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Show 'if I How Eight Votes Were Stolen From I Roosevelt in Arizona and Indiana m Why No Republican Is Under Party Obligation to Vote for Taf t Taf t Has u a Stolen Nomination During the Past Ten Days This Paper Has Pre- I sented the Absolute Evidence How 12 Votes Were Stolen in Washing- 51 s ton, 16 in Texas and Today How Eight More Votes Were Stolen A II Total of 36 Votes Stolen From Roosevelt And Taft Only Had 19 Ma-H Ma-H jority This Is Enough to Have Defeated Taft by a Majority of 17 Votes HE IW Can a Republican Who Believes in a Square Deal Vote for Taft? K , The Evidence This Paper Has Presented Was Not Only Presented in Mp. Congress, but the Facts Were Sworn to by Many Persons From Each fm' State Referred to. Vm r That eight -votes in the National Republican convention were JIB stolen from Roosevelt in Arizona and Indiana was irrefutably proved UB by Congressman Xorris in his masterfr.l speech -on the contested H delegates before the United Slates congress just p.rior to the close (jro of the last session. , -' ym Congressman Xorris does not deal in generalities but presents Km proof from the records and quotes witnesses to the. robbery perpe- M trated by as bold a band of political pirates as ever won a dishonor- V able victory K Without the votes obtained by the dishonorable methods out- B lined by Congressman Norris, Theodore Roosevelt would have been R the nominee of the Republican party and a Progressive platform H would have been written and the party saved from the humiliating! H position of being dominated by the most reactionary clement in B American politics. fljl The speech of Congressman Xorris on the Arizona and Indiana B contests follows: r7 mm. As I said, the state committee of ' 5 Arizona met and issued n call for a ' state convention Arizona was en- IJB titled to six delegates in the national fwZ cdnventjon, and that call provided gj that those delegates to the state con- m "vention might be selected in any one Wr of three different ways that were Hf named in the call, as follows - mm 1. Selection by the county commit- m tee WjL 2. The county committee might fjfm provide for a primary, at which dole- ijK gates were to be selected to tho yft county convention, which In turn 2C should select delegates to the state B convention. K 3. Tho selection by direct primaries K of the delegates to the state conven- 71 tion. mm Maricopa County. Wl As the gentleman from Wyoming u (Mr. Mondell) has said, the contest in JJk this state depended mainly upon the fll contest from Maricopa countv. It mg had been the custom of the Rcpub- Hcan3of Maricopa county for twenty 2 years to call primary elections, and B this committee had met, according to (HI e ca"' 'or ne PurP8e f determin-m determin-m ing what action they should take ml As the gentleman from Wyoming Mm r Mn(loll) said, there wore first mm a contest over some proxies. Tho ' (jfi Taft men objected to proxies, and , V ,they bad considerable trouble over i Hi ,it, but In the end the proxleB were vm eliminated The Taft men had their B wav, and that committee, by a very ' fiW ic,05e vote on a roll call, 22 to 19, de- I B (Clded to hold a primary. Thov held J 1 I that primary under that call, and Wy thore were east at that primary 951 I mm notes for Roosevelt and 11 for Taft1 Jfjf (The vote In that primary was 80 per j gjm .cent of the highest vote that had ever Hf jheB cast In that county at a Repub-B Repub-B 'llcan primar'. Thero wore men who I were kepi away without doubt I do Jffl 'not deny that I bellevo that is true, Zn because the Taft men perBtiadcd men H lo star away from the primaries. That jftf 16 common with thnt faction in the Rf (Republican partv Thev do not like mh iprlmarlep, and they know as a rule K Uicy pet the worst of It when they Bl pet into primaries. That Is tho way (CM the Roosevelt delegates were select-Mi select-Mi cd from that county. IJKa Let u"3 see how the Taft delegates gst were selected. They were picked In a tfH closed room,' at a meeting of a mln-Wb mln-Wb ority of th county committee, which Ifm wap concluslvolv proven before the jjfa coxsilttee on credentials at Chicnso. flff to which rns presented a statement IE? .' thirty members of that committee IK i consltutlng a large mnjority of the committee a written statement that none of them had attended that secret meeting and none of