William Brookfield

AT SARATOGA, AUGUST 25.

Place and Date of the Republican State Convention

BROOKFIELD MAKES A FIGHT.

A Memorial Alleging Packed Rolls and Corrupt Primaries in New York City Introduced --Threat of a Bolt Should the Position Be Unheeded -Gubernatorial Candidates Fish, Aldridge and Black call on T.C. Platt.

The Republican state committee met in the Fifth avenue hotel, in New York, at noon to-day. The attendance was unusually large, and included leaders of the Platt faction and of the organization in every part of the state. When Chairman Charles W. Hackett called the committee to order the following members were present:

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William Brookfield, a member of the state committee who leads the independent Republican organization in New York city, created a furor by presenting the following memorial:

To the Republican State Committee:

Gentlemen -At the last meeting of your committee held in this city a memorial was presented to your body setting forth at length certain fraudulent features of the existing Republican organization in New York county. In that document it was demonstrated that from fourteen to forty-four percent of the names upon the rolls were there improperly, and that of the alleged enrollment of 77,000 in the county organization over 25,000, about a third of the whole list, were either bogus, dead men, women, convicts, Democrats or members of Tammany Hall.

The practical relationship existing between Tammany Hall and the Republican County committee, as at present constituted, was reflected in the fact that in twelve assembly districts no less than 534 members of the Tammany hall general committee were fount to be enrolled, and no less than 1,900 Democratic names were proven to be on the rolls of the election district associations in those twelve assembly districts.

Attention was also called to the manner in which the constitution of the county committee had been violated in the revision of the rolls, whereby Republicans in good standing had been debarred from their political rights and thousands of others had been kept from identifying themselves with the activities of the party in this presidential year.

The unavailing efforts to have these wrongs righted by the county committee were set forth, and the disastrous consequences to the party from such outrageous proceedings were pointed out. It was also dwelt upon that the inquiry which had resulted in the disclosure of these disgraceful frauds was an eminently judicial one, being made under the supervision of a committee of twenty-five Republicans in good standing, including Joseph H. Choate, president of the constitutional convention; Cornelius N. Bliss, treasurer of the Republican national committee; Samuel Thomas, ex-treasurer of the Republican State committee; William Brookfield, late chairman of the Republican state and Republican county committee; Anson G. McCook, city chamberlain; Benjamin Oppenheimer, president Patriotic Republican club; General Wager Swayne, president of the American Church Mission society; Ethan Root, one of the prominent Republicans of the state; R.C. Alexander, Editor Mail and Express; Horace Porter, president Union League club; J.C. O'conner, who, as a member of the board of alderman in 1884, proved faithful to his trust; Isaac V. Brokaw of Brokaw Bros.; Elias Goodman, member common council; Edward Mitchell, ex-United States District attorney; Charles S. Smith, formerly president of the chamber of commerce; John S. Wise, ex-member of congress; J.E. Milholland, assistant secretary of the Republican national committee and chairman McKinley league; A.H. Steele, chairman campaign committee Republican club; Joel H. Erhardt, formerly collector of the port; E.W. Bloomingdale of Bloomingdale Bros.; John S. Smith, ex-president of the republican club; Paul D. Cravath, general council Westinghouse Electric company; S.V.R. Cruger, president park board and formerly president New York county committee; John P. Clark, assistant corporation council.

That report was submitted to your committee several months ago, but thus far no genuine or satisfactory effort has been made either by your committee or the county organization, against which complaint was lodged, to rectify this iniquitous state of affairs. A pretense at revision has been heralded abroad but no substantial reform whatever has been effected. On the contrary, the organization has gone on as before, in utter defiance of the protests that have been made by the representatives of its reputable elements and by the respectable members of the party throughout the city.

The constitution under which it is supposed to operate has been violated again and again. With few exceptions the election district associations are a sham and a delusion. Of the 1,861 in this city, not 10 per cent hold meetings once a month, as required by the constitution, or for that matter have held any meetings since the fraudulent primaries last December.

