The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1902-06-19

M urinary or convention Nom i'Ia-
zion for United States Senator Prob.
abie-Pfischard Picks Craig but
"There Are Others"-The Split
Among Democrats in Mecklenburg-
New Masonic Grand Officers-Vati-
Gus Matters of interest,".
From Our Regular Correspondent.
RALEIGH, y. e.. June. IL. 'O2.
One month from today the Demo
cratic State Convention will assemble
at Greensboro. From present indi-
cations it will be largely attended
and lively convention, although no
candidates for State executive Off
GERS are to be nominated this year,
with the exception OF Superlntend-
ent of Education to fill Il vacancy.
and Il Corporation Commissioner.
But there is sure to be considerable
''strenuous" life injected into the
proceedings when the question comes
up of nominating" or Endorsing
or not. one Of the many candidates
for Senator-Or ii serious effort
is made to order another State Pri-
mary.
no PRIMARY OR CONVENTION NOMINAL
TION PROBABLE
From what | can learn ut present
all efforts along this line are liable.
and even likel v to fail. The party APP
pears to be decidedly undecided as to
which OF the half-dOZen and more
gentlemen it should prefer for this
exalted position, and it would be an
exceedingly difficult matter to con-
centrate a ma jOrity OF the delega ties
on either one OF them.
BY the same token it would be
practically impossible to select il can
didate in a State Primary even ii the
convention could be persuaded to
order one-which is entirely improb-
able, for North Carolina Democrats
got all and more than they wanted
of Estate primaries during the Sim
| mOns-Carr contest OF 1900. The
probabilities, therefore, unquestiOna-
bly, point to leaving the entire mat
ter open, to be settled by the Demo
cratic Legislative caucus next winter,
as heret OfOre, barring the departure
of 1900 from the old paths.
| PRITCHARD PICKS CRAIG.
1t is noteworthy in this connection
| that Senator Pritchard has selected
| Hon. Locke Craig us his probable OPP
| pOnent While in Charlotte last week
Senator Pritchard stated that Mr.
Craig would be the logical candidate
if Justice Clark is nominnted for
| Chief Justice-and he expressed no
doubt OF the latter contingency-and
added that he should therefore chal
lenge Mr.. Craig to Il Joint discussion
| ofpublic questions and issues during
the coming fall.
1t does not clearly appear. howev-
er, that Mr.. Craig is the most pOptl-
lar candidate-certainlv not as yet
except, perhaps, i'll some of the eN-
treme Western counties. After leav-
ing Ashevllle, coming East, it is
found that Judge Hoke, Lee $. Over
man, r. B. Glenn, {. B. Watson, F.
|. Osborne. $. b. Alexander, and one
or two Others are strong candidates
in the counties of the middle West
and Piedmont country. These, to-
gether with Gen. j. 5. Carr would
certainly control Il ma iOritv OF the
votes East of Greensboro and Char
lOtte, and it is related to me by sew
eral gentlemen who travel extensive
| ly through the State, that several OF
them each have a larger following
than Mr. Craig.
1t would therefore appear to be ut
terly impracticable to get the State
Convention to endorse Mr.. Craig or
either of the others named, unless
some now unforeseen reason or con
tingency of unusul and portentious
value shall be advanced and made
good. If a primary was ordered it
is plain that there could not be Il Sc
lection as neither candidate could
poll Il ma iority OF the votes cast,
and probably neither would have as
many as one-third of all the votes
For these and other reasons the leg
iSlative caucus and the General As
sembly will doubtless handle the Job
A THOUSAND kick Frs
| Next Saturday promises to be {,