamian had no cause for apology for his part of the debate.
 Governor O'Neals character and ability were given many recogni- tions. but his chief political triumph
 was won in 1909 when almost single handed he took the initiative In a campaign against statewide consti- tutional prohibition, which it was then believed would get 80 per cent of the vote in Alabama. In that campaign his oratory and initiative was like the fiery cross that reused 1 the men of Scotland. The fight he
 made against overwhelming odds was enthusiastic and admirable. He drew into his train of followers men who literally turned Alabama upside down. He really won the governor ship when he triumphed in that cam paign. Yet, he raised a crowd of un-
 relenting enemies who never left off pursuing him. Organizations. state
 and national. which had advanced
 prohibition as a great moral issue, declared "a war of no quarter on the men who defeated them" Much of the criticism directed at Emmet O'Neal in the years that have inter kt
 islander. He attained the distinction of being the most maligned man that ever served as governor. The criti- cism was unjust, unfair and untrue.
 Yet, as heavy as was the storm. 1t did not greatly distress him. He was one of the rare spirits who had learned to meet those twin impost- CTS. triumph and disaster, and treat
 them alike"
 He suffered the no uncommon hu-
 man experience of being betrayed by
 men he had befriended and trusted.
 Let the man who has not had an
 untrue and unfaithful friend cast the
 first stone. The acts of no governor
 were ever so carefully scrutinized
 and examined. Not single dishonest
 or unjust act of his could be found
 by the entire state government un-
 der the control of his avowed ene-
 mies- It was gall to the souls of his
 true friends and men who knew his
 high standards of public propriety,
 that the dishonest acts of false
 friends whom he had raised to power
 could cast even a shadow of suspicion
 upon a personal record so clear and
 stainless. For these true friends
 knew that no man ever raised to high
 office in Alabama was more scrupu-
 lnus In ahia dea1in1 ruith his falIn u-