Article 26 of the constitution of the county committee requires that in the month of June each association shall revise the roll. We are prepared to show that even this important provision has not been complied with in any general way.

We are prepared to demonstrate that the evils of which your body was memorialized last winter, still exist and others equally flagrant have arisen.

We are prepared to demonstrate that in some assembly districts hundreds and hundreds of Republicans, in as good standing as any member of your committee, are being kept out of the party organization. Witnesses by the score to prove this are at the call of your committee.

We are prepared to show that unless your committee takes prompt, radical action in this matter the coming primaries of the regular organization in this county for the election of delegates to the forthcoming state convention will be among the most fraudulent ever held by any political organization. They will not be Republican primaries, but primaries jointly participated in by Tammany hall, the state Democracy and the Republican machine.

The last memorial on this subject was presented by the representatives of a body of twenty-five eminent members of the party; This protest and petition is presented to you by a committee of thirty-five practical workers, one from each assembly district. They are members in good standing of the regular organization of the county and representing the overwhelming majority of the Republican voters of this city. They are the kind of men upon whom you must depend for the work at the polls on election day.

The chief advisory member of your committee, Mr. Thomas C. Platt, is on record as saying that he was in favor of honest primaries throughout the city and state. Assuming that he expresses a sentiment that prevails in your body, we respectively but earnestly request that you take the necessary steps to compel the organization in this county to admit to membership Republicans having that right, to exclude from the organization the army of Tammany and Democratic healers who now constitute one of its potent elements, and provide for honest primaries through the city.

It is our desire to make the fight for reform within the organization lines. We shall not hold separate primaries, caucuses or conventions until all other means of redress have failed, but we do not propose to forfeit our rights as Republican citizens because redress is denied us by those who should be the guardians of these rights, and it may as well be understood first as last that the great mass of honest Republicans of this county and state will be represented at the coming state convention and at all future conventions of the party.

Respectively submitted:

John A. Sullivan, Robert F. Crawford, Patrick McNellis, Theo. F. Ruble, George Fleiker, Adam Gernend, Eugene Healey, Henry Altmeier, Henry C. Piercy, Henry W. Olsen, William H. Fearns, Niels D.W. Jorgensen, Rudolph Brenner, William F. Daly, Stephen W. Simonson, William H. Huber, John B. Weiss, William Henkle, John W. Hutchenson, Robert Todd, F.G. Langley, T.F. Egan, M.S. Hoar, C.A. Adams, Lovelle H. Jerome, William Brookfield, Alexander Clinch, Henry B. Smith, J.B. Cartwright, Edward J. Tucker, John J. Little, Benjeman Oppenhiemer, Louis Bold, M.B. Sweeney, P. Baer.

Lauterbach attached the memorial and discounted the claims set forth. He talked at considerable length, after which Mr. Brookfield got an inning. A large delegation of those who signed the memorial at a late hour this afternoon asked to be heard before the committee.

After a discussion by Abraham Gruber, William Barnes, Jr., and Otto Irving Wise, the matter was finally referred to the county committee by a vote of 28 to 5.

T.C. Platt was the most prominent figure at the gathering to-day, and the choice of a candidate for governor the most popular topic under discussion. The gubernatorial aspiration was represented by the presence of George W. Aldrich, superintendent of public works of the state; speaker Hamilton Fish and congressman Black of Rensselaer. To a reporter for the Eagle Speaker Fish, commenting on his gubernatorial ambition said:

"I was never so hopeful in my life. Everything looks encouraging. I will have at least sixty votes from Brooklyn in the convention. Nearly all of the state committeemen from that locality will give me their support."

"Will the consolidation and excise questions cause any drawbacks to your nomination?"

"Not the least. That matter is practically settled. It will not be a factor in the choice of a candidate, and, were I nominated, it would hardly enter into the election."

George W. Aldrich said:

"My stock to-day is high. Everything looks well I am very hopeful of a nomination."