OCR Text |
Show (Tolitical We fee Toint. There is a widening breach between the Cal-lister-Anderson political pilots and the adherents of that greatest of trans-Mississippi statesmen, Mr. T. Kearns. As a result, the prospects of the Independent wing winning a victory from the warring tribes looks better than ever. The cause of the present strife is a series of alleged misdemeanors mis-demeanors on the part of the Kearns coterie, which have aroused the fiery animosity of the Immaculate Eight crowd. Imprimis, the Callister crowd are belligerent over the fact that County Attorney Westervelt, who they claim is an abject tool of Mr. Kearns, called the grand jury for the ostensible reason of prosecuting criminals in general, but with the real project in mind of taking criminal action against Judge Tanner for alleged duplication, or triplication, of wives. They state further that this action and all other maneuvers of the county attorney are inspired by the chieftains of the Kearns clan. They contend furthermore that with the disposal of that case, the Kearns county attorney underwent a grave change of heart in the matter of prosecutions, and that several cases against thieves and burglars which could have been easily established by numerous wit- Inesses were dismissed on recommendation of the county attorney's office. tx But a still greater grievance against the Kearns coterie has been developed in the Ander-son-Callister camp over the hostile attitude of Councilman A. J. Davis, according to them a staunch Kearns lieutenant, in proffering the resolution reso-lution to the' City Council which provides for the appointment of an expert accountant to go over the books of the city government a resolution which received practically decapitation by a hasty reference to the committee on finance. Yet Mr. Davis' effort in this direction was a mild petard compared with the indignation which was inspired in-spired by a subsequent editorial in the Herald, in which it is stated that no report of the receipts and disbursements and the general financial standing of the municipality has been forthcoming forthcom-ing since the incumbency at the auditor's office of the late Mr. Swan. The same organ, inspired as they claim by the senior Senator, practically accuses the auditor of dishonesty in the conduct of his office. The factional bitterness towards Kearns has now become so intense .that the Herald Her-ald will be called upon to retract this statement, and if no retraction be made, the auditor will institute a libel sUit against this organ. An effort will be made to have this accusation accusa-tion brought before the grand jury, as the faction opposed to Kearns claims that this would be a cheaper and better method of disposing of the matter than by the appointment of an expert accountant. v They say further that the Kearns papers are being used as weapons to drive every one not a slave to the machine into obscurity or disgrace, and that the Tribune, ever since Mr. Heath took managerial control, has ceased to be a party organ. So Mr. Reiser, whose term of office terminates at the end of the present year, is planning to take a European trip at the expense of Mr. Heath. v & v There is also much division 'twixt the souls of the two factions on the mayoralty contest. Since the Kearns crowd decided to launch Frank Knox as the machine candidate for Mayor, overtures over-tures have been made to Mr. Odell, who has proved himself a political weakling, so that in case Mr. Knox goes down the political fllggan, they will be able to control the machine company manager. With this end in view, the crowd has again duped Mr. Odell by designating Hon. Dennis C. Eichnor as Odell's political manager, a situation situa-tion whereby the Callister-Andorson crowd has been antagonized, as in their opinion Odell would be an easy tool in their skillful hands. cS (,$ tt The result of this state of affairs is that Mr. Odell will receive the active support of "neither faction, and on account of the fear engendered by reason of his close business relations with the head of the dominant church, he will receive very little encouragement from the Independents. Between these two stools the Odell political lights will in all probabiity be extinguished. So the chances of such a man as O. J. Salisbury, backed by the Independents and disgruntled members of the two factions, winning to the mayoralty goal are just at present very promising. It now appears that all that is necessary to insure a triumph for the unallled Republicans is a thorough and adhesive organization. |