Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-28

The first Democratic convention ever
held in this county under the new di-
rect primary law was called to order
in Symphony hall at 10 o'clock sharp
yesterday morning, and within thirty
minutes it was compelled to adjourn
to a much larger hall in the Blanchard
building. The change was due to the
inability of the many delegates and
SPECTATORS to wedge their way into the
hall where the meeting first opened
with this encouraging start, the
Democratic delegates to the county
convention repaired in a body to the
second hall, and had scarcely resumed
their session when it was evidenced
thai even a still larger hall could
easily have been filed by the overflow
crowd, among which were scores of
old time Democratic war horses" :"
who have not taken part in politics
for many years, but who evidently
were encouraged to attend the conven-
ton yesterday by the fact that the
party has been cleansed of it's machine
ward heelers" and political bosses.
The convention opened with the
singing of America" by an enthusiast
tic chorus of delegates, everyone pres
ent participating.
"It marks a new era in our Democ-
racy," said Albert M. Norton, chairman
of the county central committee, as he
looked out over the sea of faces
"Talk about the clean sweep of the
Insurgents, this Is the most magnificent
moment in the history of our county
and 1t seems to indicate a clean sweep
for the anti-machine forces in our
own party"
Police Commissioner Charles Well
,I,o st~r,or nF 10
convention without a dissenting vote
In spite of the large crowd and the
harmonious beginning, the Democratic
county convention was not without
several sharp contests and interesting
discussions, the foremost of which lay
in the question of seating four Repub-
licans who had been elected from
couple of precincts in which the DEM
ocratic committeeman appear to have
been sleeping. The question was re-
ferred to the committee on credentials,
composed of Frank B. Fiery, chairman;
David Newhart, j. B. Renshaw, G. f.
Johnson, Harry McCrimmen, S. D.
Moore. J. c. Steele, t. j. Harris, B.
Suess, John Tidball. F. B. Woolen. j.
N. Pryors, Alfred Moore, Harry Riley
and F. E. Straden.
SHARP DEBATE ON DELEGATES
The problem was debated in this
committee from every standpoint,
some of the members maintaining that
the convention was empowered to re-
ject any delegates 1t deemed ineligible,
and that if the Republican delegates
who had been elected to this convention
were not unseated or expelled, it would
establish a dangerous precedent which
might encourage an attempt on the
part of the Republicans to pack the
next convention or to elect Republican
delegates to such an extent that it
would be virtually a Republican and
not a Democratic convention. -
It also was argued that the seating
OF these Republican delegates would
lead to the county's Democracy becom-
ing mixed and muddled and that 1t
would encourage a sort Of non-parti-
sanship not to be tolerated. Others
argued that Il any Republicans had
been elected to the Democratic county
convention they must necessarily have
been elected by Democratic votes and
that as the direct primary law does
not prevent the election of members
OF one party as delegates to the con-