The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-12-01

Is to be exercised second hand, Il will
be more in harmony with Democratic
Ideas to entrust 1t TO the county COM.
mlttee, as the representative in the
interval between conventions of po-
l1tlcal power inherent in the people.
than to the arbitrary discretion of any
one man. Ii the senatorial chairman :,
by his mere ipse dixit, or upon adj
vice OF somebody's club, can remove
our county chairman, he must possess
like power to remove the other men,
beis OF the committee, and the state
chairman must have power to remove
the chairmen of the senatorial dis
tricts. Whenever this theory of one--
man power is put In practice, the DEM
ocratic party of Travis county will
have become wholly Finleyized, but 1
am sure the Democrats of old Travis,
II subjected to such degradation, the
first chance 1t gets, will smash the,
machinery of despotism to pieces and.
construct machine that i'll move
responsive to its will.
The Hogg club, however, does not
claim for the senatorial chairman the
power to remove and appoint, for
| that would shock the public
sense of decency and right,
, but only the power to fill a vacancy.
But our chairman is vigorously alive,
and at his accustomed place in Aus
tin, and claims the Office and author
ity of chairman of the Democratic
executive committee of Travis county.
In the face of these facts 1t can not be
pretended that any vacancy exists in
the ordinary and established sense in
which that word Is used. III q va
cancy did exist the county executive
committee, as we have seen, would be
the proper and only authority to fill
1t.
1t Is evident the Hogg club want
our chairman removed, not as the
crank, Gittsau, wanted the president
of the United States '.removed,n but
still In a sense deemed by them too
naughty to be expressed in the one
bad, ugly, and inconvenient word.
Hence their cautious decentralization
vacancy exists by reason of our late
chairman having behaved badly with J.
his ballot In voting for Clark, the rep
resentative of one faction of the Dem
ocratic party of Texas, as against
Hogg, the representative of another !.
faction; and the senatorial chairnsary
Is requested to fill the vacancy at his
earliest convenience.
A verbal slip.gap of this sort is
hardly entitled to the dignity of be-
ing called fallacy. 1t is too omen.
BUT WHY SUCH HASTE?
A full year and half before an
other campaign. Until then the.
county chairman has absolutely moth.
ing to do. What purpose IL IN he.
served by breaking in unon.
his official repose Just when the
excitement engendered In our pro-
tracted factional contest is diving
away? The purpose sticks out in the.
other proceedings of the Hogo cluh at
last meeting. The club PROPOSES to..
set up here at the capital a sort of
brokerage in federal offices: to consti-
tute itself an advisory board for onr
senators and representatives..
1t does not appear to be any part of
lts purpose to advise the presidents
elect.
Perhaps the experience of ex Senator
Reagan while represent tive in con-
gress, and more recently of Secretarv
Murray of the Hogg state conyention
in the role of advisor to Grover CIeva,
land, has suggested the expediency Of
letting him alone.
But 1t seems to be considered es-
pecialiy important by the Travis
County Hogg club to narrow the
range OF selection of federal officials
In every possible way, so that the
truly loiP' may have the better
chance.
Ii those now holding places and en-
pioyments and patronage of one kind
and another under the state adminis-
tration are not taken into account. the
circle of the "truly loil,' In Travis
county will he exceedingly small.
w M Rpnu,.y