Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-06-30
Refuse to Condemn
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Refuse to Condemn
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for a nomination, and the McAdoo
men said the votes cast on the other
side meant the elimination of Smith.
The managers of the other candi-
dates agreed with both of them.
Looking over Dark Horses
AS a result the only discernible
trend among the leaders as they
weighed the outcome Of yesterdays
session and laid their plans for the
battle that begins tomorrow was a
sitting over of availables with the
belief that the two now at the top of
the list are already eliminated.
There was a suggestion that q
resolution might interpreting the
religious liberty plank adopted as in
effect condemnation of the Khan,
but the move had no indication of
widespread support.
Passion Rampant
The conventions floor fight over
the league issue had been accompan-
led by an unusual display of passion
but it became colorless and almost
uninteresting in contrast to the battle
, waged over the Khan plank through
the midnight hours and into the early
morning of the Sabbath.
In two hours of intensive debate
several of the outstanding figures of
the Democracy, past and present,
played upon the emotions of the vast
assemblage until delegates and spec
tators had reached a pitch of ner-
vous excitement rendering futile all
further attempts at orderly proce-
dure. cambridge Colby. secretary of
state under Wilson, challenged his
party in a fighting speech to openly
condemn the Khan, and William Jen-
nings Bryan closed the argument for
the opposition with an old time show
of dash and fire that was met alter
nately with jeers and applause from
floor and gallery.
Confusion Over Roll Call
r. Then for two hours and a half the
| convention sought in a confusion bor-
dering on hysteria, to determine it's own
mind. Time and again the roll call
was interrupted by delegates who
sought to challenge the accuracy of
| the vote Of their states as cast by their
delegation chairman. Back and forth
swung the advantage as the voting ap-
preached its conclusion and leaders of
| the opposing forces tried desperately
to win over the handful of votes they
| knew would determine the verdict. AS
| the roll was ended an angry growl of
disputation swept over the convention
hall in rising volume, chairs were over
turned, two or three state standards
| were wrecked, and there were several
personal encounters on the floor and
! the speakers platform.
Change Votes
The balance turned finally when, at
| the end of the roll call, two delegates
from Georgia. the home state of the
| khan, changed their votes and asked
that they be recorded against the plank
| naming the khan. They were Pleasant
| A. Stovall, the Savannah publisher, and
| Miss Marion Colley of Washington, Ca
| Rising in her place after other men,
bers of the delegation had gathered
about her in earnest discussion, Miss
Colley tearfully and in a faint and
| quaking voice announced her final de-
| cision, and attempted in vain, amid
the din of the convention hall, to ex-
plain why she could not vote to criti-
CHE the khan.
Earlier in the session the Georgia
group had been the target for a long
and bitter demonstration against the
khan after one of the dissenters among
| them, Andrew c. Erwin Of Athens, had
| taken the speakers stand and pleaded
with the convention to take an open
stand against the invisible empire. A
score of anti-klan delegations assem-
bled their standards in scornful,
haunting ring about the Georgians and
Erwin was lifted to the shoulders of
the demonstrators and carried twice
around the hall at the head of a howl
ing procession of delegates.
Fight Follows Tumulty's Effort
In the final moments before the re-
suit was announced. Joseph P. Tumul-
ty, secretary to Woodrow Wilson while
he was in the White House. led a deter
mined campaign on the convention
floor to swing over the few votes that
would write the anti-klan plank into
the party platform. The effort intro
duced several new elements of confu-
sion and led to at least one encounter
in which the police interviewed. Ac-
ton with Tumulty, T. T. Ansberry of
Washington, D. c., who held credentials
as an alternate from the Philippines,
and Lawrence F. Quigley, mayor of
Chelsea, Mass, twice challenged the
accuracy of the Philippines vote and
forced a poll of the convention. Later
Of Georgia and then from his place in
the Massachusetts, delegation demanded
poll of the delegation from New
Hampshire.
The drive Of the anti-klan cohorts
did not end even after the vote had
been announced and the adjournment
found Quigley on his feet seeking amid
the confusion to challenge the ballot
OF the entire convention. He was
shouted down by those about him,
however, and the anti-klan leaders lat
er declared there would be no attempt
to set aside the action Of the conven-
ton as illegal.
In the debate on the Khan. William
r. Pattangall of Maine, who spon-
sored the minority report from the
committee embodying an out and
out condemnation on the Khan famed
the mounting flames of enthusiasm
by q plainly worded. direct arraign-
ment Of the order and a challenge
to the courage of the convention to
array itself against Klansmen and
Khan policies in every state in the
Union.
But the confagration did not
burst In all its fury until Erwin of
Georgia mounted the speakers
stand and in defiance to the great
majority of his delegation, called
Co.. a1~~