New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-01-25
MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE.

1,,.,t,ors Committee No. I Of the House OF
Renresantatiyes has Just adjudicated a very
s,,b+Ia and interesting contention. We 90 not
doub+ thar on the face Of the facts presented
the committee sought TO do substantial Jusuce
Justice. however. can seldom be complete ana
rounded. In trying 10 hold an even scale DC
tween the ntigants before it, the commlttee mas
indirectly done O grieyous injury TO deserving
and innocent statesman's reputation IL mas
adon+ed and promulgated a view which clips
the fame and mars the prestige OF one OF the
most eminent statesmen now in public HE
The contest which the committee had TO pass
on was that brought by the Hon. Joseph A
Conry for the seat now held By the Hon. John l.
Keliher of the IXth Massachusetts District
The contestant is a Democrat so is the sitting
member The constituency is so overwheim-
ingIy Democratic that it cannot be lost even
when two Democratic candidates run against
each other At the election Of 1902 Mr.. Keliher
received 1882 votes against 1O,099 for Mr..
Conry The contestant does not impeach the
accuracy of the count, but argues that the ma
iorItv for Mr. Keliher was obtained through the
circulation Of a bogus Endorsement Of his candi-
dacy purporting to come from the chairman or
the Democratic Congressional Campaign Com
mittee.
The manager Of the Democratic campaign for
Congress two years ago was the Hon James
NJ Griggs. Of Georgia. Mr.. Griggs. It will be
remembered, began carrying the House OF
Representatives early in August, and kept on
carrying it at intervals up TO November g. He
carried on several occasions two Congress dis
tricts in Pennsylvania which no longer existed,
having been recast and remembered in the
Pennsylvania Apportionment act Of 1901. For
two or three days after the election he still
bcI1 foly, hI
grip suddenly relaxed.
But his reputation as n carrier survived
the November frosts. The party he led chung
TO its belief in his mastery strategy and COM
handing personal influence. The spell Of
Griggs's name remained unbroken. So the de-
feated Conry certainly thought for he could
trace his reverse to no other cause than the
impetus given TO his rivals canvass by the al
legged telegram OF commentator from Griggs
Would not an impartial jury sustain him. he
argued IN claiming that his opponents victory
was due solely to an unhallowed use Of the
Georgia leaders authority and prestige?
Elections Committee No. !, moved only By
prosaic legal considerations, rejects this argu-
ment. In its report it says:
II appears to this committee that the claim
that the Committee on Elections should assume
a certain number Of voters in the Congressional
district were influenced. because they ought 10
nave pe6n lnIuenceu, by improper charges
vote for one candidate when otherwise thew
would have voted for the other candidate IS a
claim which belongs to the realm Of hypotheti-
cal presumptions To agree to the claims set
up by contestant would require a method Of
ratiocinaton On our part too fantastic for our
minds
The committee dismisses a irrelevant, though
possibly true, Mr.. Conry's contention that "the
resident voters Of Boston were waiting with
dated breath TO learn what the Hon. James NJ.
"Griggs thought before they cast their ballots"
9fr. Griggs, the committee takes pains TO as
sure us, does not himself think that the IXth
Massachusetts District held its breath till II
could hear from him; but the Georgia leader
is too modest he should not be forced thus to
deny his own greatness. Nor should a commit
tee Of the House Of which he is so distinguished
a member have swept aside as irrelevant the
contribution he made unwittingly 70 Mr.. Keli-
hers success. We think that the seat should
have been declared vacant and the Boston
voters should still have another chance to elect
a Representative unhampered by expressions of
partality, manufactured or otherwise, from the
Hon. James NJ. Griggs