Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1907-04-03

sPooNER's SUCCESSOR TO BE
LA TOILETTE MAN.
NO CANDIDATE CUT OUT
Determination to Name Supporter
of Reform Movement Does Not
Mean Punishment of Any Aspirant
Who May Have Anti-La Toilette
Support-connor to Call Caucus.
Madison. March %.

Madison, March %
Fifty-one members of the legisla.
ture met in the assembly judiciary
committee room last night in Sc
cret caucus or conference on the mat
ter of electing United States sen
ator to succeed John c. Spooner,
1t was the sense of the meeting
that whoever be elected he be a man
who would assuredly uphold the
hands of Senator R. NJ. La Toilette.
and no "stalwart' need apply for the
place. To some who attended the
caucus this appeared to be an unim.
portant determination, as there are
no candidates, announced or possible,
who are known as "stalwarts" and, In
iact, there is no one to dispute the
current statement that there are no
"stalwarts" left in Wisconsin. Con
sequently it may not be surprising
that members should come out of
the carefully guarded session OF
nearly three hours and declare that
nothing was done"
While there were 81 members of
the legislature present at the caucus.
many of them are thoroughly indie
pendent and could not be bound by
any action taken. The meeting was
called by friends of the FIVE candi-
dates-StephensoD, Lenroot, Hatten,
Eseh and Cooper-acting in contunc
ton, and although some pronounced
Davidson men were absent there
were other pronounced Davidson.
men present some of them without
invitation, but who Just followed
the crowd to the meeting"
Speaker Ekern presided and AS
semblyman lie Roy acted as sec1e-
tary. A motion was made to request
the chairman of the republican state
central committee to call caucus
of the party at a convenient time
with reference to the ballot, April 1G,
terday for the first ballot. April 16,
but opposition to this motion de-
veloped, and it was announced that
Chairman Conner had already signi-
fed his determination to call the
caucus customary in such cases, and
the motion was not adopted
No Candidate Scheduled
The determination to name a SEN
ator who should work in harmony
with Senator La Toilette was not
expressed in such language as to
exclude any man of past opposluon
to the La Toilette movement, nor a
man who might have at times differed
with Senator La Toilette, nor was
language used to exclude any candi-
date who should be favored with
stalwart'' support. But it was tie
sense of the meeting that some one
should be elected who had been
known to be sincere in advocacy OF
the reforms for which the La Fol
lette people have worked in this
state.
1t was agreed at the caucus that
the senatorial election ought not to
be allowed to interfere with the
work of legislation and that the
work OF framing, perfecting and en-
acting measures under consideration
should be pushed with ali expedi-
ton possible.
The meeting was exceedingly Sc
cret. ergeant-at-ar;ns Irvine stood
guard at the door with an assistant.
and those who peeped through the
door without being authorized to be
present were made aware that they
were not wanted Even Assembly
man Grasse was torcibly kept OUT,
even though he repeatedly demanded
admittance. He Is a newspaper cor
respondent as well as an assembly
man. and this may be the reason why
he was refused a chair In the meet
ing. The meeting was generally
appears that all the elements in the
senatorial contest were perfectly
satisned with the result and no fact
ion was able to gain any advantage.
Among those in attendance were:
Senators Sanburn, Morris, Owen,
ga. rker, Noble, Stout, Browne, Mar
efa. Bishop, Wilcox, Hudnall, Lock
neY and Marsh, and Assemblymen
Ekes7 l. Hebron, Miller, Hagen,
Georss h. Scott, Mueller, Wellens-
gard oethe, LIE Roy, Reynolds, Coor-
idge. n eyes, Mckenzie, Jones, Nc
Gregor. Keup, Nye, Ingram, Berg,
Stout. jackson, Sprague John o.
Thomas. Kay, Estabrook, Sorenson
and 1'f.Ss