The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1906-07-19

Editor Daily Industrial News:
There have been many references
in the Democratic papers To the re-
cent Republican State Convention,
all of which spoke Of it as being the
most disorderiy body ON record.
Such criticisms serve chiefly la
show how mems political prejudices
mould their opinions
One would think, to read these
illusions, that a Democratic conven-
tion was conducted on the lines of q
pink tea or the closing exercises OF
a female seminary sort Of Al
phonso and CASTOR affair.
The writer has attended a number
State Conventions during the last
ten years and wants to he recorded
as saying that for inattention, bitter
wrangling and noisy demonstration
the Democratic Convention of 1904
that nominated II. Il. Glenn for
Governor was the worst he had ever
seen.
The writer was delegate In that
body and did his share of the howl
ing. 1t was considered no disgrace
to howl. Good howlers were in de-
mand. There were four candidates
for Governor, and the noise produced
by his followers was considered in
dicative of the Importance Of such
q candidate.
AS everyone knows who attended
this decorOus and dignified affair,
there was a bitter contest over the
nomination for Governor and the
feeling was intense. There was a
fist fight on the main street Of the
town between two Cabarrus dele
gates, and general fight in the
Rowan delegation was narrowly
averted. The Stedman men accused
the Glenn men Of bringing lot of
railroad men from Spencer to work
for Glenn, and this came near pro-
ducing bloodshed. This was before
the Convention assembled.
At IL o'clock Senator Simmons
called the convention to order and
proceeded to deliver speech. For
possibly five minutes the crowd lis
tened to him; then the disorder be-
gan, and after struggling along for
half an hour, the Senator announced
that he had an excellent speech, but
that as he did not have the lungs of
a jackass he was not able to deliver
1t, and called the Hon. John Ii.
Small to the chair.
Mr.. SmalPs experience was SINH
lar to the Senator's. Perhaps dozen
men in the rOstrum heard his speech,
but nobody else paid any attention
| to it.
The convention then adjourned
for dinner, and in the afternoon was
addressed by Governor Aycock.
| AycOck is a good speaker, and he
got the attention of the crowd at the
beginning and held it throughout
his speech he was, however, the
shining exception.
After some preliminary work, the
convention got down to the work of
nominating candidate for Gov
ernOr. Nominating speeches were
made, and from then till daybreak
the next morning the widest disor-
der prevailed. It took all night to
take four ballots. At one time au
effort was made to adjourn the con-
vention, then pandemonium broke
loose. For one solid hour there was
an uproar that could be plainly heard
a half mile away. Yelling, hoot-
rs %, pounding On the floor, whist
ling, screaming through mega
phones-the noise was terrific.
The chairman could do nothing,
and finally turned his back on the
convention until the fury had spent
itself.
The balloting proceeded amid the
greatest confusion imaginable. Men
would stand On chairs and hurl cpl
thets at each other, shake their fists,
wave banners and scream defiance.
AT one stage of the proceedings
some one turned off the electric
lights. For an instant there was a
lull in the storm, then confusion was
worse confounded.
1t looked as if there might be Sc
rious trouble, but finally the lights
were restored and the battle ragged
in the open.
About daybreak the Glenn forces
triumphed, their man was nomi-
mated and the convention adjourned.
There was much bad feeling, and
it was freely charged that trickery
had been practiced that the South
ern Railway had elected the candi-
date, etc.
The recent Republican Conven-
ton did not take nearly as long to
transact its business, and was not
half as disorderly as the Democratic
Convention of 1904.
It is understood that there will be
four or five candidates before the
next Democratic Convention for the
nomination for Governor.
Those who think that a Demo-
crstic Convention is like the meet
ing of a ladies' embroidery club
would do well to attend the conven-
f{nn nP ono onH r.ok