The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1906-05-03
LIT us SEE.

these grounds. Ii was removing anti
Cox men why did I not remove Capt.
Mcclure of the 9th, d. j. Fine OF the
9Th, Bob Bowman of 18th, P. Fl. Boring
of the 18th, JEFF Bright of the nth,
and Dude Keebler of the 18th? AS l |
understood it they were all anti-Cox
men, if not for Patterson and in this
connection want to say that there has
not been single district~ehairman re-
moved for any cause during this cam
paign or before. / have had no desire |
or made any effort to do so. Such being |
the case, will any sane man believe
there is any truth in these allegations
The above is taken from a statement
made by ex.Chairman Willett in answer
to the action taken by the mass con-
vention at Jonesboro last Monday,
full account of which appears elsewhere
in this issue.
We want to say that Mr.. Willett is
very much mistaken if he includes the
editor of The Comet as one Of his enc
mics. We have always supported him
heartily and have nothing but the kind
est feeling for him personally on ac-
count of close family associations. We
have not always agreed with him upon
political matters, but in such instances
have differed without abuse. In this
affair we have not sought to harm him
but have acted in the interest of fair
deal for Mr.. Patterson in his race for
governor.
Mr.. Willett seeks to leave the i'm
preston that only three persons pre-
scented the resolutions. That is true,
but they were acting as a committee
appointed by caucus of nearly hun
bred democrats. Action was taken up
on them in q mass convention that
nearly filled the court house-a much
larger body than that which elected
him chairman-and there was not a
dissenting vote. Many of those present
and voting to remove him we're his
friends, but they felt that he had
abused his trust and should be de-
posed.
With reference to the districts abeve
referred to we want to say:
In the 5th district Capt. Mcclure
and man named Arrants are the only
Cox men in the district.
In the 9Th he made VIM. Walters
chairman by deposing J. d. Leach.
In the 18th Bob Bowman was consid-
cred by some Cox man.
In the 18th he did remove P. ii. Bor-
ing and appoint Sam Gray, strong
Cox supporter.
In the 18th he notified Nelson Walker
that he was chairman instead of Dude
Keebler, and on the day Walker got
this letter a Cox boodler went to Lime
stone and offered him money to use in
his district for Cox.
That he attempted to change the
chairman in this (the 9TH district, and
came near causing riot, is we'll known,
A letter from him to MIR. Thad A. Cox,
naming him chairman, was read at the
convention, and Mr.. Cox said it was
written five or six days before. The
convention had assembled under call
by the regular district chairman, Fl. H.
Dyer, and although Mr.. Willett had
been shown the call he did not question
the authority, but allowed a man to
walk into the convention armed with q
secret letter to usurp authority that
could not be given in this manner.
Mr.. Willett developed into very
bitter partisan of Gov. Cox, and has
evidently allowed the Cox managers to
mislead him as to his authority. .--
The Chattanooga News had a few
people here believing it might be tell
ing the truth about the gubernatorial
campaign until it undertook to tell
them that Cox carried Johnson City
Overwhelmingly and that a handful OF
Patterson men bolted. That was SO