The age-herald., 1898-03-20

party for Jefferson county met in the chan cery court room of the court house yes- terday for the purpose of considering what should be the course of tha party in the campaign of 1898.
 As predicted in yesterdays Age-Herald, the plan adopted was that the peoples party should take action at all in put ting out candidates for the judicial of fees, but should let their members vote in the democratic primary or not, just as they saw it. But in the matter of leg isiators, 1t was resolved that unless the party was perfectly satisfied with the nominees put out by the democratic con- vention, then an independent ticket be put out by the populists.
 A number of ar fusion speeches were made. In fact the whole spirit of the meeting was that the organization of the party should be kept intact, it being claimed that there was as much need for the populist party now as there ever was.
 Called to Order
 Chairman Grove called the meeting to order at 1920 and suggested that as a number of the mebers of the committee could arrive the 12:30 train, that the meeting adjourn until 12:45 pr. Elis of Morris, objected and wanted to proceed, but nevertheless the meeting adjourned.
 The meeting again called to order at 1 o'clock. There was no roll call, and nobody took a full list of those present, but among those noticed in attendance were Chairman G. B. Crowe of Birming- ham; D. B. Franklin, Farrington; c. P. Baldwin, Birmingham; Clarence Spencer, Bessemer; John Angwin, Pratt City; z. T. Carwile, Bessemer; c. M. McCutchins, East Lake; John T. Shugart. East Lake; MT Albright, Bessemer; c. P. Ward, Bir- mingham; R. A. Statham, Cardfr; Dr. Ellis, 1iutr rl1af11 MT. Blankenship, Adger, MT. Howell, Bir- mingham; MT. Cunningham, L. A. Doff, Morris; w. M. Powell, Morris, and several others.
 It was voted to exclude all outsiders ex- cept newspaper men.
 When pr. Grove announced that the com- mittee was ready to transact business, there was pause of nearly a minute Stratham, of Cardiff, then arose and said the meeting seemed spiritless. "If you have no plan" he exclaimed, which you want to adopt for the future of the party, say so, for I have another which I want to propose"
 Bray then offered the following resolu ton:
 Moved that we call beat meetings on convention to be held at Seals hall April AT Til 23 to select delegates to the county 30 for the purpose of nominating county officers for Jefferson county, beat repre- sentation to be one delegate to every twenty-five populist voters or fractional part thereof, basis oi representation to b. decided on the last gubernatorial election"
 An amendment that delegate-at-large from the county should be selected, was offered.
 The question was then thrown open for discussion. A number of speeches were made, the tenor of all being that the peo- ple's party was in the lead on the silver question, that they should fuse with mo- body and that as far as possible straight -out, middle-of- -the-road policy should be pursued.
 Worn Out Fallacy
 "~The question of fusion is an old worn out fallacy and we are not here to discuss it," said Suatham.
 "F'usion means confusion and we have confused our party almost out of exist ence," exclaimed Albright. "When l left the democratic party four years ago burned all bridges behind me-"
 we should act as though the peoples party were the only one in existence" said Chairman Grove.
 That's what I wanted to find out" cried Stratham, "because if there's to be any fusion I'm going" tApplause)
 We've had our fill of fuson," said An quin of Pratt City.
 Wanted Quick Action
 Let's have action and quick action at that" said Dr. Ellis. of Morris. Let's take the lead and nominate before the democrats They can follow. I think that our beat meetings should be held next Sat urday and the convention the Saturday following.
 ''There are only three things we can do," said Shugart. "Go back to the democratic party. convention and all the second is to let the people vote as they please in the primary and afterwards put cut ticket for the legislature. Call this the citizens ticket Independent ticket or anything elsie you please. The third plan is to put out a full county ticket.
 "The first plan we won't adopt, because that means fusion, the third we can't adopt because it is impracticabie. There fore we must take the second plan. This is perfectly practicable. We can go into the democratic primary and afterward kick out on their convention. If they nominate six good legislators in their convention, we can support them if we like or if not all, only a few of them. Then we can fill out the rest of the ticket from men of our own selection.
 The Only People "We are the only silver people," said Carwile "The democrats are preteuders If all of their legislators don't suit, we can fill up with men who will' |" Now we are on the right Hne, Sald Chairman Grove taking the floor" There is more dissatisfaction in the democratic ranks than have ever seen before. be. lieye they will rob each other in the com- ing primary to such an extent that they will be more ddsorganized than ever. You know it is the nature of the democrats to 1 steal anything except ared hot stove. If the democrats should make the mistake l of putting some populists on their ticket. | then we can endorse them and they with | tho others we can put up will give us a solid delegation" Brays motion was then carried unanI- l rnously.