The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-08-14

rare phenomenon in public victiofls and the courage to
 The slender, boyish- h-locking Ala bai11an has been fighting for his convictions all his life. Educated as prosecutor of Jefferson County. Ala, he promptly outraged local pcliticos by putting an end to a petty fee" racket which mulcted thousands of dollars annually from unfortunates. On his first day in office, Black dismissed 800 cases of alleged petty offenses. most of them charges of gambling against Negroes who had been ar- rested on 8 preceding pay day.
 Machine politicians yelled bloody murder. ''You are turning loose criminals" they cried.
 Black silenced them with a whitening retort. "These poor people," he said, "were not ar. rested because they committed crimes, but for poodle. What was wanted from them was not expiation of offenses against society, but the fees that could be wrung from their pitlful wages"
 This was only a starter. Black next waded into a powerful boot logging and gambling ring. He broke 1t up and placed it's lead- CTS behind the bars.
 Several years later, as special federal prosecutor in liquor con- spiracy cases, he was equally re- lentless and hard hitting. In one famous case he secured a convic- ton against Frank w. Boykin, now a member of the House from Mo- bile. The three-year sentence was later reversed by higher court on the ground that Boykin's in- dictment was faulty.
 "VOte for Black"
 Black won a statewide reputa- as @ fearless prosecutor and in 1926, at the age of 70, he ran for the seate of the late Senator Os- car Underwood when Underwood voluntarily retired from office. It was a bitter, hard-fought cam paign, with money, business and the political machine united against Black.
 His opponents were John F. Bankhead, wealthy utility law yer who later defeated Senator
 Tom Heflin, and l.. B. Mus
 grove, wealthy business man. Because Black was generally
 considered the outsider with little chance of election, Bank
 head and Musgrove paid small attention to him and concen.
 trated their fire on one an- other.
 Cannily, Black used this over sight to his own telling advan- tage.
 His two rivals mede a practice of holding their meetings on op- posite corners. The vehemence with which they berated each other attracted large crowds, which hugely enjoyed the mutual castigation. At the close of these meetings Black would have a wagon drive by bearing signs reading:
 "They are both right in what they say about each other. Vote for Black"
 Black spent little money In his campaign, compared with the flood that was poured out for his op- ponents. But he electioneered in every city, town and hamlet, and when the votes were counted he was an easy victor.
 Senate Crusader
 In the Senate, Black quickly formed @ close friendship with Tom Walsh. The famed Teapot Dome and utility investigator took him under his wing and initiated him into the technique of ferret ing out hidden scandal.
 Black lost no time in putting his training to work. He stiil was freshman when he began eiamoring for an investigation of ocean mail contracts. These lush Treasury grabs had been under fire for years, but no one had done anything about them.
 Working single-handed, Black began digging up startling facts and figures and airing the irregu- larities on the senate floor. Tn the end he forced the Senate to auth orise c probe and for several years he poured out a steady stream of sensational revelations. The disclosures led to the enact- nient of the maritime act that abolished these subsidies.
 From ocean mail contracts he turned his attention to airmail contracts, and again rocked the country with his findings. Again his probing led to legislation that