The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-01-11

of the democratic state committee, re- garding the election of governor, lieuten- ant governor, United States Senators, United States Senators-in-waitng, state legislators, representatives in Con- gress and justices of the supreme court, has precipitated in the good old state of Alabama! How 1t has stirred up the leaders and the rank and file of the unter- rified democracy from Lauderdale to Mo- bilei
 "The shadows murmur, but the deeps are dumb.'
 The truth of that trite saying came forcbly home to me as I sat in the coun- eil chamber of the city hall in Mont gomery Tuesday afternoon and watched the proceedings of what will unquestlon- ably go down in history as the most im- portant meeting ever held by the execu- tive organization of the democratic party of this state. Not even ripple on the surface of that placid streaml The Ni- agara river. few miles above the Falls. was not more unruffled.
 Yet as I sat there in that quiet room. looked into the faces of those keen-eyed men and chatted now and then with rep resentative leaders of the democratic party gathered there, my ears caught the sound of an uproar, half acclaim and half protest, swelling up from the throats of the great mass of democratic voters of the commonwealth. The uproar grew in intensity and in volume with every
 
 ing, and, looking into the future my imagination bodied forth the democracy of Alabama divided into two great op- posing camps the soldiers asleep on their arms and ready at a moments notice to rise, form into ranks and attack one another in a fight-to-t o-the-death at the pri- mary election.
 That vision has become more and more actualized since I came back to Blrming- ham and talked with the men who repre- sent the character, the intelligence, the wealth and the conscience of this com munity-with the artist and the artisan, the professional man and the layman, the man who pays wages and the man who receives wages. Meet them where you will, or in whatever walk of life, and you will find them divided in their opin- ions and in their personal preferences.
 When the state committee meeting ad- journed in Montgomery a. complacent faced mana man whose face might have been used by Raphael in the painting of cherub, if indeed Raphael could have been induced to use an adults counten- ance as a model for his cherubim-drew pencil from his pocket and wrote this dispatch on telegraphic blank All went merry as marriage bell" A few mo- ments later another man. whose feigned smile i'll concealed the storm cloud gath cred on his brow, walked into a tele- graph office and, I am told sent this message to a confidential friend: Look out for the fireworks
 Now as I recollect those two messages, l note that Joseph F. Johnston a former governor of the state, heartily commends the action of the state democratic execu- tive committee, while Frank s. White who managed Senator Morgan's campaign in the memorable canvass of 1900, em- piiotASdiAJ OOhNCAiIS It, nave 0OL ndQ time," says Governor Johnston, Ito give the plan careful consideration, but upon first sight 1t seems to me fair. As un- derstand it, the primaries are opened to all democratic voters who did not vote against the democratic state or congress sional ticket at the last election, which is right and just. The people are given the opportunity to express their prefer ences in regard to United States senator's which has been the democratic creed for years, and whilst l might have changed the plan some, this is a long step in the right direction"
 That is the strophe in the democratic political chorus. Now for the anti-strophe
 T think the committee had no right to take the action," says Captain White "To say the least of it. 1t Is hardly re- spectful to our senators whom we are about to elect, to anticipate their death before the expiration of their terms 1t presupposed that the people of Alabama are not competent to select senators who can live through their terms"
 There you are again-the scene at the telegraph office duplicated, with slight notifications, right here in Birmingham. So is it-and so it Is likely to be-wherever two or three persons meet and come together in the name of the great and glorious democratic and conservative party of Alabama.
 The lion and the lamb are in the open; they refuse to lie down together and, alas, there is to be found nowhere the sweet little boy who might lead them into the land of Beulah
 "Whitson"
 It's the name of a lawyer who lives in Talladega. It's the name also of a pri- mary election plan. Alabama democrats have heard of Whitson, the lawyer, be- fore this eleventh day of January in the year of our Lord 1906, and they may hear of Whtson, the lawyer, again. They had never, however, until Tuesday heard of "the whitson plan;D but, by the living God that made Whitson and all the rest of us, they are certain now to hear of that plan often and clearly-so clearly and so often that 1t will become as far niiar to the people as the Monroe Doc Urine or the Clayton Bulwer treaty or the Mason and Dixon line Is. Whatever else the democratic state executive committee