40 



ARKANSAS. 



months previous, aspirants for the guberna- 

 torial nomination had been engaged in a thor- 

 ough canvass of the State, two or more of 

 them generally appearing upon the same plat- 

 form in joint debate. The principal objection 

 to Gov. Hughes, who was a candidate for re- 

 nomination, rested upon the fact that a third 

 term in that office would be contrary to prece- 

 dent and would establish an undesirable prac- 

 tice. It was also claimed that the abuses ex- 

 isting in the penal institutions of the State 

 were due in some measure to the Governor's 

 neglect to examine their management properly. 

 The other candidates before the people were 

 John G. Fletcher, J. P. Eagle, W. M. Fish- 

 back, and E. W. Rector. The first ballot in 

 the convention showed that no one had ob- 

 tained a majority of the delegates, although 

 the temper of the convention was evidently 

 opposed to a third terra. Gov. Hughes re- 

 ceived 122 votes; Fletcher, 113; Eagle, 97; 

 Fishback, 96 ; Rector, 25. A session of four 

 days and 126 ballots were required before a 

 choice was made. The nominee, J. P. Eagle, 

 received on the final ballot 248 votes, against 

 201 votes for Gov. Hughes. Other nominees 

 of the convention were as follow : Secretary 

 of State, B. B. Chism ; Auditor, W. S. Dnnlop; 

 Treasurer, William E. Woodruff; Chief-Justice 

 of the Supreme Court, Sterling R. Cockrill ; 

 Attorney-General, William E. Atkinson; Su- 

 perintendent of Public Instruction, Wood E. 

 Thompson ; State Land Commissioner, Paul M. 

 Cobbs. 



The platform approves the national Admin- 

 istration, the tariff message of the President, 

 and the Mills Bill, reiterates the doctrine of 

 State rights, and continues as follows : 



We favor liberal appropriations by Congress for the 

 improvement of our waterways, to the end that com- 

 merce may be facilitated and rates of transportation 

 regulated and cheapened, by bringing them into com- 

 petition with those artificial avenues of traffic whose 

 natural tendency is toward monopoly and extortion. 



We point with pride to the successful administra- 

 tion of State affairs by the Democratic party and the 

 results that prove its wisdom and patriotism to wit : 

 The rate of taxation reduced from seven to five mills, 

 the marvelous increase of material wealth of the State, 

 which was greatly enhanced by the passage of laws 

 which subjected the property ot 1 wealthy corporations 

 to the payment of an equitable proportion 01 the cost 

 of their own protection, on a basis of fairness to them- 

 selves and justice to the people ; the liberal encour- 

 agement and fostering care extended to the cause of 

 public education ; the founding and sustaining on a 

 basis of broad liberality the various charitable insti- 

 tutions of the State ; and the payment of so much of 

 the just debt of the State as has already been accom- 

 plished, with the promise of its entire satisfaction at 

 no distant day. 



We indorse the action of the Legislature of 1887 in 

 providing for a geological survey of the State, and fa- 

 vor the eatablishment by the next Legislature of a 

 bureau of agriculture, manufacture, mining, and im- 

 migration. 



We favor a system of liberal enactment for the en- 

 couragement of railroads and manufacturing establish- 

 ments, but are opposed to any exemption in their 

 favor from the burdens of taxation, which can not be 

 extended alike to all tax-payers and citizens. 



We indorse the united efforts of liberal-minded citi- 

 zens of the State, regardless of political affiliations, 

 to organize and build up a State bureau of immigra- 

 tion,"and hereby second their invitation, extended to 

 all earnest, honest, and intelligent people everywhere, 

 regardless of political opinion or religious belief, to 

 make their homes in Arkansas, where a cordial wel- 

 come irom the people will be extended to them, and a 

 variety of undeveloped resources, unexcelled by any 

 equal area on the globe, promises a generous reward 

 for industrious labor. 



The financial embarrassment of the State having 

 been safely and certainly relieved, we favor such 

 modifications of the convict system of the State as can 

 be effected, to the end that the State shall assume the 

 complete control and responsibility for their main- 

 tenance ; that their labor may not be brought into 

 open and direct competition with the honest and vol- 

 untary labor of the people, and on such a reformatory 

 basis that novices iu crime may not be subjected to 

 the baneful influences of contact and association with 

 hardened criminals. 



We congratulate the people upon the growth of 

 personal temperance throughout the State, and are in 

 favor of the strict enforcement of the laws now in our 

 statutes restricting the illicit sale of intoxicating liq- 

 uors, believing that it affords a striking example of 

 the beneficent effects of the principle of local self- 

 government. 



On July 4 the Prohibitionists of the State 

 met and adopted the following resolutions: 



We congratulate the friends of prohibition in Ar- 

 kansas on the good they have accomplished in the 

 contest with the liquor traffic, as is evidenced by the 

 fact that at least one half of the State to-day stands 

 redeemed from the presence of the saloon, and nearly 

 one half of our voters have been educated up to the 

 point where they will, under our local-option laws, 

 vote against license. 



That the friends of prohibition feel thankful to the 

 past Legislatures for the passage of our local-option 

 law, by and through which so much good has been 

 done to our people and damage to the whisky traffic ; 

 and they would suggest that if said laws were amend- 

 ed in some particulars they would be more efficient, 

 and we would request said amendments be made by 

 the next Legislature. 



That notwithstanding we are now in full accord 

 with the national Prohibition party, and will put elect- 

 ors in the field, yet we will not nominate candidates 

 for the various State offices, but will do all we can to 

 advance the cause of temperance on the one hand and 

 break down the liquor traffic on the other, by local 

 option and such other means us we may be able in a 

 lawful way to command. 



At the election on September 3, owing in part 

 to Democratic dissensions growing out of the 

 heated contest for the nomination, the Demo- 

 cratic majority was more than 2,000 fewer 

 than in 1886. Eagle received 99,214 votes, 

 and Norwood 84,233 ; a Democratic majority 

 of 14,981. These figures do not include the 

 votes of nine townships of Pulaski County, the 

 poll-books for which were stolen from the 

 County Clerk's office after the election. The 

 Legislature chosen was overwhelmingly Demo- 

 cratic, the minority consisting in part of Re- 

 publicans and in part of Union Labor repre- 

 sentatives. At the same election the question 

 of calling a convention to frame a new Consti- 

 tution was voted upon. Returns from all but 

 three counties gave 41, 818 votes in favor of the 

 convention, and 90,780 against it. The No- 

 vember election resulted in favor of the Demo- 

 cratic national ticket. 



