Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-16
THE pATRIDTS' EXCUSE.

| ana members OF the Patriotic league are to
severe and unjust You don't seem to con
cede the same privilege to us that you hav,
always claimed for yourself and every re
| publican to refuse support OF candidate!
either unfit or nominated by such frauds al
were perpetrated In the primaries and con
vention. which as you know we're controlled
| by the Moores- Rosewater machine.
PATRIOTIC Lacquer.
This frank and blunt remonstrance
merits a candid rejoinder. In politics as
in war there is n code of honor which
| honorable and courageous men do not
| violate. A brave man will fight in the
| open, while a coward will fire poisoned
arrows and copper bullets from the am
bush
The Patriotic Lacquer who takes The
Bee to task is the first member of that
political band willing to admit that he
| knitted the ticket John l.. Webster and
Nobody, and least of all The Bee, con-
tends that they were bound to support
any man on the ticket they knew to be
corrupt or incompetent
But why did they knife Reese, and
why did they vote the whole county
fusion ticket from top to bottom? And
where can they produce any proof to
sustain the charge of fraud in the pri-
maries or corrupt manipulation of the
convention outside of the Omaha Fakery,
with which the patriots are in such close
touch?
The republican county primaries were
called by John l.. Websters chairman
and held in the places designated by the
committee he controlled. Take the con
test ward by ward and what do we
find?
In the First ward the winning delega-
ton was elected by nearly four to one
and nobody has ever intimated that
there was any fraud or improper ma
chine influence.
The Second ward was warmly con-
tested, but nobody dares to charge that
the delegates elected were frauduently
counted in or owed their election to non
residents.
In the Third ward the Burmester dele.
CATION had virtually no opposition, only
sixteen votes being cast against two OF
the delegates. Nobody pretends that
anything crooked or lawless was done
by the sO-called machine to carry that
ward.
The Fourth, the banner republican
ward, where no illegal votes could pos
sibly be polled, was carried against
1t, 1, t,, 20
of over 800. Mr.. Webster will hardly
dare claim that the machine defeated his
delegation through imported voters, bal
lot box stuffing or any other illegal prac-
tice.
The only ward in which there has
been any ground for contention is the
Fifth. In that ward the Saunders Web
ster faction controlled the election ma
chnery absolutely, and therefore was in
position to successfully challenge and re-
ject every suspect. In spite of this the
antiSaunders ticket carried the ward by
over one hundred majority. But the
party in control of the machine issued
certificates to the defeated delegation
by throwing out 12S votes on the
most flimsy pretext. This palpable
fraud they sought to justify by
the charge trumped up through the Bry-
ante organ that carload of voters had
been imported from Council Bluffs and
many outlanders from the Midway had
been voted against the Webster Saun-
ders ticket. AS matter of fact not a
cir inn ta1
Bluffs and the Midway vote was divided
between the two contending elements.
In any event the fault, If any, lies with
the defeated faction that had charge of
the ballot box.
In the Sixth ward not the slightest
pretcnse of unfairness has been made,
and this Is true also of the Seventh.
Eighth and Ninth wards, in all of which
the primaries We're conducted in the
most orderly manner.
In South Omaha no contest what |
ever was made, only one delegation be-
ing voted for, and hence the charge of
primary frauds or machine interference
cannot be brought. In the county pre-
cincts the primaries were conducted as
usual and the first intimation of i'm |
proper interference or fraud has yet to |
be made.
In view of the fact that every ward |
in the city was carried against the pa
triots they certainly cannot truthfully |
contend that they were beaten in the |
by machine interference or
dishonest manipulation.
1t is n commentary on the intelligence
of republicans that any of them should
have given credence to the baseless
charge OF primary frauds trumped up by
the fusion organ for the sole purpose of
rubbing II in and creating diversion, but
John l.. Webster ana his patriots have
been too long in practical politics TO be
imposed on by such chaff. They knitted
the ticket from top TO bottom in order to
avenge their signal defeat in square
up-and-down fight. And they want TO
keep mp the bushwhacking war under
cover of the Patriotic league.
-
The municipal corporation of Council