The San Francisco call., 1896-03-05
Senator Mahoney's Snap Satur'
day Night Meeting in Behalf
of the Railroad.
LEGAL ACTION BY A MAJORITY
The Regular Fourth Congressional
Committee Chosen by Seven Votes
Out of Eleven.

The members of the Republican State
Central Committee representing the
Fourth Congressional District held their
first regular and legal meeting at $50 Mar
ket street last evening and created the
regular Congressional committee for the
Fourth District, which will have iurisdic-
tion over the primary election for the
selection of delegates to the State Conven-
ton.
AS the committee chosen last night is
one wholly different from the one an
nounced after the meeting held in the
rooms of Senator J. 81. Mahoney in the
Baldwin Hotel last Saturday night, there
may arise a conflict of authority in the
Fourth District, or at least a good imita-
tion of one, over the question of who con-
stitute the Congressional committee OF
the Fourth District.
This question can be settled only by a
comparison of the meetings which ap-
pointed the respective committees. 1t
was shown at the meeting last night that
the committee announced Saturday night
as the committee for the Fonrth Congress
sional District was appointed by minor
ity of the members of the State Central
Committee, in which the creation of
such a committee was vested at the
meeting of the State Central Commit
tee last Saturday afternoon, and that the
majority even of those present was ef-
fected by the barefaced forgery of the
proxy of a State Central Committeeman
who had received no notice of the meeting.
Such a forgery is probably beyond the
A. 70.
the construction and bearing CT the stat
utes, but it is important to know the char
acter OF the people who are trying to surge
to the front at the opening OF the cam
paign, and that political tricksters of the
Mahoney and Martin Kelly type are out
hustling for what there is in it In the
name of Republicanism.
The trick sought to be perpetrated last
Saturday night was, further, managed by
political representatives of the railroad
company who are alert for advantage in
degree seldom exhibited before.
The action of the majority of the State
Central committeeman of the Fourth Dis
trict last night upsetting the action taken
at their snap meeting of Saturday night is
a victory over the railroad politicians and
a victory for John D. Spreckels, who as q
member of the executive committees of
both the State and County Central COM
mittees, and as Republican leader is in
terested in the success and decency of the
Republican party.
The State Central Committee at its
meeting last Saturday afternoon adopted
a call for the State convention, which was
in effect a call for seven Congressional
conventions, the creation of which, by
primary elections or otherwise, was given
absolutely into the hands of the Con-
gressional committees of the seven Con-
gressional districts of the State. 1t was
further provided that where such Con-
gressional committees do not exist they
should be created by the mem bers of the
State Central Committee representing such
districts.
In some districts such Congressional
committees happened to have been created
by the Congressional conventions held at
the time of the last State convention, and
in other districts no such committees had
been appointed. The Fourth District was
one in which no Congressional committee
existed, and so it became the duty and the
power of the memb bers of. the State Central
Committee representing the eleven
Assembly districts composing the Fourth
Congressional District to create a new
Congressional committee of seven men,
bers, which should have exclusive and
original power to call, and, if it pleased, to
supervise and control primary election
in its district for the selection of delegates
to the State convention.
After the adjournment of the meeting of
the State Central Committee last Saturday
afternoon, Senator J. H. Mahoney and
Martin Kelly proceeded to do politics as
politics should be done according to their
habit and understanding. The situation
presented to Senator Mahoney the oppor-
tunity to do politics since the time when
one Sternberg and others steered false
registration in 1894, and were defended in
court under Mahoney's direction.
To Martin Kelly, of varied political in
fanny, the opportunity was equal to and
reminiscent of in many respects the time
when he beat Bill Higgins three points
and won his start in politics by capturing
a south Of -Market-street political meeting
by mounting roof with lot of firemen
and dropping first Chinese bombs and
then firemen through the skylight over
the presidents table.
1t happened that last Saturday J. H.
Mahoney and Martin Kelly, who now