The San Francisco call., 1898-01-22
Friends of Joe Bailey of Texas Finally Scored a Signal
 Victory.
FOUGHT FOR MONTHS.
POpulist Jerry Simpson Tried in Vain to Climb Into the Bourbon
 Band Wagon.
Special Dispatch to The Call.
Call Office, Riggs House. Washington. Jan. q.


 Washington, Jan. q.
 There is a good deal more in the ! election of Senator White of Califor- mia as chairman of the Democratic l Congressional campaign committee ] than appears on the surface. The ] election of the Californian comes as ! the continuation of climax of a heat
 ed contest that has been going on in ! Democratic Congressional circles for
 control of the committee, and it is a
 distinct victory for the friends of Joe
 Bailey. There is bad blood between
 the Democratic factions. This is no
 new thing, but in reality dates back
 to the contest for Democratic leader
 ship at the extra session of Congress, when Bailey put a damper on the ann l bitions of Benton, McMillin and sev-
 eral others by capturing the young
 element and getting a good majority of the votes for the Speakership nom 1 ination.
 The bitterness of feeling that was developed in the proceedings follow ! ing this event made the Democratic | leadership of the House a subject for i newspaper paragraphs and criticisms. 1 The old members who were turned l down by Bailey have never forgiven ! him. From the day of his nomination i by the Democratic caucus his enc mics began planning to down him. i There has been a constant play with | in the Democratic ranks for position. | The men who are after Bailey set out early to make a determined effort to capture the Congressional campaign l committee with an idea of using that more or less useful institution. This i committee would, they figured, be in a l position to control newly elected mem ! bers of Congress, and the Democrats l fondly look for many gains. They ! recognized that among the present ! Democrats Bailey has good major ity, and they saw that their only chance would therefore be in captur- i ing the new men. McMillin of Ten
 nessee has been regarded as a certain l competitor of Bailey until he entered i the contest for the Senatorship now ] on at Nashville.
 1 Since then the two men who have come to the front in that capacity are ! Richarson of Tennessee and De Ar mond of Missouri. There is no clash ] between these gentlemen or their l friends; they are together in a com mon cause and they have been acting l together in their play for control of the ! Congressional Committee. The real reason Buck Hinrichsen was beaten for place on the committee was because he was regarded as a friend of Bailey. 1 Serene in the belief that he was to rep resent Illinois on the committee, Buck had gone quietly ahead securing pledges of support until he had a ma jority. The Bailey men began to do some growing about that time, but they rejoiced too early in the game. They were dealing with men who knew a thing or two about politics. It was | T the trick that put old man Hunter on the committee in place of the redoubt- able Buck. Altgeld had nothing to do with it. Hunter was promised a fat committee place if things worked out all right. Campbell was against Buck for personal reasons and his decapita- ton was neatly accomplished. The eyes of the Bailey men were opened. About this time came the announce ment of the candidacy of Tom McRae of Arkansas for the chairmanship of the committee, and the hne Italian hand of Jones of Arkansas, chairman of the National Committee, was dis covered in the anti-Bailey manipula- tions. He assumed charge of the 1 campaign, whose object was to land some one of the anti-Bailey men in the chairmanship.
 i McRae was preferred because of his ! bitter antagonism to Bailey, and be- cause Jones could rely on him at all times. It was Jones who had those ! gold Senators kept on the committee. ! He knew he could rely on them to vote l against Bailey, who is unpleasantly az 1 gressive on the silver question, and ] who does not hesitate to criticize when l the notion takes him. Faulkner and ! Smith, Murphy and Mitchell were all l against Bailey, so Jones kept them on the committee over the protests of the 4eflN A AIxsr. men were at sea as to their candidate. l They talked of Osborne of Wyoming and Meyers of Indiana, but the oppo- i sition captured Meyers, by agreeing to make him secretary of the committed The suggestion of Senator White came l from Maddox of Georgia, who was 1 looking for a compromise man. White was sounded and found to be all right according to the Bailey standards. He could not be used against Bailey, and | that was the desideratum. This was but a day or two before the caucus. White was so strong that the anti Bailey crowd decided at the last mo- ment to execute coup and make Sen ator Cockrell of Missouri the candidate 1 instead of McRae. and that coup came very near knocking the Bailey plan l in the head.
 The Bailey men had an intimation I of the purposes of the other crowd to 1 spf1nS Sockrell, put they were hardly prepared for the turn things took in the meeting of the committee. The ! Cockrell men jumped to the front at once as soon as nominations were in
 order and put the Senator from De Armond's State in nomination. When, a minute after Osborne had nominat- ed White, he and the other Bailey men
 had their breath knocked out by the
 declaration of their nominee that un- 1 der no circumstances would he be A
 candidate against Cockrell.
 In glowing language he painted the l virtues of the Senator from Missouri
 and capped the climax by declaring
 that 1t would be impossible for him to
 give the time to the work of the com
 mltte that 1t required. The Bailey men
 were aghast. They did not know