The record-union., 1899-09-01
TRUSTEES SETTLE IT.
AT LEAST AS FAR AS THEY ARE
CONCERNED.
The Cravens Committee Recognized
as the Simon Pure
Article.

Article.
The City Board of Trustees met last
night, and after transacting usual rou-
tine business, resolved Itself into a
Board of Election Commissioners, and
listened to arguments presented by
Charles T. Hughes. Chairman of what
has come to be called the Hughes
Mannix Democratic City Central Com
mittee, and Judge r. o. Cravens, Chair
man of the Cravens-AleXander Demo
cratic City Central Committee.
After the Chairman. had stated the
nature of the difficulty between the
two alleged committees. Trustee Devine
started the ball rolling by stating that
as he understood. the status of the two
factions had been succinctlE set forth
by .AIessrs. Cravens and Hughes at the
meeting held on Monday night last.
But Charles T. Hughes, Chairman of
the Hughes Mannix faction, deAlined to
take the hint He stated to the board
that the committee represented by him.
self had filed its petition according to
the requirements of the Political Code,
and he requested it's approval by the
board.
Mr. Hughes claimed that the old
members Of the committee were the
legitimate members aud would be, ur-
der the law, Until ousted by 4 trial
before a proper tribunal. Such tribunal,
he said, might be the Central Commit
tee, but he insisted that until they had
been properly removed they of right
would retain their places. He said
there was no doubt that an attempt
had been made to remove Brophy and
Carroll, and to elect others in their
places. but that it was the duty of the
board to find out whether they in fact
had been so removed.
He said that as a matter of fact he
did send in his resignation as Chair
man, and had nothing 20 say Of his own
personal case, though his understand
ing was that a Chairman and Secre-
tary Of political committees were mere
ly matters of convenience and might
be selected pro tenn. for each meeting.
He called attention to the fact that n
majority Of the old committee, that
represented by himself-had signed the
petition he had filed.
MIR. Hughes said the only authority
to remove members of a committee
1dy 6lluET Will the law. DE WIKI ll6
convention which had appointed them
The convention had given power to fiji
vacancies if they should occur, but be-
fore the committee could 10 that. va
cancies should exist. He claimed tina t
the committee he represented having
a majority of those appointed by the
convention of October /. S97, was the
regular committee. and as such. its pc
tition ought to be accepted and az
proved nv the board. He did nDt con-
cede hat there was a maior'ty of the
committee present when Brophy. Car
roll and Kelly were remoI ed as t:9e
removal Of those members would leave
less than a quorum present
Judge Cravens inquired of Mr..
Hughes how it happened that O'Brien,
the Eighth Ward committeeman, had
become a member.
Mr. Hughes said he did not recollect,
but presumed the minutes would show.
Cravens said O'Brien had become a
member of the committee while Hughes
was Chairman, but he had not been
able TO learn just how his appointment
had been made, unless it was by the
action of the committee.
Upon the conclusion of Mr. Hughes
presentation of his case Judge Cravens
got the floor. The question, he said,
for the board TO determine, was which
OF the two was the legitimate commit
tee. He said he had been unable to find
that O'Brien was elected either by the
convention or by the committee, but
that he had found him acting.
Cravens said he had made a study of
the matter, and all Sf his investigation
led him to believe that a political COM
mittee was a law unto itself unless it
had adopted rules for its own govern
ment. Some of the State Central Com
mittees, he said, had rules for their
government. but so far as he knew
there was no general rule for the gov
ernment Of either county or city COM
mittees of this State
Cravens said it had ever been the
practice Of committees, Democratic and
Republican, TO remove members when
ever they saw fit. The convention of
October, he said, named the commit
teemen; the next day the committee
met, but Kelly, though he had been a
member of the convention and was
therefore advised of the meeting, was
not present Between that date and
OClObeT olu, the minutes showed Inal
Kelly was not present, and on October
10Th Hughes. then Chairman, was in
structed to call a meeting 10 elect a
committeeman in his stead. Turning
to Hughes, Craven said:
Did you call that meeting?"
Mr.. Hughes thought the minutes
would show whether or not he had done
so. but that he did not remember
whether he did or not.
Judge Cravens said that the minutes
showed that at a meeting held October
9th, Kelly was deposed, and Sweeney
was elected to succeed him. ConTinu-
ing, he said that Hughes did not deny
having resigned his position on the
committee, or that his resignation lad
been accepted by a majority of the
committee. At a meeting held OH June