Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1904-04-23
THAT "DouBLE READER"
What Attorney Stanley Says Of the
i Recent Convention In kidder

Recent Convention In kidder
County. .--..
In recent communication regard
ing the double header" convention in
Kidder county, Attorney Charles H.
Stanley gives the following claimed to
be the facts in the case:
The primaries resulted in the Belden
combination securing twenty-five out
OF thirty-two delegates to the county
convention, but Lyons attempted
contest against delegates from the pre-
cincts at Steele, Dawson, Allen Town.
ship and Rexin precinct on the
grounds of illegal voting and general
intimidation. The republican county
central committee by a vote of ten to
five rejected the Lyons contests as
frivolous and without merit and re-
ported in favor of seating the Belden
delegates, who were the only ones hav-
ing credentials of any kind.
AS to the merits of the contests the
writer has personal knowledge of
many of the facts and can say truth
fully that the central committee acted
fairly. In the Rexin precincts Lyons
lost by one vote but claimed Belden
received two illegal votes, the votes
of young Russians. It was claimed
these Russians had not taken out citi-
zenship papers but the facts are their
fathers were naturalized while they
were minors and were living with
their parents, and two men from this
| county were present as delegates in
! our convention who knew Of the
naturalization of the parents of those
| Russians and who were witnesses for
such parents when naturalized. As to
the Steele precinct Lyons claimed one
legal vote was refused but this is
denied. In this precinct Belden had
eighteen majority over Lyons and
every man in the precinct but eight
voted. The Belden delegates in every
precinct carried by him were given
regular credentials, in one instance
such credentials being signed by a
personal friend Of Lyons
AS to the Dawson precincts Belden
had one majority and it is claimed
that there were four illegal votes cast
there for Lyons, and the central COM
mittee so found.
At the opening of the county con-
vention the Lyons men seated them
selves together and Immediately after
the chairman of the central committee
called the convention to order they
proceeded to go through the form of
electing chairman and secretary with
out waiting for the report of the CEN
trail committee and before it was
known by anyone, excepting members
OF such committee, whom the commit
tee had voted to seat in the conven-
ton. Then they pretended to nomin-
ate county ticket and to elect dele
gates to the two state conventions.
the legislative convention and to the
judicial convention. Of those who so
pretended to elect such delegates and
nominate such ticket only ten were
regularly elected delegates to the
county convention, the balance being
men who claimed to be entitled to
seats in the county convention but
who, it was shown by the report of the
central committee, had no lawful right
to sit as delegates in any convention.
When the report of the central COM
mittee was read the BeldenJ combina-
| ton organized the convention and pro-
ceeded regularly with the work before
it and carried every motion by de-
cisive MAORI les, the Lyons legal dele.
gates voting against every motion
made by the Belden delegates. not.
withstanding the fact that they
Lyons delegates, claimed they had an
organization of their own. In other
words from their own standpoint they
We're participating in two conventions
at one and the same time After they
had unsuccessfully opposed several