The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-10-17
Their Untenable Position.


 That is a rather untenabe position which Messrs. Shelley. Johnston x Co. are seeking to maintain with regard to the status of the Underwood Campaign Committee. Governor Johnston contends | that. inasmuch as the Executive Commit | ice declined to go to the extreme of read Ing Democrats out of the party in the event of their failure to vote for ratifica- tion, the party, therefore, waived It's right to a declaration on the subject. The inference thus sought to be drawn is, presumably, that a self-consttuted com nittee of Democrats opposed to ratifica- lion may, with equal propriety, claim to represent the Democratic party Gov ernor Johnston ought to know more about party law and usage than this. It Is con- tended by the opposition that the Consti- tuition is not party question. We are willing to waive that in its strictest con struction. We are not advised as to the expediencies which actuated the commit tee in passing for the moment it's prerog- ative in this phase of the question. Per haps it regarded such an expression un- necessary with reference to matter pro- vided for, planned and carried out, as was the new Constitution, by Democrats, and that, too, through the proper chan nels of their organization But as we have already ntimated. it Is not neces- sary to go that far back. We may re- mark here, by way of parenthesis, how ever, that the failure to exercise right at a certain time and in certain way does not always deny the existence of that right. So far as the contention of the antis is concerned, it need not mat ter where that constitution came from or who made it. It might have been made by Republicans; or 1t might have been made by convention in which there was no preponderance or plurality of any party. Let that be as it may. It was made for all the people of Alabama. The Democratic party, through its highest | Judicial tribunal, said 1t was good. It endorsed it. By that act it said that 1t was the plain duty of all good Democrats to vote for 1t. It put a campaign commit tee in the field to labor for the success of the thing 1t had pronounced for; to hold | Democrats unfalteringly to the course i recommended, and to show all men the reasonableness of its claims. The action of the committee was due and regular in | every form. It pursued precisely the same course pursued when there is a regularly nominated ticket in the field. | It did not say that another campaign committee might be formed in the name of the party and with its sanction to labor in an opposite direction to that | which it had recommended. Neither did 1t say in advance that all persons who might vote against ratification would be Independents. Such a course would have been tantamount to trying d case before the issue had been joined. That Is not party practice. The committee did all that was necessary. It did all that could
 be done, and it did it regularly and le-
 gally. The antis are their own first ac-
 cusers. No one Is more conscious of their
 guilt than themselves. and they are att
 tempting to hide behind a plea of evasion
 and deception. Truly the atmosphere
 about the opposition camp is becoming | foggy.