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

| Gov. ONeal, Gov. Seay and Gov Jones.
 Gov. Jones' terms Of office were peculiar
 In the fact that they were met by the
 return wave of the political revolution
 commenced 20 years ago, which in it's re-
 covery sought to again bring about, to
 bring into place what might have been
 very we'll expected, the same political purposes and conditions that Gov. Hous-
 ton had overthrown 20 years before. Gov.
 Jones was again elected, and his title to
 the seat was then disputed. About that | time there also arose a controversy in
 the state which was very disturbing to
 a large class of the people, many of them very good men. But with that heroism which does credit not merely to that
 gentleman. but to the country to which
 he belongs, he bore the brunt of the diff | fculty in an admirable manner. He won
 for himself and the democratic party l laurels which will always be aecompan- jed with glory to his name. 1 believe
 that in his second election and the man.
 ner in which he conducted himself the suTging waves of opposition to the demo- cratic party in this state broke for their | final settlement into the great depths of | the ocean. I believe that he accomplished | in that second administration the perma- 1 nent restoration of the democratic party in Alabama. Then the party which had opposed Gov. Jones began in Feb ruary last by forming alliance with | the republican party. Then they went on | in one series of actions after another, until we ascertained that that party, which was ostensibly under the leader ship of MT. Kolb, was in fact and in | truth the republican party, arid that an arrangement had been made by which the
 state government was to be turned over to that branch which was republican at the time of the November election" Planned to Rule or Ruin
 l perceived early in my first admnis- tration that the ambitions which had been disappointed in 1890 had resolved to control the party organization from with in if possible in 1892, and failing in the primary that year, to organize force from without for the defeat of the party in the coming state election, and in the accomplishment of that were bent on em- ploying every possible pretext to misrep- resent the administration and excite hos tility to it. Striking proof of this dispo- stion was manifested in the political demonstration its leaders fomented over the veto of Feb. 18th, 1891. of a bill for the distribution of the Hatch fund.
 Manufacturing Passion
 There was nothing involved in the ques- ton to call for heat or political differ ences. Congress- had donated large sums yearly under the Hatch act for agricul- tural experiment stations, and the legis- lature, under authority of that act, had selected the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Auburn as the beneficiary of the fund and the conductor of the experi- ments. and thereby exhausted all further power over the fund. which was the bounty solely of the United States. It was proposed. nevertheless, to take a large portion of this fund from the A & M college, and distribute it to three ag- rlcultural experiment stations in other parts of the state, over which the college was given no control IT was obvious, aside from the want of power in the leg islature, that such a course might injure the college in which every interest in the state took pride as well as the ex- periments themselves Senators at Wash ington had warned the trustees of the college that such. action might be re- garded an evasion of the purpose of Congress, and would perhaps result in "euddenly bringing the appropriations to an end" I accordingly vetoed the bill, and the veto was sustained by two- thirds majority.
 Notwithstanding the sound reasons for the act before the text had been pub- lished. two widely distant communities in the state, though not the governor were immediately brought into unpleas- ant notoriety by solemnly burning him in efhgy-a manifestation of political intol- erance and disrespect for the office, never before known in the history of our state. It was also manifest from many signs that the opposition leaders planned to charge, regardless of the justice of the complaint, that both the primary and state election were frauds, if unsuccessful In them, and to throw the state into turmoil by disputing the title of the off cers chosen at the August election, to further future plans for the destruc- tion of the party. Foreseeng they were minded to present such a controversy and believing that if it arose 1t would promote public tranquility to have it's decision under a law whose provisions were not enacted under the exigencies and temper of an actual controversy. l recommended the passage of a law for the determination of contested elections for state offices, in a special message Feb. 4, 1891. From the foundation of the state, Aabema's constitutions had pro- vided that such contests should be "de- termined by both houses of the general assembly in such manner as may be prescribed by law" but this message was the first effort ever made to pre- scribe these regulations. No action was taken upon my recommendation at that session, and I renewed it In my regular message Nov. 16 1892.
 The Expected Happened-What Was
 Done
 The expected happened Charges of fraud were made as the primaries pro- gressed and the opposition lost in the several counties, generally accompanied by dramatic threats of bloody ven geance If the alleged wrongs were not redressed. This was frequently done Tn the shifting exlgencies of their campaign, even after the leaders had publicly ad- mitted there were no grounds for a con- test-as in Lowndes and Marengo-and the din was kept up until the assembling of the state convention, to infuriate men who took part in the primaries to set up a ticket to beat the nominee in the pri- mares. An opposition ticket was set up, and the state election having been lost, the result was fercely denounced as a fraud. the same bloody harangues re- peated, and the title of the officers chosen in 1892 was disputed in order to help the leaders in their financial and
 political intrigue with Chris NIagee the "visiting statesman from Pennsylvania, and to hold their followers for an assault in November of that year, on the nation- a! democratic organization. under the banner of Weaver and Fields. That movement having been crushed by the ballots of the people, the cry of fraud continued to be trumpeted as a basis for the negotiations proposed to the venera-
 ble Senator from Massachusetts. and to induce contributions in money from the | Home Market club of Boston to redeem Alabama and to hold the followers of | the Opera House ticket in hand for furth- | CT assaults on the democratic state or ganization two years later. when on the
 same old pretext of fraud in the state
 election, mobs were sought to he organ
 ized to invade Montgomery and prevent