The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1920-07-09
Gov. RusSell's Estimate of the
Recent State Convention.

pie of Mississippi, tells how De
mocracy in this State reversed
itself in the recent State conven
lion by returning TO old repudi
afed convention and secret eau
Gus methods and misrepresented
the will of the people by misre-
flecting their sentiments and
over riding and trampling under
foot time honored customs and
precedents of the party; also how
adroit politicians, representing
the minority, or Hamiltonian fac
tion of democracy, foisted them
selves into positions of party
power and robbed the majority,
or Jefferson faction of the party.
OF any representation in the Dem
ocratic party machinery of the
State or nation, thereby flagrantly
over riding. with uSurped and
brief authority, the overwhelm-
ing majority sentiment of the
people of Mississippi:
To the.People of Mississippi:
In view of the extraordinary hap
penings in the recent state conyen-
tion and especially because of the
enmity and unfairness of the local
daily press, | think it just to my
friends throughout the state and in
other states and to the fair minded
citizenship everywhere that should
give ont the following statement:
SPECTACLE WAS DISGRACEFUL.
Our state has never witnessed
such spectacle as that staged at
Jackson Wednesday, June 16, since
the days of the Infamous Sc
cret caucus" of 1910. Let me i'm
press you first with the fact that all
of those who participated in the
beat conventions and county con-
ventions for the selection of the del
egates that met here, the entire par
ticipants in all these did not amount
to five per cent of the qualified vot-
ers of this state.
In fact, the remnants Of that old.
decayed, disgusting and thoroughly
repudiated minority crowd who con-
trolled that convention controlled
this one. 1t is we'll known and well
settled, and that by the people, since
1910. these leaders do not represent
the majority of the people of Missis-
sippi. In truth but not in name,
there are two separate and distinct
parties in Mississippi and this has
been so for many years.
In many respects these parties are
so different and far apart in their
ideas and ideals of government as
the real Democratic party of Jeffer-
son and Jackson is different from /
the rock-ribbed Republicans. One of
these parties may be properly termed |
the HamiltOnian and the other JEFF |
fersonian. The Hamiltonians be-
lieve the government should be in the
hands of the few and that the great |
masses should have no part in the
gOvernment-the exponents of this |
idea were in control of the recent
convention. The other party believes
in the primary election and that eY-
cry man should exercise an intelli-
gent ballot at the polls without in
timidation or coercion from any
source. In other words, the latter
are really the only true Democrats
in Mississippi.
CAsTIGATEs SENATOR HARRISON.
The leaders in this convention
were such men as Ex-Gov. Earl
Brewer. Oily" Jack Cutrer. Oscar
Johnston, Ben Humphreys, togeth-
er with a few other lesser ring poll
ticians. including the Honorable
Me. Too. Pat Harrison, who stood
shiyeringly by awaiting orders from
those who had placed him in power.
These men and their political ma
chine have for many years had asso-
ciated with them all the corporate
influences of the state, including
the railroads. telegraph, telephone.
money interests and other public
and private corporations of similar
kind. IN every contest they pass
the word down the line. and their
slogan is Rule or RuinD-but
they do not dare to say this out
loud. They tried this out in 1910
in the secret caucus. and this issue
was squarely placed before the peo-
pie in 1911. and these manipulators
were overwhelmingly repudiated at