The San Francisco call., 1904-06-27
KNOWLAND SAYS
HE WANTSPLACE
Declares He Is Out for
the Office Held by Con-
gresSman Victor Metcalf
LUKENS WILL NOT TALK
The Committee viii Meet
To-Day to Decide Upon the
Convention and Primary
Oakland Office San Francisco Call,
1915 broadway. June 26.

1016 Broadway, June 26.
The meeting of the Republican Con-
gressional Committee of the Third Dis
trict occurs tomorrow afternoon in this
city. State Senator j. r. Knowland to-
day officially announced his candidacy
for the Republican nomination for Con-
gress to succeed Victor H. Metcalf. The
Congressman goes East tomorrow to
begin his duties as Secretary of the De-
partment of Commerce and Labor.
Senator Knowland's s statement is very
brief and confines itself merely TO the
announcement of his candidacy, and
reads:
Now that Congressman Metcalf has
publicly announced his acceptance of
the portfolio made vacant by the resig-
nation of Secretary Cortelyou, 1 feel
free to declare myself a candidate for
the Republican nomination for Con-
gress in this district"
By common consent or by authority
of the owners, IL seems that all of the
names that have been mentioned as
possible successors to Congressman
Metcalf have been sifted down to two
State Senator J. r. Knowland and
State Senator G. r. Lukens. When Sen
ator Lukens was asked if he had any
statement to make in regard to the use
of his name in connection with the Re-
publican nomination in this district, he
replied that he had nothing to say be-
fore the meeting of the committee to-
morrow.
RURAL PRIMARIES.
There has been some talk to the eff
feet that should the Congressional
Committee decide to appoint delegates
outside of the cities Of the district, the
Supervisors would be asked to call ar
bitrary primaries in the rural districts
and that partitions to this effect were
already in circulation. Such petitions
are not in circulation, however, and
Mr.. Lukens and his most ardent friends
say that they know of no such docu-
ments.
The meeting of this committee is
called for tomorrow afternoon in the
courtroom of Justice Quinn at the cor
ner OF Eighth street and Broadway
1t is expected that the committee will
issue call for the convention that will
nominate a Congressman for the Third
District, apportion the delegates and
provide for the primary. The conven-
tion viii probably consist of 96 or 9S
delegates. according to the basis of
apportionment; this means that 48 will
constitute a majority. OF this number
36 will come from the rural districts
outside of the cities of Oakland, Ala
media, Berkeley and Vallejo, where the
primary law is mandatory. The COM
mittee holds ii in its power to appoint
these Sc delegates and upon this hinges
the only question that has arisen over
the convention. The candidate favored
by these delgates will have little
trouble securing the additional dozen
that will insure his election
KNOWLAND LEADS.
The general opinion is that these ap-
pointed delegates will be for Knowland
who is favored by Congressman Met
calf. If this is done Knowland's nom
ination is assured, though what move
will be made by the friends of Senator
Lukens is not announced.
In case an appeal is made to the Su-
pervisors to force a primary in all dis
tricts ii would be necessary to have
the boards of not only Alameda Coun-
ty. but Contra Costa and Solano as
well, make call for such an election.
1t is generally believed that the Ala
media County Supervisors are opposed
to such a primary and ]. NJ. Stow of
Contra Costa County, who is both Con-
gressional Committeeman and Super
visor of his county, absolutely controls
the situation in that section and will
oppose rural primaries. There are no
data in Oakland upon which to base
any opinion as to the position of the
Solano board. 1t is very unlikely that
any appeal will be made to this author
ity.