Birmingham age-herald., 1894-07-20
THE POINT OF DANGER.

THE POINT OF DANGER.
 Let us all get down to practical politics for few minutes and have plain Demo- 1 cratic family talk. The AaE- HERALD has been insisting that the election of our Leg islative ticket here in Jefferson is all im- | portant.
 The AaE- HERALD is prepared to say that the critical point in this whole cam paign is the House of Repres entatives. It is more important than the issue on the to make and we make it seriously. The Speaker of the Honse of Representa- tives, in the presence of both Houses, sums up and announces the vote for Governor. The Populists have already announced, did contend in the last Legislature, that the Speaker can decline to announce the result as certified up from the office of the Secretary of State, and institute contest then and there, to be determined by a vote of the Houses.
 Now the election of Colonel Oates is certainty, because in every white county except Jefferson and one other he has already made gains enough to assure suc- cess, and these gains will continue. The Democrats are assured of the Senate, be- cause they have ten or eleven of the hold overs. and it takes only seventeen to con- troi.
 
 In practical politics we must calculate on the idea that not all the doubts will be re- solved in our favor. We must proceed on the basis of certainties for ourselves, giv- 1 ing the doubts to the other side. Then we work to resolve the doubts in our own | favor.
 The AGE HERALD has carefully figured over the table of the vote of 1892 by couu- ties, and, leaving Jefferson aside, we find only forty six assured Democratic Repre- sentatives. We may get more, probably will. Lamar, Henry, old Tallapoosa and others may swing back into line. But we can t tell. The fact stares us in the face that we have only forty -six in sight.
 
 If Jefferson elects six Democrats, we have ifty-tw secured, a safe and clear majority of four, and the State is saved. If Jefferson elects six Populites, we are gone world without end. If she should elect only three, that would give the Populists fifty one votes, a majority of two. That would be all they would need.
 Their first step, of course, would be the election of Populist Speaker. Their next would be refusal by the Speaker to sum up and announce the result on the State officers, committee, a bogus investiga- ton, a report, KoIb announced as Gov ernor, an attempt to seat him in defiance of law, civil war, United States troops as ar- bitrators.
 The picture is not overdrawn, fellow citf- zens.
 But what else if the Pcpulists secure so much as one majority in the House? The institution of contests from Montgomery, Dallas, Lowndes, Wilcox, Bullock, Hale, Perry, Marengo, Sumter and Greene, and the busting of the twenty-two Democrats from those counties without proof, with a sham investigation, on the broad and gen. eral allegation that they were counted in. All this cry of "fraud'' in advance is mere preparation for a contingency like that.
 So that the House of Representatives is the key to the situation. No matter by what majority Colonel Oates may be elected Governor, if the enemy capture the House he will never be inaugurated through the legal and lawful announcement as provided by the constitution and the statutes.
 
 More. If the Populists capture the House they will oust all the Democrats from the counties above named ,se cure to themselves a majority of two-thirds in the join: ses- sion and elect Populist United States Sem ator.
 What is the best way to prevent that sort of revolution? We may pick up five or six IchpSAetiS ']oS SiSAototS tAOu CuQHtleS tudI went for Kob last time. Bat is'any Demo- crat willing to risk that?
 The only sure way, the way that presents itself to common sense, is for this great Democratic county Of Jefferson to remain true to herself and send six Democrats to the Legislature. Yet in the face of this we find men calling themselves Democrats declaring their purpose to scratch the