The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-01

1891 for control of the regular biennial
 state convention due to assemble on call
 of the state executive committee in due
 time prior to the August general elee-
 ton of 1892.
 No party was acknowledged by either
 faction except the party of 1874 the party
 of white supremacy. Governor Jones
 lived up to the high promises the Mont
 gomery Advertiser had made for him and to the requirements of the general public in the execution of his trust. But the convention of 1890 that selected him for | the office had adjourned it's four days of bitter wrangling amidst unconcealed aiscontent of that large proportion that rad supported Kolb.
 | None doubted that this dissatisfied ele-
 ment, while voting for Jones at the gem eral election by advice Of Kolb, by the
 countenance of Kolb intended to deny
 the party precedent of two terms to a sat 1 isfactory governor.
 | The discordant state convention of 1Se0 elected state executive committee of 22
 members. The committee was made to
 favor Jones by giving him 15 members.
 The seven remaining members known as
 
 and Henry D. Clayton, Jr, of Barbour. l John J. Altman and E. T. Taliaferro of
 Jefferson. Peter Mcqueen of Greene. H.
 A Skeggs of Morgan. Hugh M. Will son of Lee and Robert A Mcclellan of Limestone. Attorney General II. C. Tom-
 kins was chairman, an dncompromising Jones man.
 i The counties began early in 1891 to dem- l onstrate a restless anxiety Industry all l over the United States was depressed. Concentration of wealth in the hands of i the few became fragrant.
 l The wage class had greatly increased | in Jefferson county over any other coun- | ty. Early in 1891 a demand supported
 by State Committeeman Altman and Tal- 1 iaferro, both prominent lawyers, neither eligible to membership in the alliance, 1 both Kolb men, as we have seen, com 1 pelled the organization Of the county by 1 eecting a colnty committee. An eXcit- l ing meeting held in Birmingham chose the young lawyer, Thomas M. Owen of i Bessemer chairman of this committee. 1 Owen summoned his committee in Au- | gust, 1891, the meeting to be safety | valve to let off the pent up excitement of the day. The committee ordered primary to elect 26 county delegates to 1 state convention to meet as was expected | nine or 10 months in the future. The 26 Jefferson county delegates to the pros | pective state convention should not go to l vote as a unit for Governor Jones or Captain Nolb but should go on the pro rata plan. The governor. and Captain I Kolb both canvassed personally with zeal When the primary vote was count 1 ed the governor was found to have 53l4 and ISolb 4676. Upon this demonstration 1 of the strength of the two candidates | in Jefferson. the governor was allowed l II delegates to the approaching state con
 vention and Isolb was allowed 12 1 Another great county now proceeded to select delegates to the prospective state l convention. The Madison county com
 mitte ordered the several beats to elect
 delegates on January 10, 1892, to a county l convention named for the day follow | ing, the county convention to elect dele gates to the prospective state conven-
 tion Rivalry of Jones and Kolb was
 most acute in Madison. The governor
 and Captain Kolb in person canvassed l this county. The leading men of the
 county divided among themselves can | wasting vehemently each man for his l favorite. When the county convention as | sembled the Jones faction claimed AZ beat delegates to 46 for Kolb. The Kolb fac l ton claimed AT delegates to f6 for Jones.
 Madison was entitled to eight delegates 1 to tho state convention. Prudent leaders
 were 10th to drive the county conven- ton into so desperate factional con- 1 flict. as an attempt to determine to
 which side, Jones or l<olb, the majority | of one rightfully belonged. Thus the | vote of Madison, in the historic state l convention of 1892 appeared, four for each | candidate.
 Wide apprelrensiok prevailed less Cap l tain Kolb should declare himself an inde- pendent candidate in view of the great strength he had developed in the pri-
 maries of these two great counties. He l lzl... | ing his fixed purpose to enter Ihe state 1 convention and there suhmit l>s claims. | Temptation to this course was in the in- tensity of the partsanship within the | democratic party, among democrats, but | more than thus in the readiness of the
 10000 republicans then in Alabama to unite in the dsmemberment of their all powerful opponent.
 | Two weeks after the Madison county convention the state committee found it | necessary to the continued safety of the party organization to meet and determine certa in rules for the regulation oy future primaries that proposed to send delegates l to the state convention and to fix date 1 for the assembling of that body | So the state committee met at Mont | eomery on January PC. The committee readily agreed upon cer- I tain regulations, that representation of l the counties in the state convention | at the last election for Governor Jones; 1 that the convention should assemble in | the hall of the house of representatives; l that the date of meeting should be | June 8.
 l After an harmonious agreement upon these preiminares, the Jones majority of 10 controlled as against the Kolb min | ority of seven
 Chairman Tompkins proposed a scheme of county, subordination to the state com- mittee. The minority of seven objected. They would limit the authority of the state committee to the executive of the rules and policies of the state conven- ton. The majority ruled that the quail fled voters in the county primaries should be ''all persons (sie) who had habitually voted the democratic ticket, both state | and federal;' that the pro rata plan of choosing county delegations to the state convention should not be permitted, but the majority only should be represented. But whereas the two counties. Jefferson and Madison, had chosen delegations on the pro rata rule prior to the action of the committee, the committee rule against that method should be suspended as to those two counties.
 | The kolb minority of seven formally. on the spot, denounced and defied the action of the Jones majority of 15. They pronounced the rules adopted to be ''lin- democratic and without authority; that the committee has power whatever to adopt the same: therefore, the same are null. void and of no effect..- Thus, in the very outset of the cam paign, to disregard the ancient party cus- tom of two terms to the governor, the machinery of the party was made to