The San Francisco call., 1898-08-18

man, called a municipal convention in 1886. That municipal convention placed Tn nomination candidates for the various municipal offices. The Registrar or voters of the city and county of San trancisc9 recognized the ticket that was nominated by that convention as the regular Demo cratic ticket of the city and county or San Francisco.
 The minority of the general committee, commonly called the Buckley faction, held municipal convention and the municipal convention placed in nomna, tion candidates for the various municipal offices. They filed their certificate with the Registrar demanding that the canqi- | dates named by them be recognized as tne | Democratic candidates. The ReglstraI | of Voters refused to recognize them as | the Democratice nominees, so theIeloIs mandamus proceedings were inauSurateq l against the Registrar of the city ana county of San Francisco. The hearing or that writ of mandamus came up oeIore the Supreme Court of the State or Cali | fornia and the decision of the supreme Court of this State is reported in the lli.n California, and in that decision the calui' dn,l dates that were nominated by the con | vention that was called under the aus
 pices of the general committee or "@Illcn WHICH Colonel Sullivan was the chairman; were of the Democratic party of the city anu ana county of San rranciSco, a party .on MHiGn G | at the election preceding held Tn 1894 III that city and county polled over per cent of the entire voters. The tlcket was placed before the people and the Demo cratic party was triumphantly successiul, most of the municipal candidates being elected. Now, gentlemen Of the conVen- tion, the general committee that nave the honor to represent Is the same gen, eral committee that existed in 1896 and | which was declared by the Democratic State Convention to be the representauVs | committee of the Democratic party ol | San Francisco This same general com mittee was virtually recognized to be the representative party or the Peln3elaSic .Ha c,,' | preme Court itself. The Democratic party of San Francisco Is an organla1eeou aeo poI poli.I- cal body itself composed or So'uVO ToIeis, eia | It exists under a constitution and rules provided for its government Us Gonstl- tuition has been accepted by the Denio- cratic voters of the municipality itsel1. | The constitution was also approved ana l ratified by the Democratic State conVen- ton of 1896. The general committee ex- | approved and ratified by the Democratc | State Central Committee of lS96 oe1y any of the gentlemen who may aptea+ feo+ | that the general committed of which P. J. Rarney is chairman, is not the sue cessor of a general committee elected m | 1S9S I defy any of them to deny that fact (Applause)
 | Gentlemen of the convention. before the committee on credentials last evening | submitted constitution which reaqs, | "Constitution and rules Of order o1 tne ne general committee of the DemoG[a,1c SdLl Glranc cisco, adopted April 15, 1896. VIII reau s a few sections of this constitution Tor your information: (Reads2 The name name of this organization will be. the Demo. cratic parfy of the city and county of San Francisco All the bona s nae .dHnfg Dem1 1 of San Francisco shall be eligible for membership, provided they are not dis qualified by law from taking part III prl- mary elections and conventions.
 sSection 3-There shall be general committee which shall be the organlz.eio .ia nartv of the city and county of San Fran Cisco, whose duty it will be to consider ali 9uestions relating to the party.
 4 ha consist of twenty-five representatives, from each of the Assembly districts of the twenty-five representatives from each as sembly district shall be G;9 Gnos;en oy the Democratic voters Of the ira alstrict to ,,forrn the members of this convention that this constitution itself was prepared under the self I will tell you how the trouble be- gan in the San Francisco Democracy: At tached to the general committee or 4S0 were several sub-commfttees, among which is a campaign committee composed of twenty members, made up of one mem Der from each of the Assembly districts, together with the chairman and secretary of the general committee of 45O as ex- officio members Under the constitution n the chairman of the general committee IS made member of all committees, with the right to vote. I will read that portion of the constitution. (Reads) Duties of the chairman: He shall have the power to appoint all committees and shall be ex-officio member of the same with the l of the general committee-just mark the distinction-shall also be a member of and secretaryeof and eX-officio of all com- mittees with the right to vote.
 Now there under the provisions of this constitution, maintain that the only of- ficer it provides for sub-eommittees is the secretary of the general committee. who is made, under the provision of the con- stitutfon itself the secretary of all com nittees If it was the intention of the constitution to have the chairman of the general committee act as chairman of all be as specific on that point as 1t is In re- gard to the secretary, for the campaign committee had never elected a chairman until at this meeting held October IS, 1897. I would say for the further information of the convention on this point that had the records of the committee before the committee last night. In everything that have said I challenge denial, I have the records of that meeting to prove everything stated
 A meeting of the campaign committee of the Democratic party was called to meet on October IS, 1897. The meeting secretary. At that particular meeting there were sixteen members present out of possible twenty. the only mem bers of the committee being absent were Gavin McNab, M c. Hassett, A. A. Wal kins and George Marye. Under the con- stitution of the party, which will read in regard to campaign committee, sev- en members of that committee consti- tutes a quorum at any time for the transaction of business. Under the pro- visions of section 5, article ", of the con- stitution, which says: .The presence of seven members of the campaign commit tee shall constitute quorum At that particular meeting of the campaign com mittee there were sixteen members pres ent Your humble servant was placed in nomination as chairman of that com rnittee and I was elected. Immediately on my election Colonel Sullivan took um brage at the action of the committee and retired from the meeting of that body. He was the only member of the sixteen who retired. After Colonel Sullivan re- tired fifteen members out of the twenty of that campaign committee remained all during the proceedings of that body. and on this point I challenge contradiction. A week or two after the adjournment of the campaign committee the fiat was is- sued by Colonel Sullivan as chairman of the general committee without any au- thority whatever under the constitution of the party, and I defy Colonel Sullivan or McNab or any other exponent on the other side to show me or to produce in any way any authority for the action am going to refer to. The. chairman oy the general committee arbitrarily and arroPantly removed the entire canDaign