Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1899-10-03
AGAINST NEGROES.
Republican Politicians Object to
COIOred Election Officers.
Commissioners FeIand Registers a
Violent Protest and Wants
White rlen Appointed.

The Louisville Post of Saturday
contained what purported to be an
interview with Mr.. John Feland, IN
regard to the appointment of city
election officers. The article was
under sensational headlines and
read as follows:
"Hopkinsville, KY, Sept. 3d.
The County Election Commissioners
met yesterday afternoon and APP
pointed officers in all precincts for
the November election. John Fee
land, the Republican member, says
the list was "cut and dried," his
Recommendations being ignored.
After arguing matters for three
hours he says he secured two un-
important changes. But in pre-
cincts containing close wards Goe-
bette officers were selected by
Meacham and CARROT over Fee
lands vigorous protest. He was
calmly voted down on various prop
ositions. In one precinct he was
forced to accept a Populist, and in
another a negro, though he said he
insisted that not less than fifty
white Republicans resided there.
Mr.. Feland says the Goebel Com
missioners coolly informed him that
they had determined to appoint
colored officers as Republican rep
resentatives in every precinct in
the county where there is a large
negro vote.
Mr.. Feland saws that the Goebel
men have undoubtedly fixed up an
arbitrary list of county officers and
his hands are completely tied.
There is much Indignation among
the Republicans over the matter.
We do not know whether or not
Mr.. Feland was correctly quoted,
but there are several misrepresen-
tations in the alleged interview.
Mr.. Feland had been out of town
for several days and returned just
in time to attend the meeting.
This had been arranged for Fri
day without him, as the time was
very short for appointing city
officers.
Representative Republicans were
consulted in the preparation of the
list of officers and the Republican
committees submitted recommended
tons, several of which were accept
ed. They could not all be accepted,
inasmuch as the selections were all
white men, with one deception,
whereas the Democrats on the
Board had announced their inten-
ton to recognize the dominant race
in each precinct, giving to the col
ored Republicans their proportion
of the officers. For this reason the
Republican committees recommen-
dations were rejected in two or
three instances and colored men
substituted for white Republicans.
The men selected were all straight
out party men of good characters
and were accepted by the Republi-
cans conferred with. In one pre-
cinct only did the Republicans
have less than two officers. In that
the Palmer ticket was given one Of
ficer in 1896, the Hindman ticket
one in 1897 and the Populist ticket
one in 1898. There is no Republi-
can city ticket in this precinct and
the Populists were again given
representative, the Democrats ex-
planning to Mr.. iceland that one
other Populist would be appointed
and put in place of Democrat in
some country district.
This was the situation when Mr..
Feland modestly took the position
that he should be allowed to name
of the officers, although he
was only one-third of the Board.
This was one of the propositions
upon which he "was calmly voted
down" Another was the demand |
that negroes be left off and white
put on. He was over
ruled again and told that the ne
groes would be given the officers
wherever they did the voting for
the Republicans, that REPRESENTA-
TIVE Republicans would be APP