HADLEY CLOSES
THE CAMPAIGN.
UNPRECEDENTED DEMONSTRA-
TION GREETS CANDIDATE.
KERENS AND WARNER SPEAK.
ROWDIES ATTEMPT TO MAR EN-
THUSIASTIC MEETING.
Mr. Hadley Asks Jackson County and
Kansas City to Give Him
the Majority They Did
Four Years Ago.
The most enthusiastic audience Convention hall has housed this year, with estimates varying from 14,000 to 18,000, welcomed Colonel R. C. Kerens, Republican candidate for the United States senatorial nomination; Congressman E. C. Ellis, candidate for re-election; Selden P. Spencer of St. Louis; United States Senator William Warner of Missouri and Herbert S. Hadley, and helped the latter close his campaign for governor of the state.
Despite an apparently organized attempt to break up the meeting, which broke out three times wile the gubernatorial nominee was speaking, the hall was crowded before the first speaker was introduced.
Near-hysteria had the followers of Hadley, Kerens, Ellis and the balance of the Republican ticket, and the applause which greeted Mr. Hadley was deafening for twenty minutes after he was introduced. It was entirely genuine, and it was not possible for the chairman of the meeting to control the house.
MADE A JOYFUL NOISE.
The scene which followed the introduction of Mr. Hadley was wild in the extreme, and for several minutes the speakers' stand in the center of the arena floor by the lowering of the big curtain, was in danger from the crowds pushing toward it from all sides. On the stage, stretching clear across the hall, the vice chairmen of the meeting joined in the demonstration. Beside the immense crowd the audiences of other rallies during the campaign appeared as mere reception committees of the real members of the party in Kansas City.
Disorder which the chairman could not abate took possession of the great crowd when United States Senator William Warner named the nominee for governor. Time after time Mr. Hadley advanced to the edge of the platform in an attempt to be heard, but his voice was drowned by the cheers of his admirers. The newspaper men were routed from their tables and an improvised platform of but a few square feet was arranged in the center of the stage. When Mr. Hadley mounted this stand it was but a signal for further demonstration.
ROUGHNECKS IN EVIDENCE.
It was not until Mr. Hadley had delivered several hundred words of his address that the first attempt to disturb the meeting broke out in the crowded west balcony. There was a second attempt and then a third; and the disturbers were hissed from every corner of the hall. Women in the section where the disturbance occurred were forced to leave their seats and places were provided for them in the boxes below. There was a general shout for the police, but the hissing of Mr. Hadley's admirers served to drive out the disturbers.
Mr. Hadley talked as a Kansas Cityan to his home folks. He made a plea for the entire state ticket and then asked his friends to support Fred Dickey and William Buchholz for the senate, and the nominees for representative in the interest of the candidacy of Colonel Kerens for the United States senate. Senator Warner had previously made a plea for support of Colonel Kerens and the candidate had had a chance to speak in his own behalf, but had modestly confined his remarks to other party issues and his confidence in the success of the ticket in Missouri.
A WORD FOR KIMBRELL.
Mr. Hadley also asked support for I. B. Kimbrell for county prosecutor and called attention to the four candidates for the circuit bench. He mentioned the Democratic attempts to discredit the party with circulars intended to create race prejudice. He read a letter from a Kansas City Democrat who is going to support him because members of his own party had made the mistake of showing him what he considered dirty plans to defeat a clean candidate.
After Mr. Hadley reached the hall several questions were asked him and these he answered from the platform. One request was for a statement if he would enforce the Sunday saloon closing law. It was signed by "several Democrats who wished to know before voting." Mr. Hadley answered that he intended, if elected, to make the Sunday saloon closing laws affecting Kansas City and St. Louis mean just exactly what they state upon the books. He said he did not desire the support of any special interest, nor did he want any special interest to make an unfair fight against him. He offered a square deal to the saloonist who obeys the law and respects the qualifications of his license.
As a closing word of his campaign, Mr. Hadley stated that he would decline to qualify in office if elected, should any taint be charged against his nomination. He said he was nominated by honest votes and wanted no tainted election. He asked that Jackson county and Kansas City give him the 4,000 majority he received four years ago when a candidate for attorney general.
