Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-08-01
1H[ CONGRESS I.1[N
GALL 0! ,A[ Fight
When They Saw Split Was In
evitable They Decided
to Act
THEY DECLARE FOR HARMONY
Their Own Interests and That Of the
Party Demanded That Only Ono
Ticket Be Named and They Recos-
nized That Majority Was Against
the "Fake" Contests.
ial to Times-lRepublican.

Special to Times-Republican
Des Moines. Aug. 1.-The fight of
/ the year really eliminated when the
members of congress got together on
! Tuesday afternoon and virtually call
ed off the whole fight. The manner in
which this crisis was reached will bear
telling In detail. In the first place
! the members of congress had watched
the fight from afar, and some of them
had taken an active part in promoting
the factional fight. Before they left
! Washington they had informally dis
cussed the situation and it is stated
| that there was a sort of tacit agree
ment among them that each one would
return home and approach his own
district committeeman to urge upon
! him conservative action. Be that as ii
may. the radicals were leading the fight
up till Monday. On Saturday they came
here in force. They came on invitation.
| The crowd was selected and picked and
the character of the men was known.
They came to make a fight. They
came to decide that the convention
| should be split wide open and two
/ tickets be nominated, for everyone.
even the bell boys a the Slavery, knew
! that If the fake contests were persisted
in it was for the sole purpose of divid-
ing the convention and making two
| tickets.
| The radicals got the start by sIyly
| slipping in four days ahead of the con-
vention and naming a steering com
mittee guaranteed to have upon it only
| rule or ruin men. 1t was believed by
them that this would have the effect Of
keeping up the fight, it would give
the state committee sufficient backing
to go on with recognition Of the fakes,
and it would overwhelm the great body
of standpat delegates, many of whom
would not naturally take action look
ing toward a split in the party
But on Monday the state committee
got to work and it was soon developed
that the contest game was so very
thin that even the radicals could not
longer defeat it. OF course Bevington
and Johnston and Salinger and Hun
ter and Parrott and few others were
convinced that it was the thing; but
the first days investigation showed
that the fake contests were without
footing. Monday night there was evi-
dent weakening of the standpat forces
The 20. b." conference was almost
failure. Lafe Young and Perkins talk
ed wildly, but old Col. Pete Hepburn
talked like a man about ready to put
on the sackcloth once more.
BY Tuesday morning the atmosphere
was different. Many conservatives had
appeared. The congressman were here.
They had taken stock Of the supply of
nerve which the radicals could supply.
They had Investigated. And they had
discovered that the overwhelming sem
timent of the great mass of delegates
representing the republican party Of
Iowa, men of all factions, and gradually
crystallizing so that it would be inn
possible longer to stand against the
popular will
Tuesday afternoon the congressman
met. Some say they had all along in
tended to do it. Others declared that
the congressman got scared. Perhaps
they merely caught the spirit of the
let up. What they did is not certainly
known But they practically sent word
to the republican state committee that
it was time to call off the fake contests
and to refer the three legitimate con-
tests to the state convention in the
regular way In truth the state COM
mittee had already got around to
frame of mind where such an order
was welcome.
THE question Immediately arose:
Did Blythe indorse this confession of
defeato The rumor spread that he
had indorsed it, and that some others
of the group of railroad attorneys here
engineering the whole contest, decided
that it was a losing game. But Lafe
Young and Perkins and Berryhill and
Parrott and some others We're still for
war They didn't know they were
whipped But it can be set down as
certain that the congressional delega-
ton did not take the action Indicated
without knowing that Blythe would not
order a forward charge as they were
ordering the retreat.
Some details were left to be attended
to. but the congressman virtually de-
cided that it was to be harmony and
one convention and one ticket and
united support of Governor Cummins.
South Dakota Candidate There.
Hon. Coe l. Crawford candidate for
governor of South Dakota, looked in
on the convention. Mr.. Crawford has
recently been nominated for governor
after a fierce fight against the rail-
road machine in South Dakota. He is
a former Iowa man and he has been
fighting the battles of the people for
many years. "The fight in South Da
kota is much like that in Iowa" he
said I'VE won out after hard strug-
gle with the machine. We have a state
caucus law in that state. II was pass
ed for the purpose of defeating our
people We had asked under an in
itiative and referendum law, for a