Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-08-12
TAKING THE SAME ROUTE.

cratic party in Alabama will return and
knock at the door of the old democratic
homestead in 1900. 1t will, and doubtless
has been, noted by careful observers that
they are travelling the same route blazed
out by Kolb in his flight from the party
in 1892. 1t cannot be out of place just
here to call attention to the striking
similarity which characterizes the two
departures-the one in 1892 led by Kolb
and pushed along by Baltzell and others,
and the one now in progress being led
by repudiated newspaper, the Mont
gomery Advertiser, and pushed along by
Ex-Governor Jones and others.
The first step looking to a departure
from the party by Kolb and his following
in 1892 was to open war on the state
democratic executive committee. 1t was
charged by Kolb that the committee was
partisan and in the interest of Jones,
who was then a candidate for the demo-
cratic nomination for governor, was
doing things that were unfair and I'M
democratic. The same thing was done
by the Advertiser and some of its follow
ing this year. An unholy war was
waged on the partys executive commit
tee and all manner of charges preferred
against it.
Kolb was next found in the opera house
in Montgomery organizing his following
for the expressed purpose of preserving
true democratic principles. In the same
building and for the same expressed pur-
pose we, only few days ago, found the
repudiated newspaper, the Advertiser,
and part of its following.
The next time we found Kolb and a
part of his following after the opera
house meeting they were assembled at
Lakevew, in this city, engaged in an eff
fort to preserve true democratic princi-
pies, which they proposed to do by turn
ing the electoral vote of this state, If pos
sible, over to Ben Harrison, the nominee
of the republican party in the year 1892
for president. Monday night last we
found a number of the Advertisers fol-
lowing at Lakeview engaged in an effort
to perfect such arrangements as they
hope will enable them to preserve true
Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democratic
principles by, if possible, deliverance Of
the electoral vote of the state to William
Mckinley, the present nominee of the
republican party for president.
to follow more closely in the footprints
of another set than the boiling goldbugs
are now following in the footprints of
Kolb in his departure from the party we
confess our inability to conceive of it.
Having followed Kolb to Lakeview, we
think it safe to say the goldbug boilers
will continue on the same road blazed
out by Kolb, which will land them back
to point where they will be ready to
knock on the door of the old homestead
in the year 1900. 1t took Kolb four years
to make the trip and we see no reason to
believe that the repudiated newspaper,
the Advertiser, and Ex-Gov Jones' crowd
will make the trip in any less time than
it required Kolb to make it.
We have every reason to believe that
the boilers from the democracy this year
will fuse in some manner with the re-
publicans in the matter of candidates for
congress, and that If the electoral ticket
which will be placed in the field could be
elected it would vote for Mckinley in
case that vote would elect him and defeat
Bryan.
That is just exactly what Kolb and his
folks did and agreed to do in 1892 at the
Lakeview meeting.
We have every reason also to believe
that In 1898 the boilers of 1896 will be
permitted by the republicans to name a
state ticket, the republicans agreeing to
support 1t in the hope of defeating the
regular organized democracy, just as the
Kolb people were permitted to do in 1894
That ticket will get showed under, of
course, just as the ticket named by the
1892 boilers in 1894 and supported by the
republicans did. That will bring us to
another presidential election year and the
republicans will say to the sound money
boilers as they said to Kolb's following
in 1886, 1--WE have been furnishing the
voters and now we demand the right to
furnish la portion of the nominees" and
the boilers will have to take their medi-
cine, and in 1900 the unterrified and in
vincible democracy of Alabama will
again be called upon to bury another flu
sion ticket under an avalanche of votes
as it has done this year. which duty it
will promptly discharge.
About the only hitch that we can see
now that the present boilers are likely to
encounter which will prevent that portion
of them who do not become confirmed re-
puDuCdHS lfOin getting pdCk ailtO Tile
democratic party in about the same time
it required those of the Kolb following
who did not turn republican during the
sojourn without the party to get back is
that the present is nothing like so strong
and formidable a bolt as the one which
came in 1892, and therefore there will not
be any real reason for the party to make
any particular efforts to get them or even
permit them to return. Kolb had strong
following when he bolted, but the present
crowd have not. There are no boys over
the branch backing them up. A large
percentage Of the farmers and laborers
We're behind Kolb in his bolt, and with
their votes they backed him up. While
the railroads, other strong corporations
and the entire money power is behind the
present bolt, the votes are not there, and
they won't count when it comes to show
down.
The democratic party in Alabama has
absolutely nothing to fear. 1t has stood
its hand four years against the republic
can party and bolt from its own ranks
,l,A hod hc no ok Of N