Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-07
BITTER MONTGOMERY
BATTLE NEARS CLOSE
Organization Men
Say They Will Win
by $500.
Stand on Record of Ten
Years of Progress
In County.


In County.
The Democratic organization OF
Montgomery County will go to the
polls in the primary elections tomor-
row, pointing to its record OF the past
| 10 years and promising continuation
Of present policies.
| Confident that the marked develop
ment of the county since 1919, when 1t
was elected to Office, will assure con-
tinuation of governmental control, the
administration faction has raised no
issues not existing in the 1925 election,
! but contents itself with detailing how
general principles with which it has
ruled Montgomery County for q decade
viii! be applied during the next four
years
Worked for Majority.
During a three-month campaign, al
most unprecedented for it's intensity and
bitter feeling, organization workers have
made every effort to- secure an over
whelning majority in the primaries as
refutation Of charges that have been
flung at the administration and candi-
dates by their opponents of the Pro-
gressive Democratic Party and the
| Republicans, who will not hold a pri-
mary election, having selected their
candidate by convention August l at
Kensington.
Party leaders claim that the record
breaking registration last Monday. when
the names of more than 1000 new
Democratic voters were placed on the
books of the county, is result Of this
activity. They say that four out Of
five of the new voters in the suburban
sections have aligned themselves with
the organization and that up county,
where the Progressives are strongest,
one out of two is an organization man
or woman.
Reckoning on this basis, Maj z.
Brooke Lee, speaker of the Maryland
House of Delegates and organization
leader, predicts majority tomorrow of
! from $500 to 1000 votes. When the
organization went into power in 1919 its
margin of victory was but 200. This
was increased to 700 two years later
and to approximately 1000 in 1923, it
Is claimed; In 1925, the year Of the last
county election, the organization
claimed a majority Of 1900 votes. They
now predict that this majority will be
more than doubled.
According to Mai. Lee the figure
named was arrived at by selecting the
most conservative estimates made by a
| large number of organization workers
in each community of the county.
Platform Published.
An unique feature Of the organiza-
tons campaign has been the publica-
| ton of a written platform during the
later stages of the fight. following a
similar move by the anti-organization
forces. 1t is said that never before in
the political history of the county have
the campaign promises and programs
| been reduced to writing and distributed
among the voters.
The campaign work Of the organiza-
ton has been accomplished by the
methods which have prevailed for
years-personal contact and political
| rallies. The fight was begun with a
meeting of approximately 400 workers
in Silver Spring about three months
! ago. At that time a list of candidates
was put before the meeting and in
dorsed.
At first picnics, church festivals and
the like were the scenes Of most of the
campaigning. After a while, formal
rallies commenced being held and in
creased in number and size until, dur
ing the past week, they became tightly
| affairs. with a number of the candi-
D.
planning to the people what the or
ganization plans to do If returned to
power.
! The principal plans of the platform
relate to schools, roads and parks, all
Of which will be improved within the
next four years, it is promised, by
means Of bond issues which have be-
come one of the two chief issues. The
other issue is Maj. Lee, who, although
not candidate. maintains his posi-
ton as undisputed leader of his fac
ton.
Committed to Improvements.
The organization is committed to the
policy Of large capital improvements to
be paid for in part by future genera
tons. An example of this policy is its
stand taken on the Cramton act. 1t is
proposed TO participate in the financial
dement's of the act and refund the Fed
eral loan by 50-year bond issue which
would not be put on the market until
| 1889 or 1910. The bonds would then
be retired, 1t Is said, by annual pay
ments Of money derived from the Z
cent tax now assessed against the
suburban sections.
Another of the promises contained
in the platform is a pledge that there
Will be no countrywide tax increase
|
mately paid for by the appreciation in
the aSsessable value of property in
those districts adjacent to Washington.
Revenue, largely drawn from this
source, is expected to finance between
so and 80 miles of new roads through
out the county during the next four
years, build new schools, and raise the
salaries Of the public school teachers.
The platform provides that streets,
sidewalks, cutters, curbS and water and
sewer extensions in the suburban areas
Will continue to be built by the present
front-foot benefit assessment method,
so that the owners of the subdivi-
sionS Will pay the entire cost.
Personal Attacks Made.
The fight has not been confined, how
ever, TO promises and plans for the flu
| ture. Personal attacks on opposing
candidates have crept in and centered
! primarily around the person of DR.. Eu-
| gene Jones of Kensington, now State
! Senator and a candidate for reelection.
DR.. Jones was elected as an organiza-
| ton candidate in 1925, but bolted the
! ticket year later.
! Candidates for Offices not entirely
within the county have escaped the full
! intensity of the Montgomery campaign.
! No determined effort has been made in
behalf either of Judge John 5. Newman
/ Of Frederick. who seeks reelection as
associate Judge of the sixth judicial
circuit. or David j. Lewis of Cumber-
! land candidate for the United States
House of Representatives from the
sixth congressional district. Both, the
oretically, have the support of the or
ganizatlon.
In the case of Mr.. Lewis, former
member of Congress, efforts to further
his candidacy in Montgomery County
have been unnecessary since no oppo-
sition to him has developed, the Pro-
gressives not having declared for him
| or for Fuller Barnard II also of Ale