The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1916-09-28

Lax returns of the recent primary
election proved hard handicap to the
Democracy Of Kenosha county on
Saturday afternoon when the leaders
met for the reorganization of the
county committee for the year. 1t was
found that in many Of the wards and
towns no return had been made of the
vote cast for member Of the Democra-
a small number Of the seventeen voting
precincts were represented at the
meeting In some of the city wards
men who were widely known as Repub-
licans were named for places on the
Democratic committee and these men
of course refused to accept the position.
When County Chairman John c..
Slater called the committee to order on
Saturday afternoon, just three regular
lly elected members Of the county COM
mittee were present. These included
Walter Dexter Of Pleasant Prairie,
Joseph Huck Somers, and Joseph
Toelle of the town of Wheatland. w.
j.. Gleason of the town Of Bristol mo-
titled the secretary Of the committee
that he would serve, but he was pre-
vented from attending the session on
Saturday by an accident. Not one Of
the wards of the city was represented
at the meeting.
While there was no legal procedure
provided for the making of the com
mittee the officials Of the committee de-
cided that it would be fair to the party
to hold an informal convention for the
selection Of members of the county
committee. A dozen leading Democrats
including all of the candidates for
county Offices, were present at the
meeting and they proce aded to elect a
county committee. This plan was en-.
tireliy satisfactory to the three mem
bers of the committee present at
the meeting and it appealed strongly
to the candidates.
The election of committeeman was
by ballot Interesting in the proceed
ings was the fact that John G. Slater.
the present chairman, who had raised
doubt as to his retaining the leader
ship of the party in the county, was
named unanimously as member of the
committee from the first ward and he
accepted the position without COM
ment. This is held to be an assurance
that Mr.. Slater will again be named
as chairman of the county committee
and that he will take upon himself the
rather strenuous work of managing the
coming campaign in the county. The
convention chosed many of the old
time leaders to fill vacancies on the
county committee. John Mcconnell
was named for the second ward, George
Strangberg for the fourth, John Haag
for the fifth, Albert Conforti for the
sixth. John Connery for the ninth.
Thomas Fleming for the town of Salem
and Ben Elverman for Randall In the
other voting precincts the return of the
canvasstng board showed that mem
bers of the committee had been regu
larly elected at the primary election.
The only contest at the committee
was the election of a committeeman
from the sixth ward. Both James Fill
bin and Albert Conforti were placed
in nomination and Conforti was nam.
ed on the first formal ballot.
With but three of the members of
the committee present the convention
voted to adjourn until next Saturday
for the election Of chairman and
secretary. AT this time it is expected
that Chairman John G. Slater and
Secretary James E. Tully will be re-
elected. No plans have as yet been
made for the opening of headquarters
or the circulation of the literature for
the campaign, but it is expected that
these routine matters will be taken
care of at the meeting ON next
Saturday.
The session on Saturday was an en-
tirely harmonious one and several of
the men present made strong pleas for
united action during the campaign.