New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-06-14
CONVENTION CONTESTS.
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE
REGINS HEARING THEM AT
PHILADELPHIA.
SLOW PROGRESS OF woRK-wHAT ADD1CKs
sEEKs-sENAToRs ACTIVELY AT WORK
[BY TELEGRAPH TO THE TKrBuSE.l

SEEKS--SENATORS ACTIVELY AT WORK
[BY TELEGRAPH TO THE TKIBuSE1
Philadelphia June 1S.-The first impulse to the
machinery of the big quadrennal gathering
through which the Republican voters of the
Union select their candidate for President and
Vice President was given at noon to-day when
the Republican National Committee met at the
Hotel Walton TO prepare roll of delegates and
arrange a temporary organization for the Re
publican National Convention Of 19OO which Is
to assemble on Tuesday next at Exposition Hail.
The arduous work Of hearing and passing on
the customary list Of contests from Southern
States and Congress districts has in recent years
compelled the National Committee to spend from
three to four days as a court of appeal. to which
all the tedious and empty faction quarres OF
the Southern Republicans carried for final
and binding decision. AS matter OF fact, the
verdict of the National Committee on these re-
peated contests for recognition on the temporary
roll may be- and usually is. still further disputed
in the Committee on Credentials. and even on
the floor OF the convention itself.
But so recognizedly potent is the National
Committees first Judgment that few conventions
nowadays seek to disturb its findings or alter to
any material extent the roll of accredited dele
gates on which 1t has set the seal Of its careful
and painstaking approval. With this growing
sense of their fnaty the hearings before the
committee have assumed continually a greater
length and Importance. Four years ago. at St
Louis. the temporary roll was made up only
after four days of examination and argument.
and to give all the claimants the hearing they
demanded the committee forced at last to
Sit for twenty-four hours without a break. This
year. with no rival candidates in the field for the
Presidential nomination, and no possible political
advantage to be gained through the admission Of
of dofa Sher han he
Southern Republicans have brought fewer dis
putes than usual to Philadelphia for adjustment.
NUMBER OF CONTESTS.
Only seventy-six seats in all con-
tested against nearly twice that number in
1896. OF the seventy-six contests. seventy are
made in Southern States and Congress districts
and only six in Northern States. So confusing
and complicated. however. are the factional
snarls in which the Republican organization in
States like Alabama Louisiana, Texas and Ten
nessee have involved themselves that the COM
mittee's time and patience will be again Sc
verely taxed, and two days is the shortest
period set for Strengthening out the Con-
ventiorss temporary roll.
Most of this afternoon given to the single
State of Alabama, which has sent two rival sets
of delegates-at-large, and rival delegations from
the lid, lid, WITH, With, With and IXth dis
ulClS. AS edcn sue is allowed 10 argue us case
for thirty minutes in State contest and for fiji
teen minutes in district contest, progress in
the big ballot room at the top Of the Hotel
Walton has been, in the view of many who
only the frivolity and pettiness Of the average
Southern faction feud eXasperatingly slow.
Very little interest attaches in the minds of
the Republican leaders already here to the Ma
tional Committees decision IN the great ma
jority Of the pending contests. In Alabama with
sixteen seats disputed; Texas, with sixteen, and
Louisiana with fourteen six places in the Lou
isiana delegation being claimed by three different
sets of partisans, only the personal fortunes of
rival party leaders seem to be at stake. In Ten
nessee more genuine political struggle is re-
fiected in the effort Of Representative w P.
Brownlow at the head of the organization in
East Tennessee to wrest control in the State
from H. Clay Evans now Commissioner of Pen
sions at Washington, who has had behind him
the organization in Middle and Western Ten
nessee.
PRESUMPTION OF ]. EDWARD ADDICKs.
BY far the most notable contest, however and
the only one involving questions of party honor
and party advantage, is that from Delaware
which, in 1896 has sent two full rival dele
cations to the National Convention J. Edward
Addicks. who has twice by his personal intrfgues
at Dover kept Republican Legislature at dead
lock anu prevented the election OF ReDub1ica
United States Senator is again knocking for ad
mission to National councils at the head Of his
following Of so-caled Union" Republicans Four
years ago at st. Louis the National Convention
refused Mr.. Addicks a seat on the ground of
party disoyalty. Since then he has reoeat
ed IN Delaware the very performance which the
party at large explicitly condemned in that
verdict, and his presumption in asking to be al
lowed to represent his State next week has ex
clted the amazement of all serious Republicans
Senator Hanna got TO Philadelphia too late to
preside at the first session Of the National Com
mittee. and Henry c. Payne of Wisconsin was
named unanimously to take the absent chair
mans place. OF the fifty members of the COM
mittee only thirty-seven responded to their
names on the rollcalI, and many States were
found to be represented by proxies or the faces
and figures made familiar by long activity in
Republican National politics only few were
to be seen.
PERFORMANCE OF SENATORS.
The convention of 1000 promises. indeed 70
illustrate afresh the overshadowing Importance
or the Senate's influence in party councils and
party management, compared with that exer-
clsed by the much more numerous popular
branch. Senator Hanna of Ohio IS the nresen,
chairman of the National Committee and will
in all probability remain its chairman for the
next four years. On this governing body in party
affairs are Senators Kean, Shoup Scott Thurs
ton and Wellington and ex-senator QUAY.
OF the leaders the Republican side IN tba
House of Representatives General Grosvenor &c
apparently the only taking part in the
work which is to be done in and about head
quarters before the convention meets
The committee decided tonight not to place
any of the contesting delegates of either fsction
from Ala be ma on the temporary rolls of the con-
vention except those from the IXth District