Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-29
MURPHY GOING SLOW
NOT ANXIOUS TO PRECIFITATE
WAR IN TAMMANI.
Has Turned Primary Fights Over to
Committee-Talk of New
Combine.

NEW YORK, December 23.-The action
Of Charles F. Murphy in turning over to
a special committee of Tammany the fate
of Ahearn in the seventeenth, Williams In
the nineteenth and Nagle in the thirtieth
who contend that they were elected over
whelmingly executive committeeman for
their districts at the September primaries,
led to all sorts of statements in Tammany
yesterday.
1t was explained by well-informed Tam
manyites that Mr.. Murphy decided on this
course because many of his friends in the
organization believed that the firing out
of these three executive committeeman
would start a war OF reorsal which in
the end would not only be disastrous to Mr..
Murphy but to many district leaders.
Counseled Caution.
1t was added by these Tammanyites that
the district leaders had counseled Mr..
Murphy to go slow on these three men, for
the reason that Mayor Mcclellan having
looked carefully over the figures. believes
firmly that the three men were elected be-
yond all dispute, and that the mayor would
not permit them to be ousted by Mr..
Murphy's order and say Amen" to it.
Some of the Tammany district leaders
who are personally friendly to Mr.. Murphy
said that the time had come for them to
make it clear that neither they nor the
officeholders in their districts under the Nc
Clellan administration should be further
called upon to take the consequences of Mr..
Murphy bitter warfare on Mayor McClel-
Ian and the mayors friends.
Several of the district leaders said, in
fact that they had never been made ac-
uuainted with the real reasons for the diff
ferences between Mayor Mcclellan and Mr..
Murphy, and for that matter that they did
not care what they were. but that Mr..
Murphy should take no step toward I'M
seating Ahearn. williams and Maggie for
the reason that in many districts there
were Taminanyites eager to seize the reins
of leadership, and they were only awaiting
an opportunity to do SO: that this opportu-
the three leaders who had been rightfully
elected, because then Mr.. Murphy could
not fairly expect anything but war of re-
prisal.
Held as Hostages.
Mr. Murphy's action In appointing a
committee to keep Ahearn. Williams and
Nagle on tenterhooks was explained by
Mr.. Murphy's friends when they said that
the three men were thus held as hostages.
The Tammanyites who said that they did
not believe in such methods. said that Mr..
Murphy in the first place should not have
Questioned the election of the three men
to be the executive members of their dis
tricts and that he would not have done SO
except that they were known as Mcclellan
men. or rather as anti-Murphy men.
The Tammany leaders who spoke this
way said that Mayor Mcclellan was Justi-
fed at any moment in starting war OF
reprisal on Mr.. Murphy and Mr.. Murphy s
friends.
The talk of a new democratic combina-
ton to be headed by David B. Hill, Sem
ator McCarren and Patrick E. McCabe
continued to be heard yesterday. 1t be-
came known that ex-Mayor Thomas Os-
borne of Auburn. who is practically In
charge of democratic state headquarters
in Albany and who has in his custody the
names of 100000 democrats in the state,
was also in the combination. and 1t was
said that Mr. Hill and Mr.. Osborne have