The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-03-27
Saturdays Instructive Primaries.

It's nature simply to THE Tribune,
Scranton, Pa"
-
Saturdays Instructive Primaries.
Thc political battle in Lancaster
county which reached a decision at
Saturdays primaries was fought di-
rectly and wholly up the quay and an
ti-Quay issue. Nothing else entered
into the contest The quay forces
were led by Secretary Of the Common
wealth Grest; the anti-Quay forces
were led by variety Of Republicans,
native and imported, among them
John Dalzell, General Koontz. Senator
Flinn and ex-senator Kaufman; and
the issue separating them was whether
Quay should be continued or deposed
as the controlling factor in pennsyl-
vania politics. Senator Eby Of Lam
caster, now voting at Harrisburg for
quay, had announced that If his con-
stitucntS al III" primaries should
choose Il majority Of anti-Quay dele
gates to the state convention he would
interpret il a. q vote Of instructions
to drop quay and cast his vote in the
joint assembly fol some other Repub-
lican for United States senator, and
around this announcement the thick of
the battle RACED.
l.anca strg county mas the Crawford
county system; The voting IS open and
direct. \ faircr test was never made,
and the r"sult is significant Not only
was every Quay delegate elected. hut
the bargain counter boilers wero whip
ped out ot their boots in every city
and borough and in almost every town
ship in the county. The Philadelphia
Press. which has led the anti-Quay
fight. admits that the Quay men polled
two-thrds OF the total vote and that
their victory has no parallel FOR COM
pleteness in the political history of the
county. on the same day in Butler
county, the Quay men won a similar
victory, eectng their two delegates
to the state convention and capturing
so per cent. OF the county committee.
on Saturday Montour county also
chose a Quay delegate. OF the coun-
the caucus boiling minority at Harris
burg deadlocked the legislature on the
senatorship by declining to recognize
the majority's right to rule, Senator
Quay has lost one-Lebanon- and car
ried siX-Indiana, Union, Blair, War
rem, Lancaster and Butler. His loss of
Lebanon was a distinct reverse, but his
capture of Blair and Warren was more
than an offset. and it shows conclu-
sively that as the fight on him now
stands the party masses are with him
and against the boilers.
The opposition To Quay has been
shrewdly planned. The idea of i'm
pi,ltm2 him in a cooked-up criminal
proceeding while hired newspapers and
speakers poisoned public opinion
against him and men like Senator Mar
tin, themselves creatures of party reg
ularity, al the last minute broke faith
by refusing to enter the senatorial eau
Gus represented a perfection of cum
ming, which. when lavishly backed
by money, fed by miscellaneous disap-
pointments over patronage and sup
ported by the well-meaning but mis-
guided moral element which had art
fully been deceived by anu-Quay fiction
untilit had come sincerely to believe that
quay in politics was first cousin of the
devil has proved temporarily effective.
1t accomplished the immediate pur-
pose Of deadlocking the Legislature and
putting fewer than sixty members of
the JOINT assembly in a position to defy
double their number Yet as time
went on, the malignity, deception and
hypocrisy of this political insurrection
gradually became apparent to the plain
people Of the commonwealth and the
primaries are beginning to record their
revised opinions of it,
If a party majority in regular caucus
assembled has no power to bind party
membership together the party masses
may We'll ask themselves what party
organization is for. If the tail is to
be permitted and encouraged to wag
the dog, why bother to have a dog
As these points are duly considered
throughout the state and weighed
alongside the responsibility which Is
upon the boilers at Harrisburg for hav,
ing in effect sold out their party tC
the Democratic opposition, it is not
surprising but rather inevitable that
there should be groundswell Of re.
action in favor of the much abused but
still unconquered leader Matthew
Stanley Quay.