GOVERNOR, 1906
“Groome, send some of your constabulary down to Essington and stop that prize fight.”
He replied: “Governor, I am rather personally in favor of the fight, but if you order me to stop it, I will see that it is done.”
The order was “stop it.”
Groome sent some of his men down there and while there was a great commotion and much swearing, the fight did not occur. As was to be expected, the local paper, having an interest in common with the violators of the law, called me a czar and said that never before had any governor assumed to override the sheriff of the county.
The Republican State Convention met June 7th and nominated Edwin S. Stuart for governor and Robert K. Murphy, an orator with much power of utterance, for lieutenant governor. Among the resolutions adopted was:
We commend the well-balanced administration of Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker as capable, upright and business-like; exact in his attention to administration duties; punctual in the fulfilment of its duties; vigilant in vetoing pernicious legislation; fearless in its protection of the poor man's home against railway greed; wise in safeguarding the water supplies of the state; far-seeing in its improvement of the public highways; firm in the maintenance of peace and order; successful in the accomplishment of important, far-reaching and substantial reforms; watchful in the care of the interests of all the people of the commonwealth; patriotic, impartial, just and ruggedly honest.
It happened just at this juncture that I again ran athwart the purposes of the Republican organization. A vacancy had occurred in the position of the harbor master in Philadelphia, caused by the resignation of Samuel G. Maloney, who had held it for years. Penrose asked me to appoint Oscar E. Noll, but having some information concerning the career of Noll which was not of a favorable character, I declined. Then he recommended to me a very reputable wool merchant. I was just about to give him the appoint-
