The Forrest City times., 1913-07-11
STATEMENT FROM STATE COMMITTEE REPLY Is MADE To EDITORIALS THAT WERE PUBLISHED IN
 THE GAZETTE.
SAY PROOF NOT PRODUCED
Also That "Wednesday, July ?, Was thc Last Day on Which Nominee
 Could Be Certified.

Western Newsoaper Union News Service
 Little Rock.-The Democratic State Central Committee. which opened Headquarters Monday, has issued the following statement:
 The editorial columns of the Ca zette of the 9th and 6th instant crttt. cised the action of the Democratic State Central Committee Of Arkansas in hearing and disposng of the con test of Mir. Brundidge and the com nittee answered as follows:
 The members Of the state commit l tee are the chosen representatives of the Democratic party in Arkansas: {: 1 they come from every judicial and l congressional district of the state; 1 they were selc~ ed by the state con vention because ot their executive ability, their sense of justice and their standing as citizens and reperseuta- l tive Democrats.
 Upon the committee were eight we'll known lawyers of legal experience and training-fully capable of impartially and honestly hearing and determining | questions such as the contest mentions who, after such hearing. voted to dismiss the contest because of the lack 1 Of evidence to sustain the allegations The Gazette attempted to show In the editorial that, because there was ma 1 jority of Hays men" on the commit tee they simply ran he steam roller over the Brundidge men
 Of he 19 members who voted to 1 declai e Judge Hays th9 nominee, four j ard voted for Air. Brdndidge in the ] pf'e ary-and six others had taken no
 pot ~ interest in the campaign. l. err, Nannot be tru .hfully asserted a.F men had any desire other
 faa contestant q fair and
 ues 's5 su aa
 et. ,t v s ea.3 roller methods .s a. 4ys ~4se ov every one who ait >t 4 los $ matter Of fac ,he rmttee indicated q dispo- sition tc eat the contestant cour. teously, mpartialy hear his contest tn, lent he filed it, They would have o> ne that, eyen in the ab sence of his injunction asked for and obtained before he had first requested the committee to hear his contest
 They sat patiently through three swelterlng days. time and again re- Questing Mir, Brundidge's attorneys 10 present the evidence to sustain he 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 they would not perform according to the wishes of the contestant attorneys md when they had been further noti- fled that the contest ant would stand on his technical legal right of 20 days within which to present his proof (which would have left the Democratic party without nomlnee), 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 soys the nominee was actually declared on Wednesday after noon, when the time for certifying a nominee did not expire until Thursday following. "Wednesday. July ?. was the 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 70 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 2d was only 20 days before the day of election. See section 1922
 The Gazette says the steam roller. began operations when the motion of contt stant that the committee bring forward the poll books, etc, of certain counties, was voted down, that the Going resolution. which provided that rtCssengerG be sent for the books. meant business, while the Coleman
 'esoutiorf, which provided for ,he sec. -etary of the committee to demand the 52me by wire did not
 Now let us apply a common sense reasoning to those two propositions
 To have found sufficent number I messengers to send into the various Cunties. would rave taken up cor iderable time; for them 10 go to the counties anu return to I.l.tie Rock