to aye on the Leeds amendment.

[49a] The postponements were made from hour to hour. The reform Senators
would be informed that the matter would be taken up at eleven o'clock in
the forenoon. At that hour, the machine would postpone consideration
until three o'clock in the afternoon. At three o'clock, further
postponement would be ordered until eight o'clock. At eight o'clock
there would be postponement until the next morning. Twenty-one votes
were necessary for concurrence in the Assembly Amendments, but a
majority of those voting was sufficient to secure postponement. The
machine on this issue controlled twenty votes, one short of enough for
concurrence, but one more than the nineteen controlled by the
anti-machine element, and hence enough to postpone from hour to hour
consideration of Wolfe's motion.

[49] It is very amusing less than three months later to see those
partners of the Direct Primary fight, P. H. McCarthy and the San
Francisco Call, in fierce political conflict at San Francisco.

[50] The resolutions adopted at Palo Alto read: "Resolved, That we note
with disapproval the changed attitude of the San Francisco Call upon the
Direct Primary bill, and its attempt to discredit Senator Black and
other friends of good government in the Legislature."

[51] Senator Black's letter covered the situation fully. It was
addressed to the press of the State, and was as follows: "No decent
primary law would have been possible but for the combination of thirteen
Republicans and seven Democrats in the Senate who have stood together
throughout this whole fight. Senator Wright and the 'Call' were
powerless in the contest until these twenty Senators got behind them.