The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-24
"PLAIN BILL BRANDON.

Although the governor of Alabama delights to be known as "Plain Bill Brandon, the man of the People," yet it is fact that he is the first gover- nor of Alabama who ever forbade the people access to the public records or denied them opportunity to discover facts in connection with the peoples business. He is perhaps the first gov ernor of this state who ever sought to thwart the agencies of justice in their efforts to hold an impartial and legal inquiry into matters of the peo- ple's business.
 It is hardly conceivable that a gov. ernor who boasts of being from and of the people of Alabama should be a party to any official transaction the details of which he should strive to keep not only from the press of the state but even from the jurisdiction of those particular courts which the laws of Alabama charge with responsi- bility and authority in the premises. What are the Plain People of Alabama to think of their Plain Bills de- nial of the public right to legitimate inquiry? Are there facts that the governor fears to permit the courts to review? Would the discovery of these facts lead to results embarrass- ing to the governor? MT. Brandon | cannot resent such questions as these, for they are the logical and immediate queries suggested by his official ef- forts to suppress the facts.
 Although, prior to his election, the people of this state were led to be- lieve that the governor was genuinely sympathetic with the public desire for the abolition of the convict leasing system, no sooner was the governor in office than he at once recommended the indefinite extension of the svs tenn with authority vested in himself to continue or terminate the practice at his sole option. The people may be excused for wondering to what in fluences the governor they trusting ly elected to highest office within their gift has delivered himself, so completely to ignore and nullify the public will with regard to convict leasing. The people may be excused for believing that the paramount and deciding factor in the continuation of the system was not deficit in the public treasury, but consideration of the private profit to mines and lumber camps accruing from the labor of con- victs, for which the state receives no adequate or commensurate return. If the primary consideration had been public revenue, surely there would have been effort made to bring the hire of these men up to the same pre- portionate wage level that prevailed during the pre-war period of low wages. But there was no such effort The private operators leasing con- victs were permitted to reap this double and treble toll from this sort of licensed slavery.
 Plain Bill Brandon has much tc answer for to the Plain People of Ala bama. The developments in connec- ton with the trouble at the Banner mines are as yet only in their begin ming. The governor has sought to ex- ceed his executive authority and to reI strain or coerce the processes of jus tice, a policy which our federal and state constitutions alike have so care fully sought to forbid. Does Plain Bill Brandon think that he can successfully abate or abridge the statutes of Ala bama or the constitutional pfovisions under which both he and the courts operate? If he does expect to suc- ceed in such a course of dictatorship, then his awakening will be rude in- deedS After all, it is not law or jus tice that counsels his present policy, but just Plain Bill Brandon.