The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-07-30

or Senator Pettus were invited to the conference. The gentlemen who went to the conference that put Governor John ston In the field were men who had his letters as their only credentials. This man, complaining at conventions and caucuses and conferences, was himself nominated by people whom he had select ed for that purpose. No such nomina- tion was ever made in this state before It was an unprecedented thing and the result of the primaries will not show that 1t Is at all desirable as a precedent
 T am not nominee of any caucus or conference myself. l am a candidate for nomination. I am a candidate before the primaries of the party in this state. am asking doctors. lawyers, mechanics, farmers, miners and all other classes to come into the primaries, not with creden- tials from me in their pockets, but with their right as democrats in this state, to cast their ballots for me for governor. Governor Johnston has already been nom- mated. Why should he want another nomination?
 Endorsement an After Thought.
 ''The ex-governor complains that he was not endorsed by the democratic conven- tion. The democratic convention to which he has reference declared for a consti- tutional convention and the most signal feature of his entire administration was the defeat of a provision calling for a constitutional convention. The democratic state convention could not have endorsed him and his administration and at the same time called for a constitutional con vention. But his demand for an endorse ment is an after thought. A few months ago, when he came out in an authorized interview in a Birmingham paper, ana said that he would on no account, be- come a candidate for governor he had not thought of the slight put upon him by the democratic state convention and was probably not then particularly de- sirous of an endorsement. His demand for one now has grown up in his mind in the last few weeks perhaps.
 "The state examiners are not on the pay rolls of the state by Governor John stons advice. as he says. For years the state has had an examiner of public &C., counts. Governor Oates advised the leg islature to increase the number of exam iners. so that they could better cover the state. assume that the increased number of examiners grew out of the message of Governor Oates. It Is not true as Governor Johnson says, either that they are drawing more pay since he went out of office than they did during his term This is another place where the ex-governor and the auditors reports are not at all in harmony. The fact is the examiners are drawing a good deal less money than they did during his admins tration.
 "The governor is very tender with the constitution now. Villifying 1t & few months ago, section by section, he now wants the pleasure of nursing 1t through its early life. He proposes, he says, to accept it in good faith and give it Q fair trial. The instrument that we made by so much sweat and labor and cost and after twenty years of yearning will not be turned over to the tender mercies of the men who fought the call for a convention and fought the ratification of the instrument. We have now, under that constitution, white supremacy by law, we have the possibility of clean primaries and honest elections. There is no occa- sion for Governor Johnston to disturb himself by proclaiming that he was at the front in the fight for honest elec- tions. He was not in the front of that fight; he has merely come up after the battle; he Is without the stains of powder or grime upon his clothes. He is fresh from the rear. He will not be allowed to participate in the victory and ought not to be- The constitution makers began the fight for honest elections and clean primaries and white supremacy by law. They carried it on from the first until the last gun was fired.