The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-04-27
EIGHT GOVERNORS OF ALABAMA
 1S4-1901
Number 112-Rival Tickets and Platforms, 1892
 Thomas c. Jones

1 It was the second day, Thursday, June l g. 1892. before the tedious labors of the committee on credentials had prepared
 the convention to perfect an organiza- ton.
 Mir O. W. Underwood of Jefferson was the chairman of that committee and this service introduced him, then 32 years of age. into the politics of the state. It became a part of the duty of the commit tee on credentials to report to the con- vention upon the seventy and odd vacan- cies on the floor, resulting from the with drawal of the Kolb delegates who had en- rolled themselves in the bolting body sit l ting in the Bibb street opera house. Chairman Underwood reported that his committee had found no rule on principle | which would justify the convention in | seating members upon the floor who I had not been commissioned by the pre- 1 vious action of the counties respectively l The party organization had placed tha right to fill the seats of the convention | in the counties and had made no provision | for a division of that right with the party
 convention.
 | Ex-Gow Thomas Seay of Hale was
 made chairman of the convention. He
 was a positive character under all cir
 cumstances and now delivered his view
 of the troubled situation with emphasis. With his fellow members he had been
 commissioned to his seat on the rule of apportionment that he did not consider | to be wise. Delegates to the state con-
 vention of the dominant party should be | apportioned on the population basis and not on the basis of the vote of the coun- l ties respectively cast for the candidate | for a single office two years antedating
 the pending election. In face of the dis membered convention before him, Chair
 Man Seay said: Shall we who crushed the republican party in this state with
 Grant, great and gallant general that he
 was, at it's head-its bayonets gleaming along our borders and glistening even at
 our polls-shall we shrink from a strug- gle with traitorous revolt!'
 l Delegate w H. Denson from Etowah.
 he who had presided there two years ago,
 moved that the rules be suspended and Gov. Thomas Goode Jones be nominated by exclamation to succeed himself with out the formality of ballot
 1 Delegate Henry C. TomplSins from |
 | should be observed
 1 Only less than half the delegates in- structed for Captain kolb had not With drawn from the convention. Those kolb delegates who had not joined the bolters were bound even vet by their instruc- | tions. Let the vote of the convention | be taken on the nomination for governor. | The roll of the counties was called. Delegate F. T. Taliaferro from Jefferson, ! when that county was called. said not | only by reason of his instructions but at | the dictate of his judgment he favored i the nomination of Captain Kolb Captain l Kolb had interposed the insurmountabie obstacle and therefore he would cast his | vote for A O. Lane of his county, not a l candidate Rufus N. Rhodes. editor of
 the Birmingham News, cast the remain
 der of the Jefferson vote for Jones. Henry | D. Clayton of Barbour the floor mana ger of Kolb in 1890, now voted with ms l colleagues for Jones. Downey. spokesman
 for Perry, said the f5 from his county
 had come instructed eight for l<olo. seven for Jones. He cast the whole for i Jones. The first ballot showed 372 for
 
 gregated in yearly value between s6o.- ! O00 GOO and s70.o00 00o. We, of course. can I purchase little or nothing of the Mex jeans if the war assumes the magnitude which some of the authorities predict, for
 production in Mexico will cease, for a
 time at least.
 The Greater Problem
 1 There does not fail to be injected into
 these discussions some doubt respecting the effect of war with Mexico upon our commerce with Central American and 1 South American countries. It Is spoken | of as an extraordinary coincident that ] this Mexican disturbance should have oc- | cured in the year of the completion or l the Panama canal. War with Mexico must necessarily impair somewhat the | commerce which but for tile war would have hoated through the canal It may be part of the strategy of the govern ment to seize and hold the Tehuantepec ra ilroad, which is the short transconti- mental line between the Atlantic and the | Pacific. If that were done traffic by means of this railroad would probably {, be diverted to the canal. There may be | serious diplomatic objections to the selz- ure and holding of this railroad, although recent reports from Washington intimate l that this is within the contemplation of | the government.
 At this time the indications are many | that we are to have a largely increased commerce with South American coun- tries as soon as the Panama canal Is opened to navigation. But the question ! the South American countries will be disposed to encourage an increased com merce in view of the fact that We are ak war with Mexico. The suspicion has never been fully removed that the United States contemplates the securing of ad- ditional territory in the countries south of the present national boundary line. A few words spoken thoughtlessly are like ly to increase that suspicion. It is said in this city that the statement recently attributed to Senator Borah that the United States has now begun its march to Panama has been widely translated m South American countries.
 It was privately admitted on the oc- casion of a recent visit of some of those who are in authorityein Canada that the thoughtless remark. made by Speaker Clark at the time the Canadian reciproc- | ity treaties were under consideration. in which he forecast the ultimate political, as well as commercial. union of the United States and Canada was of great influence in persuading Canada so em- phatically to reject reciprocity treaties The prevailing opinion, however. seems to be that the South American nations with which we have recently established large commercial relations will not be seriously influenced by our war with Mexico. It is recalled that at the time of the war with Spain the suspicion was | strong with many of the South Amer 1 ican people that the United States in tended to establish her sovereignty over Cuba, notwithstanding the official dec- | laration that we had no purpose of that kind