Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-03-28
STAND UP AND BE SWORN!

STAND UP AND BE SWORN!
What a ludicrous scene was that en-
acted at the mass convention Tuesday
night; old political knifers like Bentley
OF ito arms fame, who stuck the knife to
the hilt in the republican ticket
last fall and in each of the three last sue
cessive campaigns-and Gen. Hughes
rushing up from Minneapolis, with a
knife dripping with political blood from
a stab at the republican ticket last fall,
and Healy, who only three days ago admit
ted he was a very poor republican, and
Mofetth the little mugwump, who never vot-
ed a straight republican ticket in his life,
and who now does not deny that he will
knife Fort and vote for Ross for city JUS
tice-these and others of the same I'M
savory record insisting on poor little
Eddie Barrett getting up before them
and swearing allegiance to the republic
can ticket. Surprising Barrett's courage
had been equal to the cheek of these
men-he would have put them through a
course of questioning that would have
knocked them silly. Heshould have said:
"Gentlemen, I do not hesitate to satisfy
my friends of my intention to stand by
the ticket here nominated, but I am just
a little surprised at the men who are now
the most persistent in their demand for
expression of allegiance from me. When
1 look around this room I see not one or
two or a dozen, but three score politi-
cal knlfers, who have not during my resi-
dence in this city been true to the nomi-
nees on any ticket they have participated
IN naming. I dare them to deny it. They
knitted Neal, after meeting him in Gen.
Hughes office, shaking hands and de-
claring allegiance-Bentley and Hughes,
the latter running on the same ticket
with Neil. Who knitted Huber for
city treasurer? Will the gentleman
whose name appears to a Geographic
declaration in the spring campaign of
1888, wherein he pledged that he would
stand true to the ticket on which he had
been nominated for mayor, and run upon
no other, answer? He didn't v stand
for L. W. Griffin, the good, straight re-
publican nominee. And will the gentle
man, Mr.. Newton, who escorts me to this
platform, say to what extent he swor
allegiance to the republican ticket last
fall? And will One-P ercent-a-M Minute
Jamison, who exacted from a poor devil
IN Mandan a note for $65 at 12 per cent.
for S5O in hand paid and SIS bonus for
two extensions, get up here and confess
his treachery to the republican ticket last
fall? And will Healy, who wants to run
for sheriff next fall, get up here and say
which ticket-the democratic or republic
canon which he will accept a nomina-
ton; or will he deny saying that he and
his friends wouldn't support certain men
if nominated for city ofices?" These and
many other pertinent questions might
have been propounded by Mr.. Barrett in
the light of past events.
But this is ancient history made in ter
rltorlal days. What the TRIBUNE de-
sires to know-and it will most assuredly
keep tally-is whether these political
slippery-elms will now throw away their
well-worn knives or will they continue
to use them whenever men are nominated
on a ticket who are personally object1on-
able to the m? Vial they, Sin the present
campaign and in those to follow, be loyal
to the nominees of the party, to which
they profess such loyalty, or is this polit-
cal buccaneering to continue?
The TRIBUNE believes that convention
contests should not be carried beyond
the adjournment of the convention; it
believes that men who participate in con-
ventions are morally bound to abide the
result; that individuals are not above
parties and that the time has come when
treachery should be unmasked and by
pocrisy exposed.