The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-02
THE FIGHT is BITTER
sTATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE DI.
VIDED INTO TWO FACTIONS.
The Contests for President and Sec
rotary of the Board Are At
tracing Attention.

The annual meeting Of the Indiana State
Board of Agriculture. which will be held
in Room u at the State capitol at 10
o'clock this morning. Will bring to a close
the warmest fight for the election of a
president and secretary Of the board with
in it's history.
Since 1891, when Charles Downing, Of
Greenfield. and w. w. Stevens. of Salem,
were both candidates for the presidency of
the board. receiving a tie vote and Mr..
Stevens resigned in favor OF Mr.. Down
ing, the board has been divided into two
factions, Mr.. Downing said to be repre-
senting the lawyers, bankers and mer-
chants OF the board. and Mr.. Stevens the
farmers or agricultural interests.
Each year these respective candidates
have been put forward by their factions,
and last year after a hard fight Mr.. Ste
vens succeeded in defeating Mr.. Down.
ing for the presidency by a vote Of nine
to seven. To-day's fight is centered in the
same candidates. with the difference that
both of the gentlemen are aspiring to the
secr~etaryship of the board.
To make the fight more interesting the
opposing candidates for the presidency
tulo ycdI-hlI. AdIOH jules, VI oOutu Benz,
the master of the National Grange Asso-
citation, and j. c. Haines, Of Lake, Ind
are both factional representatives. and. as
a consequence, each. of them has allied
himself with his factional candidate for
secretary.
AS it stands the fight is between Stevens
and Jones on the one side as against
Downing and Haines on the other. There
being but eight directors to be elected ev-
cry effort is being put forth by each side
to capture them. When II is stated tina
both Mr.. Downing and Mr.. Stevens are
Democrats 1t will be seen that politics
have been eliminated from the fight. MIR.
Jones' the stevens faction candidate for
president of the board. is a Republican,
and Mr.. Haines, the opposing candidate, is
a Democrat, and as most of Mr.. Stevens's
faction are Republicans he is placed in the
rather anomalous position Of a Democrat
depending almost entirely upon Republican
support. Directors are to be elected in
eight districts. In the first district ]. c.
Haines. of Lake. Ind, will oppose Mr..
represents the Downing faction and air.
Gualtney is allied with Mr.. Stevens. In
the second district it Is said that the
Downing forces have no opposition to their
candidate, Mason j. Niblack, of vincennes.
The third district is the home Of Mr.. Ste
vens. who lives at Salem. and he has no
opposition. The fourth district has three
candidates.. n. Brown, of Franklin, who
Is supposed to be friendly to Mr.. Downing.
z. A. Robinson, of Franklin, whom the
Stevens forces think will help them, and
Cal Worral. of Indianapolis, who is said
TO be friendly TO neither of the candidates.
In the seventh district III. B. Rowland.
who Is thought to favor Mr.. Stevens, will
oppose John Prior, of indianapolis The
fourteenth district will have two candi-
dates In Mr.. Joseph Cunningham, of Loree.
who up to the present has kept both sides
Colt Barnett, of Logansport. who is
thought TO be in line with Mr.. Stevens. In
the fifteenth district c. b. BENJAMIN. of
Crown Point, oil the Downing faction, will
oppose Aaron Jones. of South Bend. who,
in case Of his election, will support Mr..
Stevens The sixteenth district also has
three candidates in j. f. Macdonald, of
Don Hitchcock, of Angola, the latter two
being counted upon by the Stevens forces.
| The fight last night had conferred on the
fourth and fifteenth districts, for il is con-
tended that whoever elects the directors
In these two districts will practically be
master OF the situation. Both sides seem
confident and each side intimates that the
tight is not altogether on the surface. l..e
Stevensites are using the argument that
they represent the agricultural interests
of the board and say that because they
4 had the balance of power last year they
| were enabled, under President Stevens. Ia
make a clear profit OF s13, 000 out of the
proceeds OF the State fair simply because
the people wanted an agricultural fair.
and they maintain further that under Mr..
Downing's administration. who preceded
Mr.. Stevens as president of the board. the
State fair came out between 5000 and $1,000
| behind.