Rocky Ford enterprise., 1912-01-19
Chairman coffman Reports:

conferred upon me ana nope gave
satisfaction. | did not have time to
confer with all of you, and l thank
each one of you for your confidence
and loyalty in me. No doubt some of
you could have handled the business
more ably than l did, but the plan
We adopted of one man voting the
entire delegation, was the only plan
that could possibly have won out.
The chairman and secretary being
both Denver men made the fight that
much harder Being on the ground
n few hours ahead of the delegates,
had secured the promise of one
place on the Credential committee
for Mr.. Fenlason, and one other man
who was in favor of the Santa Fe
Trail, was the best We could do. The
other three were for Denver. The
chairman of the credential commit
tee was one of Speer's trusted lieu
tenants. The Resolution committee
was dominated by men who were
against us. This was the reason We
forced the vote on selection of route
before the report of the committee
on resolutions, The plan of that com
mittee was to tire us out, and if nee
essary carry the vote of location over
to Saturday, and had it not been for
the fight made by Senator Parish,
Mr.. McLane, Mr.. Fenlason and my
self in the meeting held by the Steer
ing committee on Wednesday even
ing, and again on Wednesday night,
there would have been a compromise
or We would never have succeeded in
getting vote till Saturday, but we
insisted that we force the fight and
an early vote.
And we lined up our counties with
the understanding that VIE vote sol
idly against any amendment or sub
stitute, and for the motion to adopt
the Santa Fe Trail and Rainbow
route, and while the substitute of
Mr.. Broads secured a few of our
votes, the big delegations of Pueblo,
Prowers, Bent, Las Animas, Crowley
and Fremont counties stood solid as
a rock. For once the Denver crowd
failed to stampede the convention,
or to get us ratified. For once Sou
thern Colorado has stood united
shoulder to shoulder, and made the
fight and won.
Our chairman, Mr. Johnson, in
many things was fair. but in others
was absolutely unfair. Before any
amendments or substitutes had been
offered the previous question had
been moved. which should have end
ed the discussion. but he begged off
and promised if We would not insist
on that point, he would order the roll
call at ~ o'clock, and We agreed to
that But instead of doing so, he
allowed amendments and then a sub
stitute, to be offered after ~ O'Clock.
OF course | tried to get MIN to al
low me three minutes TO talk about
the Santa Fe Trail, but he would
not do so. OF course. you did not
miss much, for l am no orator, but
| did not think | was asking too
much, as chairman of the largest
delegation in the convention. Know
ing that | did my best and hoping
satisfied you. / am content and sat
isfied with our victory, the creates.
ever won by Southern Colorado, but
if We stop at this, We are in danger
OF losing part or all the fruits of our
victory. | am in favor of organizing
. permanent good roads organization
for Otero county, and having talked
the matter over with L. r. Fenlason.
and others. Mr.. Fenlason has agreed
to write each man who was a dele
gate from Otero county to the con-
vention at Pueblo.
Asking each of you to contribute
and We will arrange for meeting
socn, and hope to see each one of
you at the meeting, and as many
as you can bring with you.
When we started in to get dele
gates to that meeting. suppose 1
was the only man who really believ
ed We had a chance to win. And per-
haps many of you believe we will
yet lose out, but / am just as firm
in my belief, if Southern Colorado
will stand together like we stood
together at Pueblo. the Santa Fe
Trail and Rainbow route will be the
great route across Colorado. Of
course other roads will be built, and
we are glad of it. The next few
years will see many good roads built
In fact, we are just entering an age
of road building.
THE building of trans-continent-
al highway is no dream A great