Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-05-23
DlsRupTING THE PARTY.

Readers of the Blythe newspapers
have heard a great deal during this.
campaign about "disrupting the par
ty." Mr.. Cummins is held responsible
for the fierceness of the present cam
paign and is declared unfit for republic
can leadership because an intense fac
tionalism has arisen over his candi-
dacy. Mr. Perkins is pleading for sup
port as a harmony candidate, while the
republicans of his own district repudi-
ate him and his only source of dele
gates is in far away counties owned
and delivered by Mr.. Blythe thru the
influence of his railroad in politics.
Granting that this disruption of the
party into factions is of itself unfor-
tunate, what are we to say of the part
played by Mr.. Blythe and his followers
in wapello county? Here was con-
yention closely divided except that the
Cummins men had just enough dele
gates to control on a fair count, while
the Blythe men controlled the party
machinery Being appraised of the sit
uation over the long distance phone
Mr.. Blythe gives orders to secure
contested delegation at any cost. Should
this be called disrupting the party?
His followers then proceeding under
his orders attempt to throw out of the
C,1,,t mi .1
delegates who appeared there with
their credentials properly signed by
Blythe man who happened to have
been chairman of the ward caucus.
Compelled to ride down political high
way robbers the Cummins men took
charge of the convention, organized it
and transacted business. Then in one
corner of the room. thirty or forty
Blythe men went thru the motion of
voting upon resolutions offered by a
Blythe leader who was not delegate,
who had previously been excluded from
the convention room by the county
sheriff and who had no business what
ever in that assembly except that he
had received Blythes orders over the
telephone to secure contested delega-
ton at any cost. Was this disruptin,
the party? To what extent was the
Cummins candidacy responsible for it !?
IF Cummins. too, would take Mr..
Blythe's orders over the telephone does
anyone suppose we would hear any
thing more about disrupting the party?
In Polk and Des Moines counties,
too. we have striking comparisons Of
the manner in which the party is be-
ing disrupted. In Polk where Mr..
Cummins lives, every republican voter
is given the right to vote his choice
by secret ballot in a legalized primary
and two-thirds of them voted to allow
Mr. Cummins to select seventy-tWo
delegates to the state convention ia
vorable to his candidacy. No one was
coerced. No caucus was packed. There
was no row. Everybody was satisfied.
This was the system Mr.. Cummins has
tried to establish by law in every
county in Iowa but Mr.. Blythe kept
60 railway employe, Mr.. Eaton, in
Des Moines all winter to prevent 1t
and a statewide primary was defeated.
In Des Moines county where Mr..
Blythe lives delegates were also chos-
en-, but the work was done at caucuses.
In Mr.. Blythe's own ward someone
asked for secret ballot in the caucus
but Mr.. Blythe insisted upon marching
the men like cattle thru the door to
be counted under the very eyes of the
officials from the railroad which con-
trolls most of the employment in the
city of Burlington. So repugnant was
this to many republicans that the con-
vention resulted in a row and the anti
Blythe men will come to the conven-