The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-21
Primary Was Without Charge of Fraud. coMER'S MAJORITY 26,077 G. H. Parker of Cullman Fills
 a Vacancy. Petition from Walker County for In- creased Representation in State Democratic Convention is Referred to That Body.
 

The general Democratic primary cleo tion of 1904, with yesterdays meeting Of the State Executive Committee, passed into history with it's record unstained by a single charge, a single hint of fraud.
 No stain is upon the titles to the certi- flcates of nomination of the men who received them yesterday by order of the State Executive Committee. There was no unfairness or injustice in the primary. Had there been any Irregularities the State Executive Committee would have dealt with 1t as the arbiter of the af- fairs as the Democratic party in Ala bama. Unfairness. or injustice would have had its aftermath in investigations by the State Executive Committee.
 But. the State Committee yesterday did not have the unpleasant duty of investi- gating fraud charges. There was none. There was not contest of any sort. The results of the primary were attained fairly and equitably. However men may have differed on the wisdom of naming candidates by a primary, there was none who would question the justice of the results
 This is the epitaph of the first general primary ever held in Alabama, the first primary in which a President of the Railroad Commission and the members of the Supreme Court of Alabama were ever named.
 It was the business of the State Execu- tive Committee at it's meeting in the Ciy Council chamber to wind up the affairs of this general primary, This business was accomplished quickly and expedi- tiously. There was no matter for the members of the Committee to talk about, no matter for them to divide over The Committee was in session all told less than an hour. A subcommittee, how ever, spent three hours in tabulating the returns.
 over eo 900 Votes Cast.
 These returns show that something over &C., GOO votes were cast in the Democratic primary. Approximately the total vote was obtained by consolidating the totals of the vote of the four candidates for President of the Railroad Commission This gives the grand total of 96,67s which does not include the vote of Bullock County, it not having been sent in for President of the Railroad Commission.
 B. B. Conner for President of the Rail- road Commission received plurality oi 26,077 over his nearest opponent, John V. Smith. Over all his opponents MT. Conner received a majority of 1s,367 votes The total votes in the contest for Presi- dent of Railroad Commission were as follows: Conner, 57,246; Smith, 31 ,116; Kolb 6,590; Compton, 1,073. One of the sur prises of the primary was the small vote boiled by Captain Kolb.
 Chief Justice T. N. Mcclellan, who had no opposition. received 62,Ss4 votes Supernumary Judge A. H. Aston, whc also had on opposition boiled 64.6n votes Tyson Led the Ticket.
 In the contest for places as Associate TzA. 1R gomery led the ticket by wide margin His total vote was 5S,629 and that oi the next highest candidate was 51.1lt boiled by Judge N. D. Denson. The other winners were, Judges Anderson DowdelI and Haralson and Captain Simp- son.
 The first duty the Committee perform ed yesterday was the filing of the vacan cy on the Committee created by the death of State Senator W. I. Bullock by the election of George H. Parker oi Cullman County.
 The request of the Walker County dele gation for an increase of that county. representation in the State Convention proved to be a rather live wire. It drew the attention of the Committee to thu need of some reform in the matter oi representation. Some members of tho
  the representation in the State Conven ton was based upon the census of 1890 Some counties of the State have practi cally doubled their population in thu fourteen years. but the representation has stood still. This increase of popula tion has been especially marked in the wiregrass' section of the State and 1T the mining district.
 The Committee passed the question uT to the State Convention. The Conven tion of May 25 is expected to rearrangt and readjust the representation. The counties which think they are entitled to an increase are going to ask for it ir unmistakable terms. Representation will be live question in the State Conven- tion. The fears of some members of the com mittee that a quorum of its members would not be present proved groundless The meeting was called to order prompt ly at F o'clock. at which time full quorum, with one or two to spare, was 1 present
 The members of the committee who an swered to their names at roll call were:
 Chairman H. s D. Mallory.
 First District-W. A. Carter. Howard | Douglas.
 Second Distriet-George ". Jones. J. R Porterfield, William H. Sanford. Third District-R. H. Arlington.
 Fourth District-Tipton Mullins.
 Fifth District-George F. Sedberry. D. NJ. White. !