The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1904-09-23

I
say that be acted otherwise than a
stated.
AS to the district convention il
No. 4, that has been explained
through the press by Statements
from the Democrats Of the districf
and l only want to suggest that the
very fact that Mr.. Mcdowell and
all his friends admit that w. L.
! Clemmons, w. w. Holloway, DR..
Tom Palmer and DR.. E. H. White
were the delegates selected from
that district, each and all of whom
were my supporters; and this con-
clusively shows that | carried the
district, or else my friends would
not have had all the delegates.
Again, all that Mr.. Mcdowell OF
his friends claim is that these del
egates we're instructed for him,
which my friends deny. If they
were instructed for him they could
do as they saw proper, but should
have voted for him. However, as
we all remember, our county con-
yention in 1902 selected delegates
to our State convention and unani-
mously instructed them to vote
for the Hon. Jno. E. Wells for
State committeeman, and Mr.. Nc
Dowell saw proper, in the face Of
these instructions, to lead in the
violation Of these instructions and
cast the vote against Col. Wells.
As to the organization Of the
county convention, Mr.. Mcdowell
says that Chairman Hurt did not
follow "the rule" and call the
county committee together before
the convention met to fix the basis
of representation, when as a mat
ter of fact this is not the rule in
our county, and such action has
never been taken in any of our
county conventions, but on the
contrary, the universal action has
been as followed by Mr.. Hurt.
Again, Mr.. Mcdowell, in the
language of demagogue, assails
Mr.. Hurt for not allowing an APP
peal from his ruling, and this, too,
before the convention was organ
lied. While it may appear arbi-
trary, yet it is the universal custom
and practice in the organization of
all conventions that before the or
ganization and election of chair
man, no appeal can be granted.
And of necessity this must be true.
To whom would you appeal9 If
an appeal had been granted would
not MIR. Hurt have had to decide
who was entitled to vote on the
appeal9 If he had not decided who
would? He ruled that on the vote
for temporary chairman, the basis
of representation should be the
gubernatorial vote, and suppose he
had granted the appeal from said
ruling and call had been made
for vote by district; then on this
vote, he would have had to rule as
to the basis of representation and
then another appeal, thus reducing
it to an absurdity.
As to whether the presidential or
gubernatorial vote was made the
basis made no difference with me
and would not have changed the
result, as anyone can see by exam
ination of both votes. Another
misleading statement in Mr.. Nc
Dowell's letter is in regard to q
conversation with me on the day |
the district convention was held |
when he said | had defeated him
and assured me of his support.
He says, ''The facts are, / had not
gotten a single written or tele-
phone message from anyone, but
when | came in from my district
convention | was met on the street
BY dozens of Fry men who claimed
to have telephone messages and in
iividual messages from nearly every
district in the county. They told
ne that Fry had beaten me badly
counting the Union City
yotes. supposed they were giving
he facts and l approached Mr.. Fry
% congratulate him on his supposed
yictory and assuring him Of my
He says, when l came in from