Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-26
TENNESSEE
REPUBLICANS
nv A RIOT
BROKEN HEADS TESTIFY TO
WARMTH OF SESSION
Opposing Factions Clash in Conven-
tion HaII--White Man Breaks
Chair on Negroes
Head
BY associated Press.

! BY associated Press.
NASHVILLE, Tenn, March 25.-Re-
publicans of Tennessee assembled this
morning for a state convention. To-
night black eyes, skinned heads and
bruised faces testified to the riot that
marked the gathering in the hall of
the house of representatives at the
capitol. In the list of casualties Chair
man Sanders of the state executive
committee figures prominently. He
presented a sorry picture when he
emerged from the veritable battle
which occurred between the two fac
tions. one supporting the interests Of
Congressman w. P. Brownlow, the
others those of former Commissioner
of ensions H. Clay Evans.
The Brownlow forces wanted w. ].
Oliver of Knoxville for national COM
mitteeman; the Evans people favored
Congressman N. w. Hale for that po-
sition Incidentally, Richard Austin
was a candidate for congress against
Mr. Hale. By sheer force of num-
bers and fighting powers, the Brown
low -Oliver-Austin crowd took and held
the hall.
The convention adopted a motion
that delegates to the national conven-
tion go uninstructed. Roosevelt is in
dorsed in the resolutions adopted,
which also instruct Senator Oliver for
national committeeman and urge the
state committee to call a primary to
nominate a candidate for governor.
Early this morning the Brownlow-
Oliver forces proceeded to the capitol,
entering the convention hall shortly
after s o'clock. They found a few
guards present, placed there by the
state committee, but elected them with
out trouble. They held the field until
what they claimed to be the assembly
hour and then Chairman Newell San
ders, an Evans man, not being present,
they organized without him. Hardly
had the chairman, w. L. Davis of Clai-
borne, raped ior order, however, be-
fore the Evans-Hale charge was on
With regular football tactics they
started for the rostrum.
Before the Oliver squad could pull
itself together Sanders had reached the
platform and was proceeding to call
the convention to order again. But
he did not get far before the Oliver
forces came Then backward and for
ward the struggling mass surged, San
ders being the rock around which the
storm ragged most furiously. His guards
could not stem the tide, however, and
he was literally torn from their grasp,
his coat and hat gone, his shirt split
and ragged and even his trousers
radly disarranged. At length he was
bodily lifted from his feet and carried
behind the speakers stand, out on
veranda. It looked as if he might be
thrown from this high elevation, but
better counsel prevailed and he was re-
leased.
While all this was going on fights in
Vulnerable were in progress, and the
hall was a bedlam. Then came the po-
lice and something resembling order
was restored.
In the course of the riot r. 7. Cam
eron of Chattanooga. -Brownlow man,
is said to have broken four folding
chairs over the head of a negro dele
gate who had given him some back
talk"
With the police looking on the Brown
low oliver men went into convention,
the Evans crowd offering no further in
reference than yells and jeers at the
speakers.