Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-09-26
CALL NOT REGULAR
Opinion OF j. w. Lusk Concerning
Democratic Convention
Announcement.
CANDIDATE TWO YEARS AGO
Does Not Expect Warren County
Delegates Will Pay Any At
tention to II.

No one in the Fourteenth congress
siOnal district now repudiates in terms
more emphatic the LOoney one-man
domination in politics than does ]. w.
Lusk, of Monmouth. who two years
ago was LoOney's own candidate for
| congress in this district. II will be
remembered that through a series OF
| blunders on the part of LoOney, who
then controlled the situation in the dis
| trict. the congressional nomination
after having been repeatedly declined.
was going begging. Mr.. Lusk in the
| interests of the party in the district
and state. accepted the place and made
the run. At that time, as is again the
case this year. the matter of making
| the nomination was delayed 50 long
and affairs in the party in the district
| had reached such state that no one
was disposed to become identified with
| the congressional ticket. Mr.. LuSk
took the nomination at the last min
ute, although involving personal sac
rifice on his part. In the Monmouth
Review of last Saturday appears the
following which shows that Mr. Lusk
has also grown weary of the way
party in the district:
-. ". Lusk secretary of the demo-
cratic central committee of Warren
county, received a notice of a call for
| the democratic congressional con
yentiOn for this Fourteenth district,
to be held at Moline. H., on Friday,
Sept 30. 1904. The call is signed by
John Looney, chairman and attested
| by w. \. CrOmptOn, secrtary.
Call Not Regular.
| Mr. Lusk does not think the call is
| regular as none of the committeeman
| from the various counties of the dis
trict have been notified of the call,
nor have they been asked to partici-
pate in a meeting of the committee
as a whole TO convene and arrange
for the time and place to hold the
convention. The arbitrary action OF
Mr. Looney in calling this convention
without the sanction or cooperation
of the rest of the committee is I'M
precedented entirely contrary to ac-
customed rules of the party repre-
sentatives and in Mr.. Lusk's opinion.
void.
"I do not believe said Mr.. Lusk,
that the delegates selected from the
various counties will pay any attention
to this cali Of Mr.. Looncy's, hut am
unable TO say what action. if any will
be taken in the matter. | ain not a
delegate nor a member of the com
mittee and have no voice in the prcmi-
SEES further than believe in regularity
in all meetings of democrats and have
no use for such caucuses and cOnyen-
tons Whatsoever 1t is time for demo
Gratis to act for themselves, and g:
rid of lot of self-cOnstituted leaders,
who really have no standing III the
lparty.
"T am creditably informed that Mr..
LoOney was read ont Of the party il
Rock Island county at last springs
lcounty convention. and held a rump
convention afterwards. attended by
himself and a few others. wherein he
was a self-appointed chairman. etc.
"'There is no such man as w. \.
lCrompton on the committee
Names Are Mixed.
The name "Crompton." to which Mr..
Lusk refers. and which appears APP
Ipended to the call dictated by Looney
to the republican newspaper published
in this city. is of course intended for
Compton. But that gentleman, has al
ready telegraphed The Argus that he
is not secretary of the committee, and
did not authorize the use of his name
in such official relation to the call. He
gave sanction to the attaching of his
name, simply as a committee mem
Der. he writes Chairman Cavanaugh
of the Rock Island city committee.
and supposed that the consent OF all
the members OF the committee would
be secured and the names of all APP
pended to the call, in the absence of
a meeting of the committee.
That all the members of the commit
tee should have been consulted before
the call was issued, and either a con
ference held and their consent secured
10 the manner in which the call was
made, there can be no possible doubt.