Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-07-23
Pee;Eca i~
Pe~~o4e0a~M
By the Ex-Committeeman


By the Ex-Committeeman
Judge Eugene C. Bonniwells de-
nunciation of the methods of the
Palmer Mccormick coterie of bosses
in running the Democratic state ma
chine in the letter he sent to all
Federal officeholders he could reach
in the Philadelphia district ask
ing them to refuse to contribute 10
support of the Democratic state
committee is regarded as the real
opening of the fight for control OF
the Democratic State organization
in PENNSYLVANIA. Added to the con-
tention that has prevailed in the
Democracy of the Keystone state IN
every year before a presidential dele.
gate election for a generation Will
be the personal animosity or AT
torney General A. Mitchell Palmer
and his pals toward Bonniwell
The fight this year and next will
be a repetition of the reorganization
fight of 1911 when Palmer and ms
pals got control of the machine by
the time honored method of de-
nouncing the methods of those who
they have bettered even the old ma
chine methods. The fight of 1911
had an ancestor in the Bryan-Guffey
row of 1907 and so it goes on
back to the time that Guffey de-
throned Harrity and his people as
Harrity and his men seized the
levers of the machine very early in
the nineties. The Democratic his
tory OF Pennsylvania is punctuated
with quadrennial brawls and many
gravestones.
Judge Bonniwell's excoriation
of the bosses of the Democratic ma
chine who repudiated him after his
nomination for Governor at a popu-
lar primary has quite overcast in
political discussion the perennial row
in Philadelphia and the seething
municipal politics in everyone of the
third-class cities now that the damp
er OF nonpartisanship has been re-
moved. The Judge calls the demand
of the Democratic State committee
IAN impudent violation of law" and
says that it approaches false pre-
tonce." He says that the same
crowd collected 100000 last year
and betrayed him in the guber-
material fight. The purpose of the
letter he says is Ito put them in
funds to bolster up their decrepit
and tottering organization"
The Democratic newspapers
which used to weep over letters OF
Republican organizations asking
contributions are strangely silent
about this latest break of the wind
mill on Market Square and ignore
Judge Bonniwell's blast. The Phila-
delphia Record says that Bonniwell
has trapped the bosses" Other
newspapers say it is the start of the
fight for control of the State COM
mittee and the presidential dele
cation.
Abolition of the Lancaster reve-
nue. district and retention of the
Scranton revenue district, which
was put back on earth after period
of suspension soon after Wilson be-
came President, is also rising TO
plague the Democratic bosses. This
section has always been regarded
as the satrapy of the former Demo-
cratic national chairman. The
Democratic city executive commit
tee of Lancaster met to protest
against abolition and wired the In
ternal Revenue Commissioner about
it. In reply that official from the
security of the Potomac telegraph
ed that it was to better the service
whereupon the Lancaster men re-
piled by asking why he did not
abolish all the offices. One Lam
caster dispatch says: LAS an up
shot of the affair it is currently
rumored that the Palmer Mccormick
faction has severed allegiance from
Collector Davis. who was for years
Democratic county chairman and
entrusted their local leadership to
Postmaster L. n. Spencer. The in
cident serves to mark the contrast
with which Congressman w. w.
Griest, of this district, handled a
similar situation in 1912"
The effect of Democratic re-
organization methods in Dauphin,
Cumberland and other counties is
we'll known and was reflected last
fall in the congressional and legis-
lative elections in this part of the
State. Other counties are torn up
through the Palmer er-McCormick
method and Allegheny is having
pains in its Democratic organiza-
ton. Just as an illustration there
may be cited this remark from the
column of Roderick Random in the
Scranton Times, one of the big
Democratic newspapers of the State:
The situation of the Democratic
party of Lackawanna county so far
as it has developed as to the COM
ing campaign is disheartening and
discouraging to Democrats who are
on principle desirous of Democratic
success and have been heretofore
encouraged by the conditions favor
able to victory next November. All
OF the candidates who have so far
registered for nomination for county
Offices are made up of one single ele-
ment of the party, and that element,
it has been demonstrated on various
occasions, is not able to win sue
| cess alone"
philadelphia newspapers saw
that it is very apparent that the
Penrose people control the new regis
tration commission in Philadelphia
and that the election of II s
Thomas as chief clerk displacine II
II. Hess, a Ware man, proves II
The Philadelphia Record saws that
! the Governor erred in appointinp
Tour Republicans to the registration
board. 1t insists that C. r. Wood
run is Republican. The Governor
held that he was a Town Meetinq -
man.
Director of Public Safety vii
liam H. Wilson will be a candidate
for Philadelphia Council. Senator
=. w. Patton may run for Sheriff or
| Council. III UT
Chester city council has votad
! s25,O 600 to establish a ward in ~
! chester City Hospital and 60 zoo