Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1922-11-17
MAYOR BEHRMAN'S REMINIS-
CENCES.

a s.c.es Of "reminiscences in its SUM-
day issues by Hon. Martin Behrman,
for 16 years mayor of New Orleans
and for even longer period DOM
mating figure in the politics of that
city, and yet, even in defeat, a
power to be reckoned with.
The last Sundays issue gave a
short review of the State Demo
cratic Convention that nominated
w. w. Heard for governor over our
own beloved and lamented Bob
Snyder. This is the way Mayor
Behrman tells the story:
The next big event in politics was
the Democratic convention that NOM
mated William Wright Heard for
governor in 1900.
Robert H. Snyder of Tensas par
ish, known all over Louisiana as
Bob Snyder, was generally ex-
pected to be governor after Foster. /
have an old report of the Secretary
of State showing that in the eiec-
ton of 1896 Foster had received 116-
PIG votes and Bob Snyder, who was
elected lieutenant governor, received
118,447. Snyder led the Democratic
ticket. In spite of his defeat in the
convention, he remained powerful
political figure and in 1904 was
elected speaker of the house Of rep
resentatives. He was a much re-
spected and highly popular politi-
clan and a lawyer of great ability
He did a great deal to defeat Wai.ei
D. Denegre when McEneIy was
elected to the senate.
In describing the situation when
McEnery was brought forward after
Denegre had almost been elected
over Newton C. Blanchard, l die
not bring out Bob Snyder's par
clearly. The two houses were "a
ting together in the chamber of the
house of representatives, but each
acting under its own presiding Of
ficer. When a member rose to change
his vote, from Blanchard to Denegre,
Bob Landry promptly announced the
vote, which, under the rules, fore
stalled any changes. Seeing the sit
uation, Senator C. c. COrdill, to
whom Snyder had signalled, moved
that the senate retire to its own
chamber. That amounted to an ad-
journment. The result added con-
siderably to Bob Snyder's popularity
with the Democrats. If they had
continued balloting that day, Dene-
gre would probably have been elect
ed.
The Foster faction controlled the
state Democratic convention of 1899.
While Foster had made some enemies
he was shrewd politician and wa
generally popular. Foster threw hiS
strength to William Wright Heard,
who had been auditor for years
Heard got the nomination.
Bob Snyder's opponents some
times claimed that his advocacy
of the primary system was due
to his defeat in the convention. This
is not true. He was the first man, so
far as my memory goes, to advocate
primaries. We had all kinds Of
primaries but those regulated by
state law and Snyder was for regu-
lation. This regulation was meant t.
go with the elimination of conven-
tons such as we had then.
Snyder claimed and perhaps with
good reason that if there had been a
statewide Democratic primary m
1899 he would have won the nomi-
nation. He was much liked and re-
spected in New Orleans and had a
tremendous hold OIL the people n
north and central Louisiana and,
think, in the Florida parishes.
AS a result to a great extent of
Snyder's agitation of the su5jecF,
a committee was appointed in 1904
to draw up law that finally got IN
the books in 1908. James 6. Hen
riques of New Orleans, then the only
member of the Orleans organization
who favored primaries, Thomas j.
Herman of Baton Rouge, Thomas c.
Barrett of Caddo, Colonel T. H.
Thorpe and Dudley L. Guilbeau were
the members of this committee. They
left the work to Henriques and Ker-
nan.