Appalachian History

"I sweated over my introduction, rewrote it ten times. When I had finished, this, in part, was the text:

"There were Alabama Bankheads in one or another of the houses of Congress for sixty consecutive years. My father was Speaker of the House for four years, served with that body for twenty-five. My grandfather, John, sat in the Senate for thirteen years. My Uncle John spent twelve years of his life in the Upper House. They all died in harness. I would be outraging their memories, I would be faithless to Alabama, did I not vote for Harry Truman. Yes, I’m for Harry Truman, the human being. By the same token I’m against Thomas E. Dewey, the mechanical man.

"Mr. Dewey is neat. Oh, so neat. And Mr. Dewey is tidy. Oh, so tidy. Just once I’d like to see him with his necktie knotted under his ear, his hair rumpled, a gravy stain on his vest, that synthetic smile wiped off his face. It seems a great pity to risk exposing Mr. Dewey to the smells and noises and ills of humanity. Far better to leave him in his cellophane wrapper, unsoiled by contact with the likes of you and me.

"Mr. Dewey is trim and neat and tidy, but is he human? I have my doubts. I have no doubts about Harry Truman. He's been through the wringer. And by the wringer I mean that 80th Congress. That 80th Congress which ignored his passionate pleas for veterans' housing, for curbs on inflation, for legislation to aid and comfort the great mass of our population.

"Mr. Truman has made errors, even as you and I. Mr. Dewey makes few errors. Why does Mr. Dewey make few errors? Because, to borrow a phrase from baseball, he plays his position on a dime. He ignores fielding chances unless the ball is hit right at him. He's a stationary shortstop. Not so Harry Truman. Like all winning players he tries for everything. He ranges far to his right. He ranges far to his left (Careful there, Tallulah!) He races back for Texas Leaguers. He races in for slow rollers. Truman is a team player. Dewey is playing for the averages. Harry Truman doesn't duck any issues.

"What is Mr. Dewey for? Well, he has come out for one thing that, by his standards of caution, is revolutionary. Again and again he has said that he is for unity. Will all the candidates for disunity please stand?

"Come, come, Mr. Dewey. Act like a grown-up. The next thing we know you'll be endorsing matrimony, the metal zipper and the dial telephone. If Mr. Dewey has any genius it lies in his ability to avoid expressing an opinion on any controversial subject. Mr. Dewey is the great neutral. Harry Truman is the great partisan---the partisan of our troubled millions.

"In my lifetime I've enjoyed many thrills. I'm about to enjoy the greatest one. For now I have the distinguished honor to present to you the President of these United States."


---excerpt from Tallulah: My Autobiography, 1952, Reprint, Oxford: University of Mississippi Press, 2004.


Huntsville, Alabama-born actress Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (1902-1968) was a staunch Democrat and campaigned for Harry Truman's reelection in 1948.



Tallulah+Bankhead Alabama+politicians Huntsville+AL appalachia appalachian+history history+of+appalachia

As we look over the country today we see two classes of people. The excessively rich and the abject poor, and between them is a gulf ever deepening, ever widening, and the ranks of the poor are continually being recruited from a third class, the well-to-do, which class is rapidly disappearing and being absorbed by the very poor.

“On one side of this gulf we see the people toiling day and night, in the fields, the mines, the factories, working for meager wages, scantily clad and poorly fed and when the year’s crop is gathered or the day’s wages are paid we see the products of the farms and the fruits of the toil transferred across this inseparable gulf and delivered to those who are on the opposite side.

“An inspection shows that they are well clothed and that they have every comfort and luxury. They live in splendid mansions, in gorgeous palaces. We see no farms, no mines, no mills, no factories, for the dwellers on this side of the gulf do not labor. Yet there is piled up all the products of the farms, the mines, the factories which came from the other side.

“A little study of the situation reveals the fact that the laws are such that this vast army of people on one side are compelled to labor and toil in poverty in order that the few dwellers on the other side may lead lives of idleness and luxury.

“One of these classes represents plutocracy, the other represents the great masses, the toilers of the nation.

“The greatest struggle of all the ages is the one now going on between these two classes. Plutocracy is endeavoring to widen and deepen the chasm while the people are trying to bridge it until there will be a common ground on which all can meet on an equal footing.

“The rapid concentration of wealth in the hands of a few is the most alarming sign of the times and unless speedily checked portends the decay of our national greatness. The danger is so imminent that thinking men everywhere are alarmed.

“I have an unwavering faith in the honesty and patriotism of the masses and believe that when the critical moment arrives they will exhibit the spirit of our ancestors when they declared what ‘all men are, and of right ought to be, free and equal.’”

