The herald., 1894-10-28
BRIBERY AND BOSSES.
THE STORY OF EIGHTH WARD
REPUBLICAN CAUCUS.
Mr.. j. @. Griffiths Makes Staten ent,
Showing How Political Corrup-
tion Wac Successful at
the Caucus.
Mr.. G. ]. Grifiths yesterday made the

following statement to the HERALD:
''At the session of the committee OF
credentials OF the late Republican city
convention, q contest against the seat
ing OF the delegation from the Eight
ward was presented and the testimony
of several witnesses was taken by the
committee. The committee reported tC
the convention that the allegations or
which the contest was based had moi
been sustained, aud recon- mended that
the delegation SO reported by the elec-
tion officers as having been elected, be
seated in the convention; but the com
mittee did not lay before the con gention
any OF its proceedings in the matter nor
any OF the evidence presented to IL, and
it is for the purpose of letting the gen.
oral public know what the testimony
WAC and what proceedings were had that
| ask for a short space in your columns.
'The contestants charged that the
Republican caucus in the Eighth ward
was packed. corrupt and unfair, in that its
entire business, including organization,
collection OF candidates and adjournment,
was performed in loss than three
minutes time; that known Democrats
and persons who had voted at the Dom-
ocratic caucus held three days prior
thereto had been permitted to vote at
the Republican primary, and that there
WAS good reason for believing that
money was used in occurring the election
OF the caucus ticket.
I'm the matter OF the caucus, the
chairman OF the committee ruled that
the caucus had nothing to do with tt Q
primary election and. as no other mem
Der OF the committee dissented from
!, h.. L.
barred from presenting evidence on this
point. Under the present system OF
primaries, the caucus is part OF the
primary election; it is the preliminary
stage. the first step, and as it is well
known fact that ticket which 10
selected at a caucus carries with it some
considerable prestige at the primary
polls, from the fact that it 10 ths caucue
ticket, every citizen OF the district in
which the caucus is held shoald have
an unrestrictsd opportunity to engags
in the deliberations and work of
the caucus. Such. was not the case
here. The caucus was held in a email
room which was filed early with sup.
porters OF the ticket that was put up,
leaving but small space near the door
where people not included in the ar
rangements might appear. Upon being
called to order, chairman was named,
% candidates for delegates placed in
nomination, q vote taken upon them
and they were declared nominated and
an adjournment taken, all in less than
three minutes. The caucus was not de- |
Lucrative in any sense; no opportunity |
was given TO place anyone 10 nomina-
tion, except those who were on the |
slate, and, in fact. the whole thing was
rushed through in such haate "a to de- |
prive many good citiz,ns of the ward |
who were present Of all rights and priv
ileges to which they were entitled. The
contestants could have established
thezs facts bad they been given the OPP
portunity, and, in my opinion, the rul-
ing that they had no bearing upon the
case was, to say the least. remarkable.
with regard to the voting OF Demo.
Gratis, the contestants presented evidence
that known Democrats had voted at the
primary election and then brought for
ward the poll lists of the Democratic
primary held the Friday evening previ-
Gus, from four out OF the ak precincts in
the ward, q comparison of which with
the Repu blican poll liBts show that 81
persons in these four precincts voted at
both primary elections. Further, evil
dence was presented that other we'll
known Democrats were about the poll
ing place during the day and the pres-
ence of the Democratic poll lists from
the other two precincts OF the ward
would undoubtedly have revealed the
fact that many Democrats more than
the number named, participated in the
Republican primary. 1t ia claimed that
these persona changed their political
opinions,' but l contend that when
man has remained a Democrat during
such a campaign as the present one, and
votes in Democratic primary. the.
short space of time from Friday evening
till Monday noon 10 too short for him to
honestly change his political opinions
in. This primary election wac but
repetition, on reduced scale, of that of
two years ago, wherein some 100 votes
were cast in the primary, but only 237
votes were polled for the Republican
ticket at the city election following.
Concerning the use of money, one
witness testified that person who had
voted at the primary had told him that
he was given O ticket to vote and after
depositing it he was given half dollar;
that this person had agreed to appear
before the committee and testify to that
the lstter's Office, whence they were to
proceed to the convention. but that dur
ing short absence of the witness this
person had slipped away and could not
afterwsrd be found. Another witness
testified that this same person had told
him that the reason he went away was
that "knowing the crowd" he was
afraid for his life if he told the truth,
that he was afraid that they would
knock him in the head or knife him.
This latter witness further tee.itied that
for the purpose of drawing out worker
for the caucus ticket, he told him that
he had been offered sl.50 to vote the
other ticket, while in fact he had been
offered nothing; that this worker had
then asked him ii hes would take so
cents, which offer was declined. Fur
ther, that another worker for the same
ticket had told him that there was 81 in
it. Further, that two other persons had
talked in his presence about q crowd OF
men who were at the cooks and wait
ers' headq uarters and one of them lad
said that he would vote them all 10. So
apiece; that about eight of these mon
were brought to the polls.
"The defenae was on the lines that
all the proceedings OF the primary were
regularly conducted; that all applicants
whose political affiliations were doubted
were sworn in as Republicans and q
general denialof all the testimony in
regard to the use OF money the witnesses
to the latter all being upon the caucus
ticket.
These are the leading facts Of the