The San Francisco call., 1896-09-30
THE WAY TO HARMONY.

The discussion of yesterday in the Re-
! publican State Central Committee on the
| condition of the affairs of the party in San
Francisco must have made it clear to all
who were present that the contest is one
between regularity and irreguarity; be-
| tween those who are upholding the party
organization and those who are trying to
either control it or break it down. That
much was established beyond doubt by
the unanswerable argument of Mr.. Watt,
and will have an important bearing on
whatever decision the committee reaches.
The element of regularity is essential to
all organizations. Every political party
in America has practiced it, and none
could exist without it. For years past the
Republican organization in San Francisco
has been entrusted to the management of
central committee chosen to hold office
for two years and until its successor has
been duly elected and qualified. The
present committee is the orderly successor
OF that which preceded it, and holds
office by an equal authority. Thus we
may go back step by step from one elec-
ton year to another and find this line of
succession unbroken, each succeeding COM
mittee being like its predecessor, the duly
authorized and recognized administrator
of party affairs until its authority was
surrendered to another committee chosen
by regularly called convention of the
Republicans of San Franz cisco.
This chain of regularity unbroken gave
the present committee the authority to
call the Republican Convention OF San
Francisco to nominate local candidates
for office in the coming election. The
delegates to that convention were elected
at party primaries regularly conducted.
They met and organized as q convention
in due form and proceeded to nominate
full ticket That ticket Registrar Hinton
has filed in his Office as the list of Repub-
lican candidates. His action, which was
in strict accordance with law, gives the
official seal to the proceedings of the con-
vention and confirms its regularity with
all the force and effect of what is virtu-
ally judicial decree.
The regularity of the Auditorium con-
yention being thus established beyond
controversy and the ticket of that con-
vention having been placed by the Regis
trar on the official ballot as the "Republi-
can ticket" the member of the State
Central Committee have before them
nothing 10 decide except whether they
will support the party organization or not.
Each member of that committee knows
the rules OF party management He
knows by what processes Republican con-
ventions are organized and committees
chosen in his own county. He knows,
moreover, that without regularity of this
kind there could be no such thing as an
organized party in the State.
When regularity and organization thus
confirmed and established have been duly
recognized by the State Committee, the
way to harmony will then be plain and
clear to all loyal Republicans. The County
Committee has already done much to
bring about harmony in the ranks in this
City. It has made concession after con-
cession to the opposing element of the
party. 1t has withdrawn a regularly
nominated Presidential elector, w. w.
Montague. and substituted for him the
candidate of the irregulars, J. S. Spear
1t has conceded the nomination for Con-
gress in the Fourth District to Mr..
O'Brien, the candidate of the Kelly party,
and consented to the withdrawal of its
own candidate. In response to these con-
cessions made by the regulars, what have
Mr. Kelly or his friends said or done ?
The answer is known to every one; they
have said much about harmony-they
have done nothing for it. Is it not,
therefore, the plain duty of the State Cen.
trail Committee to strongly advise the
Kelly faction to do their share toward
promoting harmony by supporting the
regular official Republican ticket?