Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-03-28
MCKINLEY MEN WORRIED
Fears as to the Temporary Control of the
National Convention.
There VIII Be COntesting Delegations
From Nearly Every Southern State,
and This Means Much.

The Mckinley people manifest the same
confidence at the end Of this week as
week ago. IT'S all over, but the shout
ing" is the way Mckinley enthusiast
expressed it to a Star reporter today, but
underneath the enthusiasm and the boast
ing is the menace that hangs over the
shouters that the ant;-combination will
control the temporary organization of the
convention. The Mckinley leaders are wor-
ried at the prospect Of this, and one of
them, a man who will be a national figure
at the convention. intimated as much to a
Star reporter, who tried to pump him on
this phase of this question. But he was
game. like all the supporters. of the buck
eye man.
do you suppose" he said, chat we are
going to sit still ard see presidency stolen
from us? We know that We have a ma
jority on the national executive commit
tee, or had it, and if there is a change,
We will know how it came about. 1 tell
you," he said, vehemently, that I saw
a temporary chairman of a convention al
most thrown out Of a window once for
attempting TO override the majority OF a
convention
Yields big Power.
The average voter has no idea how big a
PoWSh 10 "lelucO ny u uttlOndl executive
committee on a national convention. The
committee has the making up of the rolls
of the convention and the naming of a
temporary chairman. In the present re-
publican fight there are contests from near
ly every southern state, and the list of
contested delegates means much to Nc
kinley. In fact, could he be able to seat
the majority of the delegates favorable TO
him his nomination looks like it would be
almost certainty. Before the national
convention meets it is expected that there
Will he between sixty and a hundred dele
gates whose seats in the convention will
depend great deal on the temporary or
ganization. There may he more than the
maximum number, HaAtiQDisd.! tI1eis GER
tain that there will be double delegations
II ON Florida, Texas, Alabama, South Caro-
lima, Mississippi and probably Louisiana
There will also be contests from some of
the congressional districts of all the other
southern states. 1t IS impossible now to
estimate accurately how many of these
problems the national convention will have
to solve.
May Hinge ON That.
1t is not improbable that the nomina tiou
or defeat of Mckinley may hinge alto
gether on these contests. The Ohio man
cannot get enough delegates independent
of these contests to nominate him. The
popularity Of the contests is that they
come from quarter which the Mckinley
men claim naturally belongs to them.
They charge that the contests, in some
instances. are prompted purposely to pre-
vent Mckinley securing any more dele
gates than candbeo helped 4hOh the other
hand, the frierdSeof' the other candidates
say that the Mckinley men have been the
ones to bolt all conventions and to set up
conventions of their own with handsful of
men, not to be compared in numbers with
the regular conventions. Both sides claim
that the Texas convention was theirs by
superiority of numbers and rightful posses
sion Of the party organization. NO mat
ter which way the Texas contest is set
tied" said a Mckinley man, I'VE have Sc
cured eight delegates from that state whose
seats are not contested"
Gen. GrOsvenOr's Figures.
Gen. Grosvenor has announced that he
will give to the press tomorrow night or
Monday morning another table containing
the standing of Mckinley. He would not
do so today, because a number of conven-
tions are to act today, and the general
wants to get the returns frqaml frqamfl them before
he makes up the table. Gen. Grosvenor's s
figures are looked for regularly these days
and attract attention from friends and op-
ponents.