The San Francisco call., 1899-07-19
DEMOCRATIC ROW
GROWING BITTER
National Committee Is
Drawn In.
GAHAM WRITES A LETTER
WHY HE WILL NOT ATTEND THE
CHICAGO MEETING.
Indirectly Appeals to His Colleagues
to Assist in the Slap at the
Altgeld Wing of His
Party.
WHY HE WILL NOT ATTEND TIL
CHICAGO MEETING.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

| tween the regular Democratic organ
! izatiOn of Cook County and the State OF
! Illinois, represented by Mayor Har-
risOn and Nationa! Committeeman
! Gahan. on the one side, and the Altgeld
wing of the Democracy, which support
+ ed Ex-Governor Altgeld as an indie
/ pendent candidate for Mayor at the
/ last election, on the other, reached an
acute stage to-day and threatens to IN
vclve the National Committee in spite
of the strenuous attempts being made
to keep local quarrels out of the pro-
| ceedings at next Thursdays meeting or
the National Committee in this city.
Hon Thomas Gahan, National Com
| mitteeman from Illinois, in an open let
ter to-day to the leaders of the Altgeld
element of the party, gives his reasons
for declining to attend the Auditorium
| meeting of Thursday night, and IN
directly appeals to his colleag gues of the
National Committee to refrain from
attending the Altgeld meeting. In
terest is added to the occasion by the
report of Governor Altgeld's friends
/ that Bryan, some days ago, accepted
the invitation to address the meeting.
The letter of National Committeeman
Gahan follows in part:
CHICAGO, July 18.-The Committee on
Arrangements, Auditorium Meeting of
! July 26-GentIemen: l am just in receipt
! of your letter of July II, rendering me
/ box 81 for the Auditorium meeting of
! July %.
The published statements of the chair
man of your committee have made 1t man
| tfest that this invitation is not rendered
| in good faith and not one which any be
/ lever in the integrity of Democratic or
! ganiZatiOnS could be expected to accept
/ and. ordinarily, a mere declindt1On of the
/ box rendered me would suffice; but since
I am informed by the daily press that
a large number of invitations nave been
sent by your committee to members or
the National Committee [ feel it my duty
/ as a Democratic National Committeeman n
/ from the State of Illinois to give you and
/ the public the reasons which make it i'm
possible that [ could accept this invita-
/ tiOn without stultfying the Democrauc
party of the State of Illinois and COM
mitting an injustice 10 the Democratic
party of Chicago.
The membership of your committee on
arrangements, in whose behalf this in
| Vitation is rendered me, shows that in its
personnel this committee is entirely COM
posed of gentlemen who, in April last,
! opposed the regular Democratic candidate
for Mayor and other charter officers of
! the city of Chicago and did all in their
/ regular Democratic ticket and the cleo
ton of the regular Republican ticket at
/ that election. Strange as 1t may appear
/ to those from abroad an examination of
! the members of the other committees ar
ranging the proposed meeting at the Au-
ditOrium shows that every member of the
] several duXlllarN
! posed the regular Democratic ticket and
! It's nominees in the Chicago election of
| last April and likewise sought to defeat
the regular Democratic ticket and elect
the Republican ticket at that election.
am a believer in the rule of majority
/ and when the Democratic party ceases to
believe in the rule of majorities it Will
/ cease to be the party of the people. =
/ In the three years that it has been my
/ inois OF the national committee I have
! considered it my duty to labor for party
! harmony in the State of Illinois and for
! the cOnciliation of all elements in order
! that we might in 1900 redeem Illinois to
| the Democracy by sending twenty votes
! to the electoral college for William j.
/ Bryan and sharing in the triumph of that
| ocratic national committee so faithfully
IabOred against overwhelming odds in the
/ dark days of 1896.
| If | saw in your proposed meeting or in
/ the membership of your several commit
/ tees a single indication to a hope of party
unity; if you had held out for a moment
! the hand of good-fellowship, if you had
/ for a moment in your asseverattons of
Democracy indicated that you would have
/ accepted the olive branch on any condi-
/ ton short of surrender Of party organi-
Zation and party principles to the Wh1Tn
! and caprices and eXactions of hopeless
| minority, / would have been the first to
make an overture. in the be1ef that the
| first duty Of a committeeman is to har-
nonize the elements of his party. But
! your action and your declarations, and
! the announcement of your present tnten-
! tions have proved that you are not an
/ element of the Democratic party; that its
! constituent principles cannot survive in
! your atmosphere, and that to accept your
dictation is to surrender that fundamental
! doctrine which finds in the rule of a ma
jority the success Of the DemosratiG q party IT
| Democratic National Committeeman for
Illinois.
@%@N@-%~-&%+~~@Na+0