them had given a proxy to any other man to nttend that meeting. But, notwithstanding notwith-standing that, the state committee of Arizona, controlled by tho Taft Influences, In-fluences, threw out tho RooBevelt delegation and made up a temoparary roll another thing they had never done In that state. They met in nd-vanco nd-vanco and made up a temporary roll, and put these Taft delegates from Maricopa on It, and thov voted on the organization of tho convention and on everything else that came before tho convention. Cochlso County. But thero was another contested delegation In the Arizona state convention con-vention It came from Cochise county. coun-ty. This county had a membership of SO. In this county tho committee decided to select tho delegates which, it will he remembered, was allowablo under tho call issued by the state committee At this meeting of CochlBo county committee thero were 69 members mem-bers present, either in person or by proxy Thirty-three RooBevelt members mem-bers were present in person and 13 Roosevelt members wore present by proxy. There were nine Taft membra mem-bra prosent in person and fourteen Taft members holding proxies. I Tho Taft men bolted from the committee. com-mittee. This meeting waB hold on tho i 15th day of Mas, being tho day that was specifically provided in the state ' call, that tho committee should first I meet and decided how it should select 1 its delegates. This call of the state 1 committee provided that if on that day the committee doclded that tho dele-.gateB dele-.gateB should be selected by the com- mittco, then the committee should I adjourn until tho 2Sth of May. upon which day it should reossemblo and select the delegate!? The commltteo (of this county decldod to pursuo that ! course, and on tho 25th day of May , they reassembled. At this" meeting . there woro forty-soven members of I tho committee present, olther In por-I por-I con or by prosy, and they elected Roosevelt dolegates to the state convention. con-vention. The Taft membors who had bolted at the previous meeting of the committee selected Taft delegates to tho state convonlon. , Arizona State Convention. Tho state committee, without any authority. a& I have before Btated I in reference to Maricopa county, made up a temporary roll, and thev decided , that from Cochise county 'both the Taft delegates and the Roosevelt .delegates should be seated and that each delegate should hao one-half vote. In tho state convention thero was a split, the Roosevelt delegates Insisting that the action of, tho atate committee in throwing out the delegates dele-gates elected at the primary in Maricopa Mari-copa county was Illegal and that tho Roosevelt delegates from that county were entitled to seats In thc contention. conten-tion. There were two conventions held in the samo hall, at thc same time, each having a chairman on tho same platform. The Taft faction elected Toft delegates; tho Roossvelt faction elected Roosevelt Roose-velt delegates In thc convention, con-vention, under tho state call, thero were 90 delegates entitled to seats. If we ghe to the Roosevelt faction the delegates from Maricopa county as I believe any fair-minded man must admit we " ought then there were 51 Roosevelt delegates In the convention and 42 Taft delegates. Notwithstanding this state of facts, tho national commltteo. following Its usual custom, seated the Taft dolo-gates. dolo-gates. Thirteenth Indiana. I now come to the thirteenth Indiana, In-diana, and thero is a peculiar condition condi-tion of affairs Tho gentleman from Wyoming (Mr Mondoll) said that ho belietes a majority of that convention conven-tion were Rooscvolt delegates and in favor of selecting Roosevelt delegates to the national convention; but he sold thero was so much noise and disturbance disturb-ance thero that tho chairman had to conduct the proceedings through a megaphone. Tho chairman was a Taft man Both sides agree to that and both sides agree that a majority of the convention were In favor of Roocovolt. Both sides agree thero was a good deal of turmoil and disturbance. dis-turbance. Lot us see. The Roosevelt men lost out because they made bo much nolso they could not do business. busi-ness. What a reasonable proposition! Men In tho majorltv In a convention bringing In brass bands, yelling and whooping and making noise so that no business could bo dono, so that the othor fellows