Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1908 — HATCHET AND GUNS IN CONVENTION RIOT [ARTICLE]

HATCHET AND GUNS IN CONVENTION RIOT

TURMOIL AT TENNESSEE MEET OF REPUBLICANS CAUSES A SERIOUS SPLIT. POLICE CALLED IN TO QUELL THE MOB One Faction Take* Possession of Hall Early and Coming of Opponents Starts Trouble —Leader Choked Into Insensibility. Nashville, Tenn., Mar. 26.—The Republican state convention for the purpose of selecting presidential electors, delegates for the state at large to the Chicago convention, was called to order Wednesday at the state capitoi. For the space of nearly an hour after the body had been called to order, a battle royal waged. It was a fight in which hundreds participated from time to time —a genuine rough and tumble affair precipitated by the efforts of the Evans-Hale delegates of Tennessee Republicans to take charge of the rostrum already held by the Oliver-Aua-tin-Brownlow wing. The Oliver hosts, who had come in on a special train from East Tennessee, marched straight to the hall of the house of representatives and filled the big auditorium early. Oliver Men Hold Sway. They had a key to the hall and marched in on the five unsuspecting Evans-Hale guards and took the room. They kept It and held it straight through the hour for the convention and when the Evans-Hale delegates walked into the room the Oliver men were in the saddle. It was on the advent of the Evans cohorts that the trouble started, and for an hour pandemonium reigned. During the trouble more than a dozen fist fights occurred, and in several instances pistols were drawn.

One Draws a Hatchet. One man produced a hatchet which he was preparing to wield when Intercepted. A negro delegate was knocked down by a white man. Both were arrested and hustled off to the police station. Newell Sanders, chairman of the state committee, an ardent Evans man, was almost choked into insensibility by a member of the Brownlow faction. Finally the police restored order with the Oliver men in control. Many Illinois Booms Aired. Springfield, 111., Mar. 26. —The delegates to the Republican state convention of Thursday arrived Wednesday, although the greater number was not expected before Thursday morning. There is, however, an imposing array of political booms of various kinds and sizes for all sorts of offices held out for inspection, even though there are few delegates as yet to look them over and none of them can be decisively fattened or flattered before June. Indiana Democrats for Bryan. Indianapolis, Ind., Mar. 26. —The Indiana Democratic convention Wednesday entered upon its two-day work of adopting a platform, naming a state ticket and selecting delegates to the national convention at Denver. The delegates were instructed to vote for William Jennings Bryan for president New Trial for Coal Firm. Pueblo, Col., Mar. 26. —Word was received here that the United States circuit court of appeals had reversed the Hading of the United States district court here in the case of the United States versus the Ute Coal and Coke Company, and that the case has been remanded back to the lower court for a new trial.