The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-17

speakers often accompanied their denun- | citations of me with diatribes against the | negro as a race, insisting that he was in- | capable of any advancement or enlignt- | enment. I had also been frequently and l vehemently denounced because in taking
 care that the laws be faithfully executed, l I had used the military to prevent moDs l from breaking down jals and lynching | negroes. Every pardon, regardless of the 1 justice if the recipient happened to be a | negro. was made the subject of philllpics l aeainst me. These utterances had
 r.-arked effect upon the minds of the ne- l gro voters. and led them instlnctively 10 l feel that their interests would not be suo- l served by my defeat. The republican l state organization, although it had always l put ticket in the field In presidential l years, did not desire to embarrass it's ss- | cret allies that year, either by endorsing | the Opera House ticket or fusing with it, | or by running a straight republican
 ticket, or by publicly taking any part l except in the last stages of the contest. | It was ostenta tiously given out that its position was that it was dog eat dog" and | that the republican organization intended | to let them fight it out" The negro l could vote for the regular democratic | ticket without feeling that he abandoned 1 with which most of them trained, and
 the great majority of them were strongly
 minded to vote against the Opera House I ticket in the state election.
 Chairman Mosely Comes to the Aid of His Secret Allies and Uses 18th Plank as a Scarecr0w to Terrify Voters
 The chairman of the republican state l organization, therefore, began strenuous 1 efforts to convince the negro voters tnat | it was to their interest to support the Opera House ticket. His task was not an i easy one for the rank and file of the
 whites of his party were torn by dissen., | sions, and there was a vigorous opposi- | ton inside of his party to him and his policies growing out of patronage anu 1 his support of a national candidate. | The 18th plank of the democratic plat l form favored 'the passage of such cleo | ton laws as will better secure the gov l ernment of the state in the hands of the intelligent and virtuous" Chairman Mosely immediately seized upon the de- l claration to arouse the fears of the ne- l groes and incite their hate towards that l portion of the whites who supported the l regular ticket, and began to preach in se- l cret circulars that the plank was the 1 first step to put the negro back In | slavery" and that "whatever Governor | Jones' disposition might be personally, he
 would be powerless to control his party If I elected"
 Effect of the Circulars Throughout | the State
 | If is impossible in 8 paper of this sort l to deal with all the details showing the effect of these circulars upon the negro vote in each of the counties. In some | counties they had little or no effect. This was so in counties where there was large negro population and the great bulk l of the whites among whom they lived | supported the regular ticket and they were addressed as in many counties. by l speakers of their own race in favor of | the regular ticket, and also in counties l where influential republican leaders, as in I Montgomery, Wilcox and Talladega, op-
 posed Chairman Mosely and his policies. | and urged the negroes. there being no | republican ticket, to vote for the nonli- | nees of the regular democracy. The cir I culars had perceptible effect on tfe | educated and intelligent negroes any l where When however, the whites were | considerably divided in any county and 1 the local republican leaders supported | the Opera House ticket the majority of 1 the negro voters in those counties gen. | orally voted for that ticket few H. | lustrations must suffice as the effect of the circulars throughout the state. Eor instance in Lee county I had a majority
 
 had 2749 negro voters. In the state cleo ton they reversed my majority in the pri- mary and converted it into majority or POT for the Opera House ticket--a change of 757 votes against me in that county
 alone. In the Madison primary received | a small white majority. It had 3Ol2 negro | voters In the state election my majority
 was converted into minority of 25o py l the majority vote of it's negro voters. m the Fillmore primary assuming tnat 1eie- 1 gates from two beats whose unseatins 1 turned the scale in favor Of my opponsns l were properly unseated the majority | against me in the primary was 200. It had 17oa negro voters. The majority of their votes ran up the majority against me In inc state election to S27. There was | white majority of 153 against me in the primary in Tuscaloosa. That county haq l 2o15 negro voters, majority or whom l voted against me, increasing my oppo> | nent,s majority to 7N votes. After tho \ election these results, affected by negro T votes in these and other counties, were | yaunted as evidence of the sentiment of the white voters in those counties.
 | If any one will take the trouble to go | into the statistics. and compare my ma ,l iorities in the counties carried in the pri- l maries and the majority by which I lost l the same counties in the state election. ne Il will find that the result in nearly every instance was effected by the majority of. the negro voters In those counties east ing their ballots for my opponent in the
 state election The same influence of the negro vote operated in the counties which carried both in the primary and in the state election AS a goodly number of ne- groes voted for me in those counties, it is impossible to figure out with accuracy. how far my actual napority of white
 votes in these counties, carried by me- both in the primary and in the state cleo , tion. was anparentU cut down hy q lesser