El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-19
Ell PdSO'S
Chances

TO LAND THE NEXT CONVENTION
SHE GOES AFTER ARE GOOD,
FOR EXPERIENCE COUNTS.
Members of the Cattlemen's Convention
Committee Tell How They Went to
Work and WDhy they Failed to Get
the Convention.
Harry Alexander, who presides over
the local affairs of the Ell Paso &
Northeastern road, returned yesterday
from his trip to San Antonio. liar
ry'' was one of the delegation sent by
the citizens of Ell Paso to San Antonio
to capture the cattlements convention
for this city for 1902 They did not
succeed but they put up a fight that
will land the convention here without a
doubt in 1903. In telling the story of
| their doings, Mr.. Alexander said:
Il went to the convention by way of
Fort Worth and Dallas and jollied up
the north Texas and territorial cattle
men rs they went down to San An
tonic. On my way to Fort Worth 1
confess | did not believe we had much
show to land the convention but when
we got to San Antonio we found that
there were quite few cattlemen for
FL Paso and began to feel that we had
a show to win.
Accordingly we got out and rus
tied for all we were worth. We tack
led every cattleman who wore a badge
with the text and salutation. Excuse
me. but have you any preference as to
where this convention goes in 1902
Nine out of ten OF the men we met in
that way would say: No; but we
would like it to go to Ell Paso. That
made us feel pretty good.
When Wednesday morning came.
the day for voting on the matter,
things looked mighty good to us for Ell
Paso. The members of the committee
separately visited the hotels and gath
cred together the men who were for Ell
Paso. We had them corraled in the
halt at 30 and if vote could have
been taken at any time between that
hour and II O'Clock we would have won
out hands down.
Unfortunately. however some man
got up and made a speech that lasted
for a few hours and We couldn't hold
our men in the hall. They are not used
to sitting long in one place you know
and there were more interesting things
than eloquence on tap. The result was
that when the question came to a
vote there were lots of our friends on
\
cd for. which we would like to have
prevented but we had no voice en- the
floor. II the vote had been taken by
ballot believe We would Still have Won
AS il was the vot stood 126 to 1iS for
Fort worth.
After it was all over Fort Worth
congratulated us and told us that we
mad made d noble fight-in fact the
best fight that was ever made for the
~ l.
us for 1908 and San Antonio said the
same.
The truth OF the matter is that we
went down there short-handed. and if
we ahd had an orator we would have
come out on top. Then again, if We
had had to rely upon our own resources
it would not have been 1-2-7 for the
reason that Fort Worth came down
with a delegation of fifty people made
up of the richest people of the city.
and they sure spent their money free
AS for us we numbered only four and
our expense account was not incon-
veniently large.
Ell PaSO owes many thanks to Jim
Daugherty, Mr.. Cockrell. Mr.. Hark-
rider. and the Abilene delegation. They
stood with us through the thick and
through the thin. The Panhandle del
egation was also with us and helped
WOnueTIuily. III Is clnch Tor 1913.
We did not get the convention be-
cause we did not have any orators or
men to handle the matter for us on the
for of the hall" said T. NJ. Wingo, an
other delegate sent to San Antonio to
bring the convention ii Ell Paso.
We expected to have Ex-senator
Gage speak for us as we'll as Senator
Turney and Captain Hart. Senator
Gage was detained in Austin, Senator
Turney was kept away by the trial of a
case, and Juan Hart found business
matters too pressing for him to come to
Our aid. The consequence was that
outside of Mr.. Cockrell of Abilene we
had no one to represent us on the floor.
Mr.. Cockrell made good speech for us,
but after he got through there were
half dozen speakers to voice the
claims OF Fort Worth.
Hall, of Vernon. ripped us up the
back IN 4 good natured way by his ref
erence to the pitifnl mule line of Ell
Paso and the fact that we had enter
tanned half dozen school teachers and
gotten the swelled head. He got
good deal of fun out of FL Paso and no
doubt carried some of the members
with him. Ii We had had anybody to
reply things might have been different.
As ii was there was only a difference of
twenty-five votes. There is no doubt