The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-03-11
PLAIN TALK USED
 BY DEMOCRATS
AT MEETING HELD LAST EVEN
 ING,

Judge HOtehkiss Tells Town Commlt-
 tee That Some Democratic Office
 holders Are Not Doing Their Duty
 Says That Democratic Politics. in
 Some Respects, Are More Rotten
 Than Tammany HaII-AH Prominent Democratic oficehOIders Present and
 Reply to Charges-ssOO Allowed for
 Spring Primaries.
 A meeting of the democratic town committee and any other democratic voters who cared to attend was held at the Tontine hotel last evening. There were about twenty-five people in the room during the evening, eleven of whom were members of the democratic town committee. In addition all the principal office holders in the city hall were present. They were Comptroller Rowe, City Clerk Norris, Registrar of Vital Statistics Carr, Tax Collector An thony, and City Sheriff Hunie. These gentlemen were all present owing to the fact that it was intimated before the meeting that some charges were to be made against their loyalty to their party prior to the meeting.
 Chairman Welles called the meeting to order about o'clock and it was nearly F o'clock before the session was finished. When the meeting started Chairman Welles stated that he, had called the meeting in accordance with the rules of the democratic party which stated that such meeting must be held within a specified time before the ! holding of primaries for the purpose of arranging the expenses of the primar- ies. -,- z.=-st . [, .-e,.. .......
 Chairman Welles thought that he could conduct the primaries at a cost of $625 to the party, but number of the members of the town committee thought that this amount was too small. It was finally voted down. It was then decided to vote that the sum of $500 was enough for this purpose and this sum was finally after considerable discussion, agreed upon. .... Judge Hobart l.. Hotchkiss then took the floor and said that he would like to discuss the present existing condi- tions if he could do so without interrup- tion. The privilege was granted to him and he gave a, most spirited address. Judge Hotchkiss accused some of the members of the democratic party of disloyalty and also of unfairness in their contributions to the campaign funds. He was frequently interrupted at the start but as he proceeded the interruptions ceased. However, when he finished speaking he was the recip- tent of remarks from all sections of the room, including nearly all the office holders. .-
 Judge Hotehkiss started his remarks by saying that the democratic party in ized during the past few years and it was time that something was done to better affairs He said that ii1 his opin- ion the republican mayor had appointed office holders who, while supposed to be democrats, were, not so at heart and who were men who in some instances he doubted had voted a democratic ticket in a great many years, In this relationship he said that men had been turned off the board of police commits sioners because they were democrats, while others who were supposed to be democrats and who he thought were not so at heart, were kept there. In fact he thought thta some of them had never voted for a democrat. He said that some of the things in this city were more rotten than anying in Tam many hall
 The speaker thought, however, that 1t might be well for the democratic party | in this city if they followed some of l the precepts of Tammany Hall, that is, in taxing the officeholders a certain per- centage of their pay, and by so doing create general campaign fund. He said that the city hall officeholders, to certain extent, were .neglecting their duty in not contributing as literally to their party as they should do. As. an example of this, he said that last fall the total amount of money which the party had been able to get out of them was about $112.s He then said that their | total salaries amounted to about $20,000 and he asked those present if they thought this fair amount to be given. The speaker also intirnated great
 many other things which had been done by democratic officeholders which should not have been done, as, for in
 stance, favoring republicans instead of their own constituents. He also inti- mated that by keeping republican mayor in office their own positions might be held more secure. The speak CT thought that new deal was needed from top to bottom. The speaker, in closing, also said that he had person. al grievance, and that was that while acting as the leader of democratic finances recently he had contracted about $500 worth of bills which had not yet been paid, and he thought that those who were getting the money out of politics should be the ones to clear these matters up.
 When MT. Hotchkiss concluded speaking Registrar of Vital Statistics Carr took the fioor He spoke about the letters he had received and the re- marks and accusations which had been made in the papers recently against him. He said that it was cowardly to stab a man in the back, and that was just what the authors of these state ments were doing by not coming out openly and facing him. He said that he had invited all his accusers to be