The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-03
December Rich in POlit-
 ical News. NO BEFORE BREAK
 FASI" FIGHT Senatorial Question Injected Into the Campaign. And Few of the Candidates That Jeff ferson County Has Presented are Mentioned--situation
 on Eve of Meeting of
 State Committee.

was so prosperous, her people were so contented that in their indifference to | political matters they lost sight of the full significance of these developments. They were:
 First--The collapse of ''the before breakfast campaign for Governor. Second--The Issuance of call for
 the. meeting of the State Executive Committee on January 9.
 Third-The assured certainty that d | late primary and not an early primary would be ordered.
 l Fourth--The open letter of Gen. w |. 1 c. Oates requesting the State Com ! mittee to have candidates for United l States Senator voted on in the Demo- | cratic primary.
 l If December and the fall months be- l fore 1t showed anything, they showed 1 that the people did not want any sooner campaign, any before break fast" fight for Governor. The two can didates for Governor, Lieutenant Gov | ernor R. M. Cunningham and President | B. B. Conner, of the Railroad Commits .
 sion, both went on the stump to talk | politics to the people. Dr. Cunning hams position from the first was. that
 the campaign was sprung too early and
 that the people did not want 1t at that
 time. But his opponent Mir. Conner. i was going about from place to place | wherever there was a stump open for | speaking Alert to sound all conditions
 the Lieutenant Governor. under such a
 circumstance, thought 1t the proper | thing to go out and find out what the | people really thought about the cam | paign; to find out If they were really ready to be stirred up to excitement and enthuSiasm. He went out and came to the conclusion that while the l candidates might be very much inter | d in the coming political fight the 1 people had no particular time for it. | After delivering few speeches in diff ferent parts of the State Dr. Cunning ham decided to husband his resources ! until the campaign should naturally be- 1 gin and be on in earnest.
 MT. Conner on the stump. Mir Conner. however, kept up his work on the stump until December. He went l from place to place where there was anybody to hear him and a man to in- | off his forces and went back to Birm- ingham. He has, however. since made ! a West Alabama trip The campaign wasn't ripe and any attempt to pull it prematurely would result in failure. In ] short, the temper of the people of Ala
 bania to take their politics only in good | and due time was made manifest. At the same time Mir. Conner and his | friends started in to make whirlwind campaign of it, the announcement was made that MT. Conner favored an early | prim0rT- and there was going to be an | early rFi mary. The whole attitude of | Mir. J9Iler's friends was Well just | whirl in and finish this whole thing be- | fore breakfast We'll hurry up, get through this campaign, have an early | primary and go fishing" But the scheme slipped cog somewhere. After the pronuuciamentos in favor of an early primary, after declarations from Conner that he stood for an early primary, the announcement comes from | Birmingham that neither he nor his friends will make fight for the early primary. And so a late primary. one | in August, will undoubtedly be cr-
 dered. And so. the bottom has fallen out of the before breakfast" idea of a campaign for Governor.
 The assured certainty of late pri-
 mary has divested the gubernatorlal
 campaign of considerable of It's inter- est.
 The open letter of General Gates in ference to a primary vote for Uni- ted States Senator has been the dis ttnct surprise of the campaign so far as it has gone. The letter has had | an important bearing upon the cam paign. In the first place the next Leg | islature of Alabama will elect two Unitad States Senators It, so hap pens that. successors to both Senator Edmund w. Pettus and Senator John
 T. Morgan will be named by the next Legislature. Under the new Constitu- tion, the Legislature of Alabama only
 meets every four years. Before the following session of the Legislature is convened the terms of both Senator Morgan and Senator Pettus will have | expired. The Senatorial Outlook. The idea has somehow gotten abroad that both Senator Pettus and Senator Morgan would be returned to the Sem
 ate without opposition. Nor is 1t cer- tain that there will be opposition. In his letter to the committee asking that the people of the State be permitted
 to express their choice for United States Senator, General Oates inti- mates that, if r. ,.l action is taken he
 will probably be candidate before the people. The most the committee could do would be to authorize the names of the Senatorial candidates to be placed
 on the ticket in the Democratic pri- mary.
 The Legislature would not neces-
 sarily be bound by such action. The
 members of tle Legislature could en- dorse the selection of the people or not endorse them as they saw fit. It
 is problematical whether the State
 Committee will take the action asked
 for.
 There is no doubt that a dozen prom
 inent Alabamians. now and in the last
 ten years have had ayearning for a Sen
 atorial toga and have only been held
 back by the manifest popularity of the
 two veterans among the people of Ala
 bama. It might be said that there Is
 not a member of the Alabama deIega-
 tion in the lower house of Congress,
 but who would be delighted to move
 his seat across the big corridor in the
 Capitol at Washington. Moreover,
 there are several prominent Ala
 bamians. now in private life who prick
 up their ears and listen attentively
 when the office of United States Sen
 ator is talked about.
 Now if the State Committee gives
 them a chance in a primary. and if
 they believe they have any show in
 the race against the two veteran Sen
 ators these Alabamians may get into
 the Senatorial race. But beyond
 doubt, there is extant general idea
 that 1t Is a dangerous business to
 go up against either Morgan or Pet
 tus, either before the people or before
 the Legislature.
 A number of suggestions have been
 made as to the way the Senatorial pri-
 mary should be made. For one thing.
 it has been suggested that there be
 a sort of sweepstakes race at which
 four prospective Senator candidates be
 named, the two receiving the highest vote to be named as the Alabama Sen
 ators. while the third and four can