OCR Text |
Show WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH. H ' The Salt Lake Herald-Republican, in bewailing the fate of Taft, 1 says : Hj "With Borne interest, not to say curiosity, the country is waiting for H Mr. Roosevelt to read a lecture to some of his followers using his favorite H text, "Thou shalt not steal." The colonel has been ringing the changes H on this ever since his attempt to filch control of the Republican national Hi convention -was thwarted. If he is sincere he has an excellent opportun- Ht ity to rebuke some of those in his own ranks who are trying to steal Re- 1 I publican organizations in the 'various states to use them for a candidate H who voluntarily bolted the Republican party and its convention. Here w and there in some of the commonwealths Roosevelt adherents allege H ' their intention to try to control their Republican state conventions, nom- H i lnate electors who will go on the ticket which is headed by William H Howard Taft, but who will support Roosevelt In the electoral college after H having been elected, by supporters of Mr. Taft. H . The scheme cannot succeed, of cf course, as the managers of the Taft Hl campaign are not quite so childlike and bland as to permit it. But the H very suggestion should draw from the colonel a scathing denunciation of H I those who arc indorsing it. He Is busily engaged in trying to form a H ' third party, composed of both Republicans and Democrats, and, as an hon- Hl I est man, he certainly cannot countenance this thievery on the part of B his followers. H I Too had. It was great sport at Chicago, but the aftermath is H distressing to the Standpatters. While they were bulldozing and robbing their way to control of the Chicago convention, they declared de-clared that everything was fair in love and war; now that the Progressives have it in their power to defeat Taft by naming state electors pledged to Roosevelt, the Standpatters throw up their hands, exclaiming: "Great Scott, you would not take advantage of a poor cripple!" crip-ple!" The Standpatters cannot honestly claim the party emblem, no more so than can a thief claim ownership to stolen property. The Roosevelt Republicans arc not only entitled to use the party emblem, but they are authorized by a big majority of the party, as disclosed in the primary elections, to represent themselves as the Republican party. Because they were robbed in Chicago is no reason why the Progressives, in control of state organization, should not continue to reap all the benefits of their strength and assert their rights to the utmost. |