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Show A TWENTIETH CENTURY CRIME. I N this campaign tho people are tho I jury the only hody on earth that " Is actually entitled to try Its own case. The inalienable right of the masses to decide, to adjudge, to choose in matters directly affecting' them is the paramount issue. It shall E" bo their privilege to say whether they shall rule or whether they shall tolerate tol-erate tho system by which the will of the people has been subverted by a ' x handful of political tyrants. i The case is not hard to make and no honest man will fear its submission submis-sion for a verdict by the people. It is very important now and it will become more and more important as i tho campaign wears on that the peo- ! pie should be placed in full possession of the facts uncolored, unbiased, j free from prejudice of any sort. ' Hero is the great Republican party I split asunder by tho contrary beliefs ) of the rank and file and the bosses. Mr. Taft is the choice of the latter, made so by tho fraudulent seating of !' enough dishonestly credentialed dele- gates to defeat the will of the (people which was undoubtedly for another man for President. Without the use of these delegates seated fraudulently fraudulent-ly at Chicago, the Taft forces could not have controlled and Taft could not have been nominated. The conflict over the title of these delegates involved not only the destiny des-tiny of the Republican party and tho fate of the nominees, but it involved tho right of the people to rule. The issue was clearly drawn at Chicago. The bosses In charge of the organization overrode all protests against tho fraudulently elected delegates dele-gates accredited to Taft and seated just enough of them to throw the shadow of crime over the nomination of the President. The number in controversy has been stated variously from sixty to ninety-two. Of tho contested ' dele-gates dele-gates tho national committee seated 233 Taft delegates and .18 RooBovelt ' delegates. Of tho 233 thus given to Taft, the Roosevelt supporters contend con-tend that at least sixty represent fraud, undisguised and flagrant. The situation In various cases was as follows: Alabama, Ninth district, two delegates dele-gates The Taft men on the district committee, finding themselves outnumbered, out-numbered, challenged several Roosevelt Roose-velt members of the committee, asserting as-serting that they were not legally members of the committee. Vacancies Vacan-cies on the committee had been filled by appointment, regularly and in order, or-der, it was shown, tout tho Taft men withdrew from the committee and called a bolting convention. Two conventions con-ventions were held and two sets of delegates came before the national committee which by a vote of 38 to 15 seated the Taft delegates. Arizona, six delegates at large A voluntary preferential 'primary had been held in Maricopa county in this state. It had been called by the Republican Re-publican county committee, a majority signing their names to the call and several supporetrs of Mr. Taft on the committee joined In the call with the majority. Nevertheless, the Taft managers in the county decided to ignore ig-nore It. The president received less than twenty votes in the primary. When tho delegates selected at this primary went to the state convention their eats were contested and tho state convention denied the flight of tho people of Maricopa county to select se-lect their delegates directly. The delegation del-egation from this county controlled the convention' and. with the Rooso-volt Rooso-volt men thus ousted tho Taft men were able to elect Taft delegates to Chicago. The national committee upheld up-held the work of the state convention and seated the six Arizona delegates, all delegates at large. Arkansas, Fifth district, two delegates dele-gates In this contest the Roosevelt men showed that when the county conventions were selecting delegates to the listrict convention they were barred from the (halls by the police. They were in force to control the Pulaski county convention, by far the largest county in the state, but were kept from the hall. A Taft minority controlled the county convention, later tho district convention, and selected se-lected two Taft delegates, which wore seated by the national committee in Chicago. California, Fourth district, two del' egates The California primary law did not recognize the congressional districts as units in accordance with "the call for the national convention. Roosevelt carried the state by 77,000 votes. The Taft contention was that Taft had carried tho Fourth district and under the call was entitled to the two delegates. The Roosevelt answer was, first, that no one on earth knew who had carried the Fourth district, that there was an overlapping of precincts into another district, and second, that the right of a state to choose and Instruct Its delegates del-egates as it saw fit was undonlable. The committee seated the Taft delegates dele-gates by a vote of 37 to 1C. Indiana, Thirteenth district, two delegates Affidavits wore presented to tho national committee, signed by a majority of the delegates to the district convention, declaring that they had not voted for the two Taft delegates who claimed credentials from tho district. The committee seated the Taft delegates by a vote of 36 to 14. B Kentucky, Eleventh district, one jH delegate The district convention was H regularly called and was controlled by jH Roosevelt men. Tho Taft men con- H tended that the credentials commit- H tee had been irregularly organized in- H asmuch as the chairman had appoint- H ed a committee of five Instead of al- H lowing the convention to select its H committee by appointing- one man H from each of the nineteen counties. H This committee of five passed on 123 H contested delegates and the control H of the convention lay with ' sm. Two H delegates were involved before thena- H tional committee, which seated one H Taft and one Roosevelt delegate. A H motion to seat both Roosevelt dele- H gates was defeated in io committee, H vote 33 to 19. H Oklahoma, Third district, two dele- H gates Two conventions wore held at H Tulsa. The Taft men admitted that a H Roosevelt committee chairman had H been deposed and that six other jH Roosevelt men had been barred be- H cau3e "their proxies were not accept- H able." Tho Roosevelt convention H contained representatives from six- H teen of the nineteen counties in the H district. The national committee H seated the Taft delegates. Texas, eight delegates at large and H twenty-two district delegates The H Roosevelt delegates at large were se- HJ looted in a state convention in which HI 209 of the 249 counties wore re pre- H sented, of which Roosevelt had car- H ried 179. In two of the districts the M national committee gave delegates to H Roosevelt, but in nine others gavo H them to Taft. Colonel Roosevelt con- H tended that he had carried -the state M overwhelmingly. In two of the M eleven districts there seemed to have M been no justifiable .Roosevelt claims M and they were not pressed. M Washington, fourteen delegates The conventions in Washington ig- M nored voluntary preference 'primaries H and elected Taft delegates regardless M of them. The national committee in- M dorsed this action. M Two things aro perfectly apparent W&. in those cases, which involve fifty- M seven of the delegates. M One is that the national committee M ignored the preferential primary M whenever it could be done. There fl was no Taft man with sufficient H hardihood to challenge such results H as those in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and H elsewhere, but it was considered safe H to ignore the voluntary primaries, for H which no state law existed, in Wash- jfl ington and Arizona. It was considered S safe to tako two California delegates fl on the theory that the state law had JH not met tho national organization's H requirement that delegates shall bo H elected by congressional diatricts. H Tho other plain thing in those cases H is that In states having no preference H primaries of any kind a Taft Jeader H could do only right and a Roosevelt H leader only wrong. All questions of H regularity were resolved in favor of H Taft men whore they controlled ma- H chinery and against Roosevelt men H where they controlled machinery. H Cecil Lyon is a Roosevelt loader in H Texas and Roosevelt carried the H state. Lyon was national committee- H man. He had at his disposal in Texas M the machinery which the Taft men H had at their disiposal in states which H they controlled by organization moth- M, ods. But Lyon's use of machinery be- H came wrong the moment it was used B for Roosevelt and wrong because of M that fact. B The national committee to workout H its absurd results had to be one M thing in one state and another in an- H other, but in all in all in which con- H tests of merit were presented unfair H and unjust. H If the national committee had been j honest in its determination of re- H suits there would have been no at- H tempt to purge the roll of the tern- M porary organization of the convention. M The man elected temporary chairman H would have been elected fairly and M honestly, whoever he might have B been. There would have been a per- M manent organization honestly effect- M ed. There would have been a nomi- 1 nation honestly made. And the Re- M publican party today would be unit- H ed and its voters would be backing M the nominees of the Chicago conven- H tion. H That's the whole situation. |