The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-16
A rrMpEsr IN A rEA-PoT.


 vertiser that its editorial on Friday, upon the failure of the Constitutional Convention to agree to an increase of the Governors salary, should have caused such a ripple in that body's proceedings yesterday. It will be ob- served that over two columns of space in the official proceedings in this issue are given to the matter.
 This paper Is surprised because. after a careful reconsideration of the arr ticle, 1t is sure the comment was en- tirely parliamentary, respectful and im- in the article, either in expression, im- piication or intent. It was simply a criticism of a majority of the body for timidity. for failing to make a change that we are confident that the majority recognizes as wise and expedient. There was no reflection whatever on the hon. esty of the Convention. An allegation of timidity, of lack of backbone, is not a charge of dishonesty, and it is re- markable that 1t was misconstrued by any portion of so intelligent a body of men.
 We are informed that the particular point most objected to in the criticism is the statement that "'probablya num- Der of members would have voted for the increase if they could have avoided the record of their names" We sub- init that this, too, is not an insult, nor a reflection on the honesty of purpose of any member. It Is simply an ampli- fication of the one criticism of timidity The State provides a secret ballot for every voter: is any voter dishonest be- cause he casts a secret ballot? Did the Legislature impugn the honesty of majority of people when it recognized the expediency of secret ballot? The mere statement of the matter is an an- swer. The Advertiser simply expressed its belief that the result would have been different in the Conventions vote. if there had been a viva-voce vote-a secret ballot; practically.
 We don't doubt that quite number of good men voted against the increase with honest purposes. The idea of many is that the Convention should not fix the salary. that it should be left | to the Assembly. In the light of the debate on the subject, wherein the past record of Assemblies was commented on freely, it is difficult to see how the Con- vention can count on a future Assem-
 hly making the increase. How many of the Convention believe that an As- sembly will do it? If body contain l ing as many strong men as this Con- yention declines to take the bull by the horns. who can expect an Assembly to do 1t?
 The most surprising thing, however, connected with the whole matter is that considerable contingent of the Con vention indicated by their votes against tabling the proposed resolu- tions, that they thought The Adver- tlser had no right to make the criti- cisn it did. They apparently over looked the guarantee of the freedom of the press in the Federal and various State Constitutions The Alabama Constitution safeguards this right, and our Statutes give 1t very wide lati-
 tude in reference to public officers.
 Members of a body engaged in making | a new organic law should be the very last persons to imply, by any action, a tendency to restrict the freedom or the press. Possibly, some of them were very sore over a criticism that may ! their eyes may have been temporarily blinded with anger. If so. We hope that they will cool off, for The Advertiser did not 90 beyond parliamentary, much less Constitutional or statutory. bounds.
 The idea expressed in Mir. Longs res-
 olutions, that The Advertiser is suo-
 si6,zed by the Convention, in the publi-
 cation of the official proceedings at $1O
 a day. is absolutely without founda-
 ton and most unjust. This paper does not receive one cent of that $7O a day
 all of 1t goes to the stenographers. The | fact is that The Advertiser is contrib
 uting about $50 a day to the State to have the verbatim proceedings gotten
 out in printed form. No job office in
 Montgomery, if it were equipped for the work, would furnish one thousand printed copies of the proceedings for less than that sum.
 The disturbance over tine matter in the Convention was really, after all
 much of tempest in a tea pot. We are glad that President Knox and the
 majority of the body yesterday were
 so cool as to recognize the rights of the
 press and to foil the attempt of the indiscriminating and impulslve mi
 nority to place the Convention in an
 unenviable attitude.
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