The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-07-30
GOVERNOR JELKS REFUTES
 STATEMENTS OF JOHNSTON

the treasury. The ex-GovernOr ecstaticai- ly remarks that another deficit begins 10 make it's hideous appearance Tn ASapa- ma. This is not true. The fancies or the , ex-Governor run away from the figures No deficit Is in sight and no deficit is probable or possible. not complain of this administration because it paid out something like ~ per cent more for schools and beneVoiences than was ever paid out before Tn any one year. l hope he will not continue to complain that this administration in one year paid out $l35, 900 more to old soldiers than was paid out before. It Is not proper subject of complaint against the administration, particularly If 1t has been done with the treasury balances swelling ell the while. T think 1t right that the public should know that the State is not hastening to any deficit at all. It Is right Tor the people who pay the taxes to understand that the announcement of the ex-iov- ernor is absolutely untrue and that his calculations fly in the face of the treasu- ry's daily balances. If the cost or the Constitutional Convention had heen elimi- mated from the figures, and the appro, priations for schools and old soldiers nau been held down to sum equa! 10 the sum disbursed in 1900-Johnston's last year there would have been in the treasury | of the State nearly one million more doi. lars on December 1st than were Tn IL when Johnston went out of office!
 Convict Department Overlooked. The speaker, in his calculations, per | baps overlooked the management or the | Convict Department and the increased ln- | come to the State from that part or the | government service Several times 1t has been said in the prints that Governor Johnston made something Ike S9oVo m l four years on the convicts and several | times that has been answered by the | statement that since Governor Samlord came into office, up to July 1, 1902 that | department had paid into the ota.e l Treasury something like $1t0,0O0 over and i above all expenditures. In year anu | a half 1t had paid into the State Treasu- | " more than one and one half tunes as
 much as Governor JOhnston's hoasted ao- ministration did in four years. The Con | vict Department did not engage Tn any | new business either. It has teen leasing
 convicts to turpentine people. to farmers | and to mill people. to miners ana 10 coal | operators and keeping the eeeoler classes | on Its own farms. It did the same tnlng
 during Governor Johnston's admnnistra- l ton.
 "The speaker did not discuss the Con- | vict Department. He should not nave | forgotten about the Convict Department: | There is enough material in the Convict 1 Department to suggest to the GoVerhor
 several unhappy defenses. | He tells about the men who urgeu | him to become a candidate for Governor l They came out of the mines, and rom | the farms and from the blow handles ana l from the lawyers desk and from the doc- l tors shop. to use his language; they I came there with one accord urging him l to take up their cause and the cause ot | the people against the politicians! Dld 1 any person ever hear just such an absurd | thing as this. Every man who went 10
 that conference perhaps, went there with
 an invitation from this man in his pocket | went there for the purpose or bringing | that already determined individual into
 the field. If there were doctors ana I Co NH aroha nfO n that conference they were invited as the
 ex-Governor's friends and henchmen,
 None of my friends was invited to the
 conference; none of the friends of the
 the conference. None of the friends per-
 haps of Snator Morgan or Senator PettuS
 was invited to the conference The
 gentlemen who went to the conferonc
 that put Governor Johnston in the field
 were men who had his letters as their
 only credentials. This man. complaining
 at conventions and caucuses ana con ferences was himself nominated by people
 whom hc had selected for that purpose
 No such nomination was ever made in
 this State before. It was an unprece-
 dented thing and the result CT the pri,
 mar1es will not show that 1t IS at all
 desirable as a precedent.
 "I am not a nominee of any caucus oI
 conference, myself. I am a candidate for
 a nomination. l am candidate before
 the primaries of the party in this State I
 farmers, and all other classes to come
 lnto the primaries, not with credentials
 from me In their pockets, but with their
 right as Democrats in this State, to cast
 ernor Johnston has already been nomi-
 mated. Why should he want another
 nomination?
 Not Entitled to Endorsement.
 "The ex-Governor complains that he
 was not endorsed by the Democratic | ~. M. klO lon
 to which he has refernce declared for a
 Constitutional Convention and the most
 signal item of his entire administration
 was the defeat of a provision calling for
 cratic State Convention could not have
 endorsed him and his administration and
 at the same time called for a Constitu-
 tional Convention.
 But his demand for an endorsement
 is an atterthought. A few months ago
 when he came out in an authorized inter-
 view in a Birmingham paper, and said
 that he would. on no account, become 2
 candidate for Governor: he had no,
 the Democratic State Convention and was
 probably not then particularly desirous
 of an endorsement. His demand for one
 now has grown up in his mind Tn tue last | few weeks perhaps
 ''The State Examiners are not on the
 pay rolls of the State by Governor John- | ston' S, Advice. As he says. For years
 the State has had an examiner Of Hioic
 accounts. Governor Oates advised the legislature to increase the number of eX-
 aminers, so that they could better cover the State. 1 assume that the increased l number of examiners grew out of the
 message of Governor Oates. It is not
 true, as Governor Johnston says that they are drawing more pay since he went
 out of office than they did during his | term. There is another place where the ex-Governor and the Auditors report are 1 not at all in harmony. The fact is. the Examiners are drawing good deal less money than they did during his adminis- | tration
 Johnston's Change of Heart.
 ''The ex-Governor Is very tender with | the Constitution now. Nlllltylng It a | few months ago, section by section, he | now wants the pleasure of nursing 1t | through it's early life He proposes, he says, to accept 1t in good faith and give it fair trial
 '"The instrument that we made by so much sweat and labor and cost and after l twenty years of yearning will not be | turned over to the tender merctes ot the men who fought the call for conVen-
 ton 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 occasion for | Governor Johnston to disturb himself by | proclatnning that he was at the front in
 the fight for honest elections; He Was
 not in the front of that fight; he has | merely come up after the battle; he IS l without the stains of powder or grime 1 uuon his clothes. He Is fresh from the | rear. He will not be allowed to 1articl-