The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-14

| the same rules and regulations appli- | cable to candidates for other State of- | Aces. The delegates and each delegation | from the respective counties elected | to the State Convention herein pro- vided for in casting their votes in said Convention for Chief Justice and As ! sociate Justices of the Supreme Court
 shall be considered instructed and shall give to each of said candidates the pro rata vote to which he may he en- tilted as shown by the vote received by | him in such county in said primary election.
 '4. Should 1t become apparent after | oalloting in said State Convention that no candidate for Chief Justice or As sociate Justices of the Supreme Court l has majority of said delegates on the basis of his primary strength and
 under the instructions to the delegates | by the voters of the respective coun- ! ties in accordance with 4.e r5 fese-
 in provided, said convention shall nom
 mate a candidate by d majority vote
 in such manner as it may determine. Is Opposed by Thach. R. H. Thach, of Jefferson, did not | favor the Almon plan of nominating | Chief Justice.
 T find, MT. Chairman" he said, that 1 it Is quite difficult to grasp the swing ing changes of the Committee. We i met here in January and adopted a l plan of nominations to which I acqui- esced as gracefully as possible. I thought that I could stand 1t if the Committee could. That plan, if I un- derstood it correctly, provided for convention for the nomination of As- sociate Justices of the Supreme Court and that feature of 1t I endorsed. for I nf a.,A dn moi hal in dragging the judiciary in the mud | and mire of practical politics. Now sthe gentleman proposes to | change it and he talks of new con- | ditions. I confess that I cannot see i that any change is demanded simply 1 because there will be a contest for | Chief Justice when no contest was ex- | pected for Associate Justices. If | convention was good for nominating Supreme Court Justices by a conven- 1 tion without a contest l cannot see ! why it is not good enough to nominate l them although there is a contest. Con- ditions have not changed by reason of l the fact that a contest has developed. | desire to go down, on record as fa- | voring the former action of the Com mittee.
 But f we were going to have a | convention that will have no other bus | mess than to say what the primary l has said, if we are going to have a l convention that will do nothing except 1 what the primary has already done. I then I am opposed to any such a con- vention. If we are going to have a convention, let us have a convention. | If 1t is to be a primary, why let us | have primary. But let us have no l hals way measures. Why should we | have any hybrid proceedings. such as l this. Let us have convention in fact af IoFnn fN 1 discuss issues that have already been passed upon and settled
 He moved that Section Of the AL | mon plan be stricken out. This would have the effect of making the Chief | Justice and the Associate Justices se- lection a matter for 8 convention with
 out a primary. His motion found a
 second in the person of Capt. G. F.
 Sedberry
 | Stevens Endorses Plan.
 MT. Stevens of Mobile differed mater
 rially with MT. Thach. In his knowl-
 edge of the political affairs of Ala
 bama which he confessed did not ex-
 tend back over many years, there had
 been perhaps more conventions with
 instructed delegates than there had
 been without. He knew, at least, that
 it was rather common than uncommon Il that there should be instructed dele l gates in State conventions.
 Mir. Stevens declared that when the i gentleman from Jefferson lauded the
 convention plan he lauded the plan of Mir Almon, for it was nothing more
 than convention with instructed del l egates
 T Mir Stevens alluded humorously to | the severe criticism to which he had
 been subjected when, two years ago, l he and Carson Whitson and Joe Nathan T tried to have. a convention to select Il Supreme Court Justices. They had, he
 said. been wiped off the face of the | earth and laughed at all over the State 1 He was still certain that his original | position was just and right. He was prepared, he said, to go further and
 take a position which he knew was N extremely unpopular. He was willing to say that the average voter should
 not have a part in the selection of
 members of the Supreme Court bench. With all due respect to them, the qualifications of candidates for Justices of the Supreme Court were matters of
 which the average voter did not know. He told of an experience during the last primary election at the Court House polling place in Mobile when five prosperous and well known citi- zens of Mobile. during the time they were fixing their ballots asked him to tell them whom to vote for for mem bers of the Supreme Court.
 He was distinctly in favor of a con- vention and he wanted to get back to the fundamental principles of the party by which the State Executive Commit tee was the servant of the Democratic Party. The primary idea had gone so far two years ago that the members of the Committee themselves were voted for and they were placed in the absurd position of conducting an cleo tion in which they were candidates. MT Stevens pleaded with his fellow members to let the party get back to 2 it's old high position and be something 4 more than a machine for the distribu- 7 tion of ofices."
 ? Favored By WhItsOn.
 He was followed and sustained by
 MT. Whitson of Talladega. MT Whit
 son had presented and supported the
 original plan adopted by the commit
 tee. He had not changed. The req
 sons that induced him to make that ar
 gument still prevailed. Condition: , since the plan was adopted had chang.