The Prescott daily news., 1913-07-10

the committee to hear his contest
 They sat patiently through three sweltering days, time and again re- ouesting MT. Brundidge's attorneys to present the evidence to sustain the charges made by him in the newspa- pers and in his complaint. When they saw no proof was forthcoming, when they had been threatened with punish ment of jail sentence, because thev would not perform according to the wishes of the contestants attornevs. and when they had been further noti- fled that the contestant would stand on his technical legal right of 20 days within which to present his proof (which would have left the Democratic party without a nominee), when they Saw that the purpose was not to move but to embarrass the Democratic par ty-a majority of the committee did what other men of common sense would have done-they dismissed the contest for lack of evidence and pro ceeded to declare Democratic nomi- nee from the official returns.
 The Gazette says the nominee was actually declared on Wednesday after noon. when the time for certifying a nominee did not expire until Thursday following. Wednesday, July 3, was tEe last day the committee could cer- tify out the nominee Sections 27S0 kirby's Digest, provides "that the cer- tificate must be filed not less than 20 days before the date fixed by law for the election" The day fixed by law is July 23, the last day before the election is the 22d so that the Ed was only 20 days before the day of election. See section 1922.
 The Gazette says the steam roller" began operations when the motion of contestant that the committee bring forward the poll books, etc, of certain counties was voted dowp that the Going resolution, which provided that messengers be sent for the 0books. meant business. while the Coleman resolution, which provided for the sec retary of the committee to demand the same by wire did not
 Now let US apply a common sense reasoning to those two propositions.
 To have found a suffccnt number of messengers to send into the various counties, would rave taken up con siderable time; for them 10 go to the counties and return to Little Rock would have taken up a lot more of time. After their return in case they were successful in obtaining them, there could not possibly have been sufficient time left for the contestant to have gone through the different bal lot boxes and have formulated his charges before Thursday A wire an swered the same purpose, and was a much quicker method.
 The Gazette quoted Section of the Act of 1911. for the purpose of showing that the power of obtaining custody of poll books rested solely with the State Central Committee. Such is not the case, because by Section f of the Act, the contestant had that right. It reads Section 1: The contestant may within ten days from the date of any primary election, obtain from the judges, or any one of them, having the same, a copy of the poll books of said primary election, showing the name of each person voting thereat and the number of his ballot, by mak- ing demand in writing upon the cleo ton judge or judges having custody of the pell books. .. Should either of such parties refuse to give to the contestant copy of the poll books,
 ....ha shall te deemed guilty of miedsleeEor. and be punished by a fine Of not more than $G00."
 !. t will be seen therGfrom the con- testant had the power in his own hands to have gotten the poll books had he been sincere in his efforts along that line. On the other hand, no pen alty attached to refusal to deliver the poll books upon the demand Of the committee. They might ask, but those holding the poll books could not be forced to heed such request. nor be punished for such refusal.
 Regarding the time allowed for ex- amining the box of Ouachita county, the committee gave the contestant all the time asked for by his attorneys for that purpose. The charge had been made that in Ouachita county the bal lots had not been counted as cast. up on investigation by a committee of five. three of whom were Brundfdge men, a unanimous report was made that the votes had been counted as