The American Plutocracy, by Milford Wriarson Howard, Holland Pub. Co, NY, 1895

Milford Wriarson Howard (1862-1937) wrote three nonfiction books on political subjects. He was a member of Congress, 7th Alabama District when he wrote ‘The American Plutocracy.’ In 1894, he had run as a Populist following a bitter split in Alabama’s Democratic Party, winning in a violent race where threats were made against his family. Two years later he suffered a nervous breakdown but successfully ran for re-election, moving his family from Ft Payne to Cullman, AL, for their safety.

Howard was seriously considered as a candidate for governor of Alabama and the U.S. Senate, and was nominated for the presidency in 1908. He was unsuccessful in a third 1910 Congressional run.

In 1927, Howard took his wife on a six-month trip to Europe, writing a series of articles about their trip for The Birmingham News. He interviewed fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in Italy, and the interview changed his political views, causing him to endorse fascism. His last book was "Facism, A Challenge to Democracy." published in 1928.

Credit is due him for the existence of Alpine Camp for Boys, the Master Schools for underprivileged children on Lookout Mountain, Sally Howard Memorial Chapel, and the Scenic Highway, which runs the length of Lookout Mountain. His dreams led to Comer Scout Reservation, DeSoto Park, and DeSoto Parkway.


sources: www.alabamaliterarymap.org/author.cfm?AuthorID=111
www.mentonealabama.org/Strayhorn/StrayhornLegends.htm
www.desotostatepark.com/lol-howard.htm
www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10904378



appalachia Mentone+AL Ft+Payne+AL American+Plutocracy Milford+Wriarson+Howard Alabama+politicians appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

"CONGRESSMAN TOM HEFLIN'S TILT WITH WOMAN SUFFRAGE LEADER FEATURES BARBECUE"
Montgomery [AL] Daily, c. 1915

"Congressman Tom Heflin has returned to his home from Wetumpka, AL where he delivered the principal address before the crowd of several thousand gathered to participate in the big barbecue held there yesterday. The congressman is glad to be alive today, for he escaped 'whole' after having a tilt with a woman on the platform, and in the presence of that same several thousand persons. Mr. Heflin brought about a very keen situation, when he followed Mrs. Bossie O'Brien Hunley on the platform, and politely told the audience that he had not liked the speech of that lady.

"Just imagine a mere man, telling a lady to her face and before her own audience that her speech was not liked. Well, Tom Heflin did it, and got away with it. Mrs. Hundley, who is one of the suffrage leaders of the state, a very charming and a very smart woman had an important part on the program. She addressed the big audience on "women suffrage" and made an appeal that the vote he given to her sex.

"Mrs. Hundley was followed on the platform by Congressman Heflin, who is known through the state as one of the strongest anti-suffrage leaders. Mr. Heflin thinks that the woman's place is in the home, where she molds public opinion by her own sweetness of character and where she raises boys to be real men, and men who are capable of giving woman-hood every advantage and at the same time, keep her from mixing up in the mire of politics.

"Mrs. Hundley knew Mr. Heflin's views on this question, and she had at some previous time challenged him for a joint debate, but Mr. Heflin had evaded the meeting. While addresses were made by Mrs. G. H. Mathis, of Gadsden, who a month ago thrilled a Chicago audience with her rccountal of farm work in Alabama; Mrs. Thomas M. Owen; Mrs. P. L. Matthews, and Mrs. Hundley. The feature speech on the program was scheduled to be that of Congressman Tom Heflin. Mr. Heflin followed Mrs. Hundley and prefaced his remarks by saying that he had enjoyed the speeches of Mrs. Owen and Mrs. Mathis, but not enjoyed that of Mrs. Hundley, and he turned, and smiled at Mrs. Hundley.

"Mrs. Hundley bit her lips, she did not know what was coming and neither did any one else. Congressman Heflin continued and intimated that there were only a few suffrage seekers among the womanhood of Alabama and said that he had recently told a friend that he would be willing to leave the question to a vote of the women of Alabama and that if a majority of the women would show that they wanted the vote, he might waive his objections.

"He had reached this point when Mrs. Hundley interrupted and asked if the speaker would yield to a question. She did it too, in real parliamentarian manner, and Congressman Heflin, who had been interrupted time and again on the floor of congress in a like manner, but never before by a small wee voice coming from a woman, knew that he was in the middle of a bad fix, so he acquiesced and Mrs. Hundley said that surely he knew that his position was not practical and that it would be impossible to hold any such election of women and that the constitution did not provide in any way for a referendum, and that the suffrage people of Alahama wanted to have the vote given to them by the men of the state. Mr. Heflin in resuming his speech after the interruption, side-stepped Mrs. Hundley's remarks, told a witty story and extricated himself from the situation and went on with his address, but never again during his remarks did he mention woman suffrage."


source: http://snipurl.com/2617n


womens+suffrage Alabama+politicians Wetumpka+AL appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history