The age-herald., 1898-05-31
RIVAL COMMITTEES
 OF GREEN COUNTY Appeared Before State Executive Commit
 tee Yesterday. APPEALING COMMITTEE WON Col. John for Appellants and Judge Cole
 man for AppelleeS. MANY WITNESSES INTRODUCED The Decision May Have Decided Effect on Sen atorial Race in -Bankhead's Com mittee Turned Down-Discussonof of
 Campaign Plans Today.
MANY WITNESSES INTRODUCED

l The state democratic executive commit I tee met here yesterday for the purpose of
 deciding the contest between the two rival
 county executive committees from Greene l county, to organize the campaign commit
 tee and to map out the work for the ap- 1 preaching election.
 l The evidence and arguments in the Greene
 county case occupied the whole day, and
 in secret session last night the committee
 decided to recognize the appellants as the 1 official committee, thereby unseating the l appellees.
 l The fortunate committee consists of the l following: Wm. Scears, I. Levy, W. B. Balt- l zell, W. B. Johnson. R. R. Cameron, l.. H.
 Montgomery, A. W. S. Anderson, Amos
 Horton, Clay Snoddy, E. s. Thompson, A.
 P. Patton and Thomas Lee. The commit
 tee which was turned down was John Mo-
 Kinley, J. P. Rodgers, J. J. David, R. E.
 Mobley, Clay Snoddy, D. O. McGee. W. B.
 Hardness. Rufus Scarbrough, T. w. Smith, l C. L. Wilson, M B. Horton and A. IA Pat l ton.
 The committee was called to order at l o'clock In the Morris hotel by Chairman l Robert J. Lowe. MT. Lowe said that he had
 consulted with all of the committee by let
 ter and that the time and place for hold I ing 1t had been decided by a good majority. The following committeeman were pres
 ent: Robert J. Lowe, chairman, and Nathan | L. Miller, secretary.
 State-at-Large-E. W. Booker of Brming- | ham, H. s. D. Mallory of Selma, Tennent | Lomax of Montgomery and F. l.. Pettus of l Selma.
 r1 l oils and Vim. D. Dunn of Grove Hill. | Second District-Charles R. Bricken of l Luverne and J.-Lee Long of Greenville | Third District-R. H. Arlington of Elba. | Fourth Dstrict-J M Caldwell of Annis- ton and Tipton Mullins of Clanton. Fifth District-L. G. Dawson of Ware and J. Thomas Hef1in of LaFayette Sixth District-Bernard Harwood of Eu- | taw.
 Seventh District-T. M. Jones of Cropwell and R. N. Bell of Guntersville. Eighth District-John M. Hampton of Meridianville, A. F. Murray of New Decatur and John E. Proctor of Scottsboro, Ninth Dissrct-Brcoks Smith of Laneville, A.. c. Davidson of Uniontown and Robert I T. Robinett of Oneonta. Those absent were: at-Large-George P. Jones of Flor ence A. s. Lyons of Mobile and. R. B. Barnes of Opelika-
 First District-Lawrence W. Locklin of Perdue Hill.
 Second District-John N. Stanford of Pine
 Apple
 Third Dstrict-F M Moseley of Union Springs and G. S. MeDowell. Dr., of Flu fau1a
 Fourth District-s J. Bowie of Talladega. Fifth District-S. Rowan of Benton Sixth Dstrct-Daniel A. Collier of Fay cite and w. W. Brandon of Tuscaloosa. Seventh District M T. Ru1lock RuSSpIl- !. vile.
 It was decided to change the place of
 meeting from the Morris to the rooms of the Commercial club, where more com | modious quarters were obtained. It took about fifteen minutes to make the transfer. and when that was accom- plished the Green county contest was taken up at once.
 The Contest Begins Colonel Sam Will John. of this city. ap- peared for the appellants, and Judge Thomas W. Coleman had no answer pre- pared some difficulty was experienced in getting the point at issue settled. He wanted to proceed with the examination of witnesses without delay. He also made Some allusions to the effect that the execu- tive committee had no jurisdiction over the case.
 R. N. Bell. of Marshall, moved that Judge Coleman be requested to answer
 the complaint in writing. A little discus sion followed as to whether the commit tee had a right to force an answer and
 take judement by default, so to speak, if
 the appe1lees refused. Finally, Judge Coleman prepared a demurrer to the ef-
 feet that no questions were presented by
 the complaint
 Frank l.. Pettus said that there could
 be no doubt that the state committe had
 entire and final Jurisdiction over the con- test in the absence of state convention
 about to meet. He said that the question
 was to find out which of the committees from Greene were entitled to recognition.
 and he moved that the witness be examind.
 Witnesses Examined
 Major J. Mckee Gould. G. B. Mobley. Dr.
 I. D. Morgan. ). P. McQueen. |, H Mont
 gomery, R. R. Cameron. W. B. Baltzell and
 J. c. Anderson were the witnesses intro
 duced by Colonel John for the appellants
 Their side of the case as developed by the
 witnesses was about as follows: Evsr
 since the democratic party was reorganized
 in Green county from 1870 to 1874, it has been the custom in that county to have
 democratic cubs in each of the twelve beats of. the county. The chairman of each of these clubs. who Is elected every two years, has always been considered ex- officio as a member of the county executive committee. When the chairman was be- ing voted for 1t has always been uneer- stood that he was also to represent his beat on the executive committee. Some times the county convention gaiified the committee thus elected but they never made any change in it.
 In 1892. however. the convention passed resolution that it would elect the commit tee itself. A terrible wrargle followed, and for the sake of harmony it was finally decided to keep the old custom of letting the beat chairmen act as execu i've cnm- mitteemen. This same plan was adopted again in 1894 and in 1896. But on April 13 1898, the county convention decided that it would depart from the custom and elect a committee of it's own. These are the ap- pellees in the case. The committee con- sisting of the chairmen of the beats. natur- ally kicked at this, and they are the ap- pellants in the case.