Iron County register., 1900-05-17
The Muddie Cleared.

IHE action OF the State committee
at St. Louis on last Thursday, was in
the main, Democratic. The friends oi
the primary have no complaint to
make of their treatment. The candi-
dates who are making life and death
struggle against it did not come out OF
the fight entirely clean-handed. When
the committee organized, it was no.
ticed that the Honorable E. j. Bean OF
Jefferson county and the Honorable
Sam Dickey of Webster county were
seated with the committee. The Hon.
orable William Z. Edgar, who repre-
sented the primary idea, objected to
these gentlemen acting with it before
the committee, for the reason, that
although they were regular committee
men, yet as they had been fighting the
primary so vehemently and as each
had staked his political fortunes on its
defeat, to permit them to sit with the
committee would be like suffering a
man to sit upon jury to try case
where he was a party to the suit. They
declared that they did not intend to
vote with the committee and left the
impression that they were there merely
as spectators, whereupon the matter
was dropped. After the presentation
of the case. it was agreed that it should
be submitted without argument and
the committee adjourned for dinner.
When it reassembleo and went into ex-
ecutive session, from behind the closed
doors voice was lifted up to the peo-
pie in the corridor; it seemed not un-
familiar. Investigation developed the
fact that it was the Honorable Sam
Byrns making a speech. What had
stirred the depths of the Senator's ora
tory? Why was he there arguing with
fprty-lung power, when it had been
expressly agreed that the case should
be submitted without argument? 1t
was known that he, at no stage of the
proceedings, had looked with favor
upon the primary proposition. Fur
ther inquiry developed the fact that
the attorney had been substituted on
the jury for the client; that Senator
Byrnes was there by reason of a proxy
delivered to him by E. j. Bean, candi-
date for Congress from jefferson coun-
ty and that DR.. T. A. James, who had
joined the holiness committee and
whose right to be recognized was the
question at issue, was there as the
proxy for the Honorable Sam Dickey,
candidate from Webster county. One
party to the suit had been substituted
for another on the jury in this case.
For men who had announced them-
selves as party purifiers and who were
of all kinds, this was about the smooth
est piece of work on record. 1t was
State Committee and at his suggestion,
a proxy was obtained for Mr.. Edgar,
who then appeared before that body.
After full consideration, the old COM
mittee was recognized. The rump
was ignorned. Henry G. Bell was
recognized as the legal chairman of the
committee. In five counties where
vacancies had occurred in the COM
mittee, mass conventions were ordered
to recommend members for the Con-
gressional Committee. AS this practi-
cally refers the whole question in these
Ste. Genevieve, Webster, Reynolds,
Shannon and Carter counties, back to
the people, no one can take exceptions.
The whole question is one for the rank
and file of the party to settle and the
State Committee simply left it in the
hands of Democratic voters to be acted
upon May 26th.-Potosi Independent.