COWHERD CHOICE
OF DEMOCRATS.
KANSAS CITY MAN WINS OVER
NUMEROUS OPPONENTS.
WALLACE WAS WEAK
AT HOME.
CHANCES ARE THAT KANSAS
CITY'S NEW CHARTER WINS.
Much Dissatisfaction Is Expressed by
Candidates and Others Over the
New Primary Law.
Returns Slow.
At 3:30 o'clock this morning only thirty six precincts out of the 164 in Kansas City had been canvassed by the election commissioners, and in the county outside the city but four of the forty precincts had been heard from. In the city there were thirty precincts that had not reported to the election commissioners at the hour indicated, and the outlook was that the counting would not be finished much before noon today.
Shortly after midnight the three commisssioners saw the hopelessness of the task before them, and gave up counting the returns and turned the work over to deputies. Under the law the commissioners were not reuired to canvass the vote before Friday, but as an accommodation to the public and candidates informally called out the returns as they came in. It was slow work.
The returns were slow in coming in, and it was 9 o'clock before the first box was received at the commissioners' offices. This was from the First precinct of the First ward, and after that the returns came in spasmodically and it was 10:20 o'clock before enough precincts were heard from to encourage the commissioners in beginning the canvass.
BOSSES STILL CONTROL.
Framed to eliminate bosses and leaders, and to install in their places in politics the people, the experience of the new primary law in Missouri, tried for the first time yesterday, showed how completely the bosses can manipulate affairs to suit their own ends. There being no important contests within the Republican ranks, and few of any sort whatever, the new law was not tried out by that party. In the Democratic ranks, however, there was fighting all down the line, and the partial and unofficial results which had arrived up to 1 o'clock this morning fail to show an instance where a free lance made even a respectable showing.
In Kansas City and in St. Louis the rival bosses worked in close order and carried everything before them. Here Reed and Shannon, hereditary enemies, were hand in glove, and in St. Louis Jim Butler and Harry Hawes, for years at each other's throats, had identical interests.
The count last night in this city was charged by the friends of Judge William H. Wallace as outrageous. Some of the old hands in the booths, instead of undertaking to deny this, were rather proud of the returns they took with the to the election commissioners' office, all of them showing Judge Wallace heartlessly snowed under.
The Ninth ward, "Shannonville," for fifteen years opposed to Cowherd, went overwhelmingly for him yesterday. Starting with the First precinct of the First ward, Cowherd got every vote there but one, and that one went to Stapel. Wallace was not mentioned. The same condition of affairs seemed to prevail generally throughout the city, so that it is expected the final count will show Cowherd to have swept Jackson county to the tune of 12,000 to 15,000.
WHEN WALLACE WENT HOME.
As late as Monday night Judge Wallace told his court stenographer, Clarence Wofford, that he would beat Cowherd here and added that he undoubtedly would carry St Louis city. By 9 o'clock it was known in Kansas city that twenty out of 435 precincts in St. Louis had given Cowherd 1,835, Wallace 12, which report sent Judge Wallace back to his residence on Scarritt's point, for he had gone down town to receive the returns at the commissioners office.
DID NOT LIKE THE DIRECT PRIMARY.
While many candidates have declined to go on record with their personal sentiments regarding the direct primaries, most of them are frankly saying they have heard many complaints from other candidates. Thomas R. Marks, chairman of he Republican county central committee, is satisfied the law isn't going to be accepted as successful. He admits that in its first test it hasn't been given a representative vote in Kansas City and Jackson county.
"It isn't fair," said Mr. Marks at Republican headquarters last night, "for a Republican to step into a polling place and openly call for a Democratic ballot. This was done to an extent astonishing today. It isn't fair, in this instance, to the Democrats that the Republican organization of a precinct be allowed to defeat a Democratic candidate and have the returns go in to the election commissioners as a vote representing the precinct."
Mr. Marks is of the opinion that no amendment to the law can eliminate the rough places, and suggests only the repeal of the law as the one remedy.
