Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1902-09-16
A TEAREuL TALE.


contingent at Frankfort, playfully
referred 70 by Trey Woodson as
the "Frankfort coterie, and de
umipced by Mr.. Watterson as The
I wood. be manipulators Of 1.-THE ma
chine, were preparing to organize
an ofice-holders trust to control
all nominations next year for State
offices. Puplic reports even deslg-
mated the members ofthe "combine
agreed upon for Governor, Lieu
tenant Governor, Auditor and
Secretary of State. The origi-
nal plan, it is said, was to have the
Governor use the patronage of his
office to subsidize and control the
Executive Committee and turn it
into a machine to do his bidding.
-Four or five appointments were
made that gave color to this charge,
but the schemers placed too low an
estimate upon the character of men
who compose the Democratic Exec
utive Committee.
They also displayed an ignorance
of party law and a contempt for the
State laws and the constitution it.
self, that Disguised the people IN
advance and the exposure of their
deep laid plans has created a panic
Sin their midst. The combine
candidate for Lieutenant Governor
let the secret out himself and the
other favored ones showed their
hands by acting as satellites at all
the county fairs. Now every body
is laughing at the spectacle the
combine is making OF itself. The
primary scheme, to which it pinned
its hopes; is already in dIsrepute.
1t cannot be adopted without a pre-.
yiuos State convention to change
the party law and frame a platform
and so the indications all point, to Z
speedy dlsintegratlon Of the com
bine, A primary would have beef
a smooth scheme, with ten member
on the State ticket from ten districts
each member of the combine {
bring up his district for the Who'll
gang, delivering the goods accord
ing to contract, with the combin
/ backed by a machine to appoin
officers. run the alleged election ant
go through the useless lormality o
counting the votes. But since III,
failure of this plan, there has beer
a sudden drop in the stock of th'
proposed BecKham merger. 4
convention where a nominee canno
win without a majority Of all th,
votes, is a very different thing from
a primary where a mere plurality
is sufficient.
The members of the Executive
Committee have not been doing
much talking, but enough of then
have withheld their sanction to ma
chine methods to cause a feeling o
uncertainty to pervade the atmos
/ phere around headquarters. TIL
. close connection between Beckhar
and the primary trust scheme ha
caused some defeats already
Frank Peake's nomination for Gil
cult Judge in, the Shelby count
district was won in a primary
which he openly dehed the machin
Ben Marshall for circuit clerk i
Franklin county, whipped the gar
on their own dunghin, little ba
tam rooster and all. The issl
was the same and ''the people
about whom our friend Richards
pirates, settled it with a vim. Hen
} these tears. Some of the Me T
crowd have seen a light Some a
, ready to deny that they were ev
ION the slate. Some have even qu
attending the county fairs and 81
ting their names into the papers
"also there. All these things ha
happened just because MAORI
of the State Executive Committe
: when approached by the Warwi
. OF the administration, quoted tn
! beautiful couplet from the Psalm
Life
'Be not Ike dumb, driven cattle
BE "a hero i'm the STRIFE"