The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-02
REPUBS TRY STRENGTH
COMING WEEK WILL BE LIVELY
 ONE FOR THEM.
Three Meetings to Be Held in Mont gomery Are Full of Possibilities. Negro Expected to Come Into
 His Own,

The coming week will be to Alabama Republicans nvelier .han part of a State or National campaign. The two factions will line up fot decisive fight on the question of party policies and fine qualified negro voter will return to his own.
 On May 5 the State Negro Suffrage As sociat!on and the Alabama Republican state Executive Committee will meet in
 Montgomery. May the State conference
 of the friends ot the national administra-
 ton will be held in the hall of the House
 of Representatives.
 The week has been selected by the
 friends of Resident Roosevelt to make
 their important move. The conference is
 regarded as the first step towards plan
 to secure solid Roosevelt delegation
 from Alabama to the National Republi-
 can Convention. Tho Roosevelt men are
 looked upon as "sooners' who want to
 ride out on the Roosevelt tide at It's full.
 With Roosevelt enthusiasm above par his
 Alabama supporters have gone to work
 to clinch the State delegation.
 In doing this they will reinstate the ne-
 gro in party councils so far as they are
 concerned. His reinstatement will be
 made final If the Roosevelt supporters
 rout the antis. The negroes who will fig-
 nre as aids to the Roosevelt workers
 must. however. be qualified voters. The
 negros registration certificate will be
 his passport to the society of the white
 Republicans in conference assembled.
 The strength of the opposition Is an un-
 known quantity. It has not been aggres-
 sive and Its fighting has been of nega-
 tive order. The ''dissensionists'' have
 preferred Fabian policy of waiting. In
 politics they have been like Micawber
 waiting for something to turn up," all
 the while nourishing the hope that Hanna
 or some strong man would rise to be a tormfdable opponent of the President in
 the forthcoming campaign.
 This faction draws what strength 1t has ltC hAaI aaaA 4wn are the State leaders who have broken openly with the President. some of them having been removed from office by him. Men like Julian Bingham late Collector sometime United States Attorney; J. NJ. Davidson, once Assistant United States District Attorney. are reputed to be wait Ing for chance to line up an anti-Roose- welt delegation from Alabama.
 These men are at outs with the Presi- tent and the manner of some of them in offending Roosevelt was the course they pursued in urging that the door of the last State Con yention be barred to negro delegates. Two of them were removed from office and one resigned when the President first made clear his pronounced sondness for the negro voter.
 The antis will be helped by the natural
 Republicans from the hill counties. The white farmers from some of the northern
 counties of Alabama never liked the ne- gro. Their fathers were Union sympa. thizers and had no fondness for the Con- federacy on the one hand nor liking for the negro on the other They. can be de- pended upon to line up against the negro voter qualified or unqualified. Just how strong they are or how much part they will take In the fray is problematieal. The antis will be further helped, it is said, by the commercial Republicans who have come to Alabama with the prosper | ity of the mineral district They are men of high standing and business integrity, who embrace Republicanism because they | believe high tariff and other RepublicaI | principles foster commercial prosperity The potent factor in Alabama Republi. canism. will, however, be lined up behind | the Rooseveit movement. The officehoid- l CTS have, perhaps, never failed to domi. nate a Republican State Convention fir | Alabama. The roll of Republican Con | vention has often times resembled a Fed eral pay roll. The men who have held | Federal office have been the men who controlled tho conventions.
 l The officeholders are said to be soiidly | for the a administration and there is nc | reason to doubt the statement. The of | 1ceholders have not been known to know | ingly wander far from the adninistra tiou and administration policies. The full strength of the officehoders and their supporters are confidently expected to
 be behind the Roosevelt conference. Many of the officeholders who were ,at the Birmingham convention loudly de- manding that the ne.'ro be thrown oui will be in the front seats of the coming conference which will formally extend the right hand of fellowship to the qualified negro voter.
 The Negro Suffrage Association whose work will be for the disfranchised negro, will have no direct connection with the conference. The negroes meet to work in- dependently for their political rehabilita- ton, but the attendants. 1t Is thought. will work around to see what the con ference will do-