could win out! That Is a reasonable proposition. The gentleman from Wyoming says that he went on that commltteo. and when ho got to the thirteenth Indiana ho thought "Hero Is a place whore I can do something for Roosevelt"; but It seems his courage failed him, as ubin al. The facts are that this chairman, when the motion wan made to oloct a cortaln sot of Taft dolegates, through his megaphone tho bond bo-lng bo-lng under his control put tho question ques-tion and non?e voted aye and some voted no. Ho then declared It oar-ried oar-ried The Roosevolt men wore de-maudinc de-maudinc and urging and calling for a roll call, but the chairman paid no attention to that The band waa making too much noise ThQ major-I major-I Jtv of tho convention wero disturbing him too much. Then that motion wob followed by a motion to adjourn, and the chairman put that He paid no attention to the demands for a roll call made by Roosevolt delegates, and ho declared tho motion carried and. with his Taft adherents, walked out of the hall. That Ih what happened in tho thirteenth Tndlana. There was a statement proaontecl to the commltteo by ox-Sonator Bov-erldge, Bov-erldge, signed by a majority of tho delegates to that convention In which they stated that upon that motion to elect Taft delegates hey all voted no. Tho Roosevelt delegates refused to submit to thlB arbitrary action, and remained In the hall and olected two delegates and Instructed them for Roosevolt Mr. Speaker, I might go on with several others, but I am going to make a few obseravtlons during the balance of my time and try to close within my limit Mr. Cooper Mr. Speakor, will tho gentleman yield? Mr. Norris Certilnly. Mr. Cooper I have Just been discussing dis-cussing -with tho gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. Holgesen) the statement of the gentleman from Nebraska Ne-braska as to the vote in that county in Arizona Maricopa. Do I understand under-stand tbe gentleman to saj that there wero 900 votes cast there for Roosevelt? Roose-velt? Mr, Norris Nine hundred and flf-tv-'one votes for Roosevelt and eleven for Taft. Mr. Cooper And what percentage of the Republican ote ever cast In that county was tho 951? Mr. Norris It was over SO per cent of any Republican primary that had over been held in the county, aud they had been holding them for twenty twen-ty years. The centleman from Wyoming (Mr. Mondell) took considerable time to explain how prejudiced hejvas in favor fa-vor of Roosevelt Those of ub who hao served with him here in tno house for tho last ten years had to smile when ho mado that observation. Wo ell know that from the time Mr. Roosevelt, who was then president, promulgated his so-called conservation conserva-tion policy and theories tho congressional congres-sional record has been full of crlt-cisms crlt-cisms of the worst kind administered to Mr. RoosecIt bv the gentleman from Wyoming. If Colonel Roosevelt has many such friends as tho gentlo-mnn gentlo-mnn from Wyoming, God help him. Tho gentleman in an outburst of enthusiasm said yesterday, in speaking speak-ing of the contests where the Roosevelt Roose-velt men had demanded a little moro time, "They had as much tlmo as wo did."' Think of that from a judgo on tho bench' Oh. upright Judge; oh, unprejudiced chancollor, who, while ho Is a Judgo in the case, unintentionally unintention-ally gives expression to a Bentlment which strongly Indicates that he i6 a bitterly biased advocate of one side rather than a Judgo of unbiased temperament. tem-perament. King County Again. I want to call attention to what the gentleman from Wyoming, In revising revis-ing his speech, printed In tho Record regarding tho primaries in King couu-ty, couu-ty, Wash. In substance, he stated In his address that one of tho reasons rea-sons why tho primary In King county should not be recognized was that no ono knew for a long time how many votes had been cast Thero Beemed to bo, according to his Idea, something some-thing mysterious about tho primary, and ho argued that bocause of this the primary was therefore fraudulent He did not oven claim that a single solitiry fraudulent vote was cast. Tho statement ho printed In tho Record was from a Taft papr, and which was very bitter against the primary. This primary was held on Saturday Tho k11b did not close until 8 o'clock at night Tho extract from this paper pa-per was from its Sunday