Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-08-15
IRREGULAR PaOcEE0SXoS.

AT a meeting OF the county fepuDEcan
committee on Monday night a motion was
made to depose the chairman. Mr.. NAL
colin ellis. 1t failed to pass. Yesterday
afternoon some of the gentlemen who ia
vored the motion "a in ally held a meet
ing of their own, without the call of the
chairman. and proceeded to apportion
the county and fix dates for the primaries
and convention. The rest of the commit
tee, including the chairman n a ma
jority of it's members, are to hold an ad-
journed meet tonight, for the purpose of
doing The same thing. Should the ma
jority and minority of the full committee
gramme, there will be two county con-
ventions and two county republican tick
cts in the field and a preliminary contest
in the state republican convention, which
may lead to a bolt by the friends of the
losing side, a second state convention, a
second republican state ticket and a
hopeless division and Generalization of
the republican party in the state of Mon
| tana. This would involve the possible
loss of republican control in the United
States senate, the possible defeat of the
national republican ticket in the event of
a close contest, and postpone indefinitely
| the political and moral redemption of
Montana.
Do the republicans Of Silver Bow u
ty deliberately propose to lend their
! votes and influence to a disaster and dis
grace of that far-reaching extent? Is 1T
(! possible that the upright men of this
! community, who have in good faith
fought the battles of republicanism when
defeat was in the air, intend. for per-
sonal reasons 20 that victory is ass
sured. to ignore law and precedent, to
! smash the regular party organization
and abandon party and party principle?
Is it possible that a minority of the coun-
ty committee, without even deposing it's
chairman, cam ceolly disregard the
wishes and interests of fully 5000 local
republicans and set into motion a scheme
which might, if persisted in, result in the
dis~integration of the entire republican
| organization of the state? Let reason
prevail. Let loyalty to the precepts and
| practices of a lifetime remain unchanged.
! Let patriotism continue the dominating
sentiment among these erstwhile republic
cans.
The Inter Mountain has such faith in
the high character and good sense of the
great body of the republican party that
it is certain the state republican conven-
ton would instantly repudiate and con-
! denim the action of my republicans weak
enough to help along a democratic plan
to divide and destroy the republican
! party. Surely it would be impossible to
convince a Montana republican conven-
tion that such men were acting in the in
t~erests of the republican party. What
ever may be their intention. the obvious
and only result of q rump convention and
a contesting delegation under present cir
cumstances would be the ruin of republic
cam prospects in county and state. There
is only n construction to be put upon
the action of men who, in violation of
every known rule of political fairness
and established precedent, attempt
with a minority to do the work which a
majority of the committee deposed Mr..
Gillis after filing and proving definite
charges against him and if under the
I call of a legally elected successor they
Nod hold =, r,ootinU a,,1 annprtjnnn1 the
delegates and fixed the time for holding
the primaries and convention, that
would have been formal and proper, and
these structures would have applied to
Mr.. ellis and the minority had they per-
sisted afterwards in arranging the pre-
liminaries to the election; but this work
has been attempted by the minority of
the committee and is therefore wholly
garded by no intelligent republican as
being in the republican interest, but, on
} the contrary, is wholly and exclusively. if
not deliberately, in the democratic in
!. circumstances would not be the regular
ticket, and would command the support
; of no regular republican. If a minority
of fourteen members out of forty can
call a convention, a minority of four
can call one or three or two or one.
; Every membe of such a minority could,
: in fact, call a convention if a minority
, numbering fourteen or any less than
> a majority could call one. 1t is true that
the minority claimed to nave three