The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-09-06

The oficial figures given out on We'd nesday, when the announcement of the result of the recent promary was made, is the first opportunity that. has been given to learn the exact vote cast and how large a per cent of the qualified Democrats went to the polls and voted in the primary of August g. There was every incentive to bring out a large vote as besides the many candidates for State off1ces and committeeman there were cam didates also for Senator in half the dis tricts. and for Representatives in all the counties and they stirred around and per- suaded the people to go to the polls. And that they turned out a study of the fig ures will show. had listened to the plaintive cry of a small vote by some of the defeated candidates and their news papers and their friends, and had ex- pected to see that for some cause. did not know what. an amazingly large num- Der of the registered voters had remained away from the polls. but it is not so. The figures speak for themselves. and you know there has never been a truer or more trite saying than that figures will not lie.''
 The returns to the State Executive Committee show that the vote for Cover nor was S9,2s6. That was the largest vote cast for any other office; the next highest being for Secretary of State. 3D. 22s, and the next for Superintendent of Education, those candidates getting an aggregate of s1.Ss7. Thus it will be seen that many people voted for Governor who did not take the trouble to vote for any other candidates. not even for those without opposition, as MT. Smith, who got the highest vote in that class got only 7s905, or about 14,000 less than the vote cast for Governor. This is always the case, more or less, and no surprise is felt at this, but why and how so many of the voters neglected to vote for the candidates for Attorney General and Su- perintendent of Education is something strange. and goes to show that there are always a number of people who take the trouble to vote, who have their thoughts centered upon the contest for one office, and as the Governorship Is of the greatest importance and excites the most interest and arouses the most en-
 thusiasm. the candidates for that office
 usually get the largest vote in a primary. Under the new condition of things in Alabama, the morale of the electorate
 has been very much improved. but the
 same conditions as to negligence and in-
 difference, as to all the acts required
 of them at the polls, has not mat srially changed for the better
 We can take any representative County
 in any section of the State. beginning with Madison in North Alabama, for ih- stance. and it is seen that out of white voting population of 5,957 there were 4,197 registered and that only 2s95 voted for Governor in the primary. This is pret- ty fair turnout of the Democrats, as there are many Republicans and Popu- lists who were not eligible to participate. Others who had registered had not paid their poll tax. The other counties in the Valley will show about the same result. Come on down then to Jefferson, which is not a representative County in any sense. but stands alone in the variety and mako up of it's population. Many of them be- ing of a rowing. unsettled character who would not give $1.50 to vote. Nevertheless the figures there will prove of interest. There Is a white voting population of 22, S32, and of this number only 146S1 reg
 istered. and 6,779 voted. An unaccount-
 ably large number of the whites failed
 to register and many did not pay poll
 tax. Then take off the Republicans and
 Populists. who could not vote and there
 was very fair turn out there. Then
 come to Montgomery, the Capital County
 of the State. There are here 5,41 white
 voters. and of this number 4,3s1 registered
 of whom F were negroes. Only 2.SI7
 votes were cast. This is a very fair per
 cent of the whole much larger than has
 ever been induced to turn out in Ala
 bama since 1892. when Kolb and Jones brought them out in large numbers. Let's take Dallas. as it is one of the
 largest and most typical Black
 Belt counties. There are 2525 white voters
 there and of these 2.230 registered, there
 being 30 negroes to reyister, the vote was
 1.574. Go on down to Mobile and 1t is
 found that conditions are the same. Mo
 bile has s.37s white voters and 6,459 of
 these registered. there being 131 negroes
 to register there. The vote fin the pri-