edition, and wo learn that up to tho time it went to press, which could hae been only a few hours after the polls closed", tho returns at that early hour showed not only that tho gentleman from Wyoming was wrong In trying to convey con-vey the Idea that verv few people participated, but that "he was also wrong in trying-. to convey ihc idea that there was anything concealed or mystorious about the primary. If jou will take the figures from this very statement in this unfriendly paper, vou will find that within theso few I hours nfter the closing of tho polls nearly half of the precincts had reported re-ported and that the pubjic knew what the result was. and if the vote from the precincts that had not reported at that hour compared In number with those thnt had reported, you must reach the conclusion that even from the statement of this unfriendly paper there -were as many votes cast as I have claimed Conclusion. I have now gone over the contests Involving the seats of forty-six delegates dele-gates In tho national convention at Chicago. 1 have not. howover, exhausted ex-hausted the subject. There are a few othor cases as plain as these that I hav0 gone over Then there aro between be-tween 20 and 30 cases not as plain, but In which I am firmly convinced and believe any unbiased mind, upon investigation, would be convinced that the vast preponderance of the evidence Is In favor of the Roo'sevelt dolegates. But I will not weary the I house nlth further dotallB It was onlv necessary to show that nineteen Taft dolegates were illegally seated in order to demonstrate that his pretended pre-tended title to this alleged nomination is absolutely null and void. I have already gone much further than that It logically follows, therefore, that no Republican Is under any party obligations obli-gations whatever to support Mr. Taft for president. Mr. Speaker, I believe that a majority ma-jority of the delegates to Chicago were In favor of the nomination of Mr. Roosevolt, and I believe that It was a majority of the delegates that afterwards met in Orchestra hall and placed him In nomination, and that ho is tho only legal and lawful nominee nom-inee of the Republican party today. I shall print in tho Record a copy of tho resolution that was adopted placing plac-ing him in nomination. I have not sought this contest, Mr Speaker I would have been very glad to have avoided this responsibility responsibil-ity or to have had It placed on othor shouldors than my own. I had no disposition to air this controversy, and I regret It as much as any man in th house that the gentleman from Wyoming saw fit to open it up As ho" said he was urged to do so by others. There is no doubt ho was selected se-lected to place before tho country tho Taft side of tho proposition; and, considering tho case that he hofl, ho did remarkably well. I would not havo opened up this soro bnt since It was opened up I was In favor of cleaning clean-ing It out. I realize that what I havo said and tho courso I havo takon will bring down upon my head a great deal of criticism and consuro It has been an unpleasant task for me for tho last two or three years In this house to ofton bo arayed against the leaders of my own party I havo been opposed to political machines, ma-chines, to boss control, and to caucus rule, and It seemed to mo It was my duty to rroclalm what I believed to be right and to expose what I believed to be wrong just as quick when I find It in my party as though I found it in Bomo" other party I want to say It has been sometimes n discouraging discourag-ing proposition I know that I havo lost many friendships, both on the floor of the houqe and In my state, but I would rather go down to defeat and Into oblivion than to rido foreor on the wave of victory with a guilty consciousness of having even by mv silence given approval to what happened hap-pened In Chicago, when In mv heart I honcstlv beliovo It to be one of the worBl political hlghwnv robberies thnt has over been committed in UiIb country. (Applause.) 1 want to close by expressing by BcntlmentB nnd mv feolings bv unlng the words of the .Immortal Lincoln "I nm not bound to win, but I am bound to bo true. I am not I bound to succeed, but I am bound J to live up to what light J have 1 must stand with anybody who i stands right, ntand with him while ho Is right and par from him when ho goes wrong." (Loud .".pplau-ie.) |