Arizona weekly citizen., 1892-10-01
THE TUCSON DEMOCRACY,
AT WORK IN GRAHAM COUNTY. A TICKET NOMINATED NOTED
 FOR ITS INCOMPETENCY.
What a Spectator Saw.

MR. EDIToR:-The Associated Press
 dispatches ard the Graham county Bull l letin, report the Democratic convention | held in Solomonville on the 22nd inst.
 as an entirely harmonIous affair. and the ticket nominated unusually strong and
 one calculated to inspire confidence and enthusiasm in the party nothing could { be further from the truth. The mere | fact that more than one-third of the en- tire membership of the convention com
 prisiDg some of the oldest settlers and heaviest tax payers and representing
 nearly every section of the county and
 also the entire Mexican vote, left the convention in disgust after the alleged
 temporary organization shows conclus-
 lively that all was. not as "Merry as
 marriage bell" and that there was
 Something rotton in the state of Den-
 mark" Never in the history of Graham
 county, and perhaps in the history of
 Arizona, has a convention been conduct
 ed in such utter disregard of fairness
 and the rdles and precedents governing
 conventions, never did a eo-calied tenn
 pOrary presiding officer usurp more
 power to smother the voices of his op-
 ponents au1 control the action of con-
 vention, and never in- the history of the
 county has a ticget been nominated
 which produced so much dissatisfaction
 and ridlc1le. A bare recital of some of
 the proceedings of the organization of
 the convention will give some idea of
 the character of the convention.
 Shortly after 10 o'clock Mir. George H.
 Kelly, chairman of the county central
 committee, called to order the largest
 number of. delegates ever assembled in
 convention in Graham county. Kelly
 male a speech in which be denounced
 political trades and combinations, omit
 Ing to state, however, that he had spent the week preceding in making trades
 and combiL ations, and that at the Dem ocratic Territorial Convention at Tue sen last May he was party to a trade. A com mbination which resulted naming as the repres entative on the National Com mittee from tAe territory, person un- known to the Democracy of ArlZoua. At the conclusion of his speech, Mir. Daniel Ming was placed in rOmination for temporary chairman. MT. George H. Kelley, chairman of the Central Com mittee, who was rot only delegate to the convention, but had been defeated in his own precinct for delegate, was also placed in nomination. After viva voce vote which was clearly in favor of Ming, Kelly declared himself. elected. | An appeal from hIS decisIen was lost, l and not content with declaring himself | the presiding officer of a body of which | he dId not even claim to be a member l He still more astouished the convention | by appointing a committee Cn rules and | regulations and the order of procedure | governing tae convention. At this | jnncture over one-third of the members | composing the delegations from the | precincts of SOlmOnville, San Jose, Fit. | Grant, Ft. Thomas, Aravipa, Dunlap, | Morenci and portions of the Clifton left | the hall, declaring their refusal to sub init to such sharp practice, as it was, of | all the rules and practices governing | Among those who retired | from the convention were B. E. Norton, Daniel Ming, W. c. Bridweil, Louis | Voelckel, George Bilmer, Edward Soto, Abraham Diaz, Pedro Michelena, Vicente Suarez, Robert Steggall, John | w Roll, Pablo Salcido, Ramon Perez, Jose GanZales, Romulo Chavez and | Lorenzo Sanchez. The retiring mem bers wers willing to submit to man to preside over them who was not a member of the convention, but when he usurpe1 as temporary chairman the power to appoint a committee to make the rules governing the convention, which practically meant the nomination of KeIly's ticket, they thought 1t time to assert their freedom from bossism and tyranny, and retire from conven- tInn in which gag law was so merciless- lV anrllI61 from the hapIDnlDO |
 If anything were wanting to complete their disgust and justify the action of the retiring members, the ticket sup piled it. While several of the nomin- ees are good and capable men, still the ticket as a whole, IS notoriously and con- fessedly weak. A number of the nom inees are utterly unfit for the positions for which they are named. Seven out of the thirteen precincts are unrepre- sented. The western portion of the and also the Mexican vote, over one-fourth of the en- tire vote of the county, were completely ignored, although the people from the western portion of the county and the Mexicans clamored loudly for represen- tatIon and presented exceptionally | strong and capable men. Both the people from the western part and the Mexicans VOW vengeance at the polls. With the exception of the candidate for council, every person nominated is from what is known as the Gila valley portion of the county.
 So general is the feeling of disgust at the ticket and so universal the con- viction of its weakness, that there is an effort being made by the bosses to pre- yalI m soma of fha nominees tO Withs draw from the ticket. Republicans operly declare that if given the power of making a ticket to defeat they would, with several exceptions, have named the very men selected by the Demo crats. There is considerable talk among | some of the leading citizens of forming | a non- n-partisan ticket in view of the | manifest incompetency of the most of | the nominees. SPECTATOR.