The San Francisco call., 1906-07-31
Stale Central Committee
Decides axe Up
Con. Is.
CumminS Forces May Re-
, fuse to Abide by Its
Ruling.

IN ES MONIES, July 3o.-The Re
publican State central commit
- tee met today and decided, by
q vote Of TO 8. to sustain the
action Of the chairman of the commit
tee In notifying Governor curnnins
that the seats OF number Of delegates
70 the Republican State convention
were contested. BY the same vote the
action OF Chairman Spence in having
called the present meeting Of the State
central committee was ratified
IN both cases il appears the chair
man acted upon his responsibility He
received petition from adherents of
George .. Perkins. q candidate for
Governor. giving notice that the seats
OF large number of Cummins' dele
gates would be contested. The chair
man thereupon sent notice OF this fact
70 Governor Cummins, who seeks a
denomination
The Governor replied in letter de-
nying the authority OF the central com
mittee TO take up the matter of con-
rests. asserting that Il had no juris-
diction. The chairman. however. sent
notices to several newspapers calling
the central committee TO meet in Des
Moines today 10 consider the contests.
d. His explanation TO the committee was
at two or three Of the members were
q Des Moines at the time and after
consulting them and receiving their
approval he felt justified in taking the
action he did. in order that the dele
gates whose seats were contested
might have two or three more days
notice than they would have had IL
he had called the committee together
and submitted TO II the petition and
the question Of a call for today's meet
ing
The vote OF to 3 was regarded as
an indication that the committee in
tended TO assume Jurisdiction OF the
contests and to hear the contestants
and the Cummins delegates in case the
latter entered an appearance.
There are 1910 delegates entitled to
seats in the State convention from the
nfnety-nine counties in the State
When the committee met today ten of
the eleven members were present.
Chairman Spence, Of course, did not
vote on the motion TO sustain his own
action.
=. Thomas F. Bevington, an attorney
representing the friends of George D.
Perkins. gave notice Of contests in ten
counties. which have ninety-two dele
gates.
Such a situation as that now existing
in Iowa is new TO the Republicans of
this State. They have never known
anything like il before. The party ap-
parently is divided into two factions
one known as the "ProgressiVes," rep
resented by the friends Of Governor
Cummins. and the other called the
';Standpatters.' who are adherents of
George .. Perkins. The feeling on
n n sides is very bitter and IT is not
unlikely that there Will be two Repub-
.lican tickets in the field in Iowa after
next Wednesday.
Although the State central commit
tee has as yet taken no action looking
70 the making up Of a temporary roll
the Cummins adherents say that if the
contesting Perkins delegates are au-
thOrized TO participate in the tenn
porary organization of the convention
the action Of the State central COM
mittee VIII be ignored and the legally
elected Cummins delegates, who claim
70 have the majority. will organize the
convention as soon as Chairman Spence
calls the delegates TO order Wednesday
morning