The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-07-16
FIVE IN The FIELD
a.~D1DATEs FOR ORDINARY CON-
TIME TO BOB UP sERENELY.
COLLINS AND w. P. BAILEY
NAVE BEEN ADDED AND THEIR
FRIENDS ARE ACTIVE.

Will BE Plenty of Candidates When
the Polls Are Opened on Day OF
sncciaI EIectiOn-EXpected 1t viii
~, Take Place Before Late in Oc-
+ober. but Events May Push Ii
rorUard-With the Election of the
successful Candidate the Office OF
ordinary VIII Have Had Five Oc-
,upants within the Year.
The fight for Ordinary, one of the
host having offices, by the way, to
which Savannah politicians, who de-
mend upon the voters of the county for
their election, can aspire, promises to
he one of the most interesting of the
nolitical battles of recent years.
II gained a new and added interest
Yesterday by the entrance into the field
of two more candidates-Jacob S. Col
Inns and w. P. Bailey. Walter c. Hart
ridge and Henry McAlpin are already
announced candidates for the office
and Frank E. Keilbach, at present
clerk of the Court of Ordinary, is look
ed upon as almost certain to be in the
race. This will make a field of five,
from which it will be difficult for the
most far-sighted of political prophets
to pick the winner.
Neither Mr. Bailey nor Mr.. Collins
is discussing his candidacy at any
great length just yet. Both have been
induced to make the race by the as
surance of support they have received
from their. personal and political
friends in the city and county and both
feel they have more than good chance
10 win. How their entrance into the
race will affect the strength of the
candidates previously announced, IL
would be hard and is perhaps impos-
sible for anyone to say.
Yesterday morning Mr.. Keilbach was
reappointed by Judge Cam clerk of
the Court of Ordinary. This position
he has now held within the last seven
months under three ordinaries, Judge
Hampton L. Ferrill, Judge Thomas
Screven and Judge George t. Cam.
As Col. Cam has said that he would
NOT be a candidate for the uneXpired
term the office of ordinary will GER
tairly have been filled by five occu-
pants before the current year reaches
us close. Mr.. Keilbach was the ad
interim appointee upon Judge Ferrills
death.
Although the election is usually re-
Garded by the politically wise as about
certain to take place not much before
the latter part of October, and possibly
not until the first of November, all the
candidates who are now in the field
ara putting in quiet work among their
friends and making quiet efforts to
start the wave, upon the crest of which
they are to ride on to victory. There
is no indication of any lack of conf
dence on the part of any of them: all
seem to regard the final result as prac-
tically assured.
II may be that the day of the cleo
ton viii be advanced a little from the
poirt at which the concensuS of pub
lie opinion has fixed it. There has al
ways been some difference of opinion,
Iegai and otherwise, as to whose right
Ii is to order an election to fill the I'M
expired term of the ordinary. Both the
County Commissioners and the clerk of
the Superior Court lay claim to the
hight. and in the past, to avoid the
possibility of illegality or a contested
election, il has been the practice for
both the commissioners and the clerk
Of the court to order an election to
MI such vacancy, when it has oc
Cured.
Should any one of the candidates be-
gin to feel that he had a very much
better chance than any or all of the
others, he is likely to become anxious
TO have the thing settled, for good
and all. Politicians are won't to exhibit
this form of Impotence under these
circumstances, and they know how to
transform the still small voice that
announces their own wish in the mat
ter and make it resemble the voice
OF the people Then it is that those
who have the election in charge will
be besieged with applications to call
II. 1t is not at all unlikely that with
SO many in the field and others likely
10 declare themselves at any moment.
that such Impotence will begin to
make itself felt by some one or more
OF the candidates already announced.
should Mr.. Harridge be successful in
the race, it would of course mean his
retirement from the law firm of O'Con-
nor, O'Byrne & Hartridge. The BUSH
ness Of all the leading law firms in
me city is largely in the Court of Or
dlnary and Mr.. Hartridge would have
10 resign his partnership or his office.
As ne has announced his candidacy for
me office, and his friends. earnest in
MS praise and unremitting in their
advocacy of his claims upon the con-
Saeration of the people of the country,
are doing all they can to put him ahead
OF the field. it is not probable that II
would be the Office that. in the event
stated, Mr.. Hartridge would resign.
altogether the race promises to be
nee one. In one respect ii is likely
10 be UNIQUE in Chatham county's re-
cent political history. That will be in
ls comparative cleanness. OF course
some money will be used and some
more or less dirty work will be done.
Dut the consciences of the people of
ue county seem to have suffered a
moral revolution and the man who
!uhs the cleanest campaign is going
10 get credit for it, Every man in the
iace VIII be anxious to enjoy this dis
iIHctloh' IN TIE sight of the people. at
least. and whether he is entitled 10
wear II or not. The ambition is like
20 make for cleaner election than
ntVannah has seen for a number of