The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-05-09
FALSE RETURNS
GIVE PROMOTES
SWEEPING VOTE
Figures JuggIed by Someone TO
Show Salt Lake County
Unanimous.
JAMES SAYS ELDREDGE
HAS CORRECTED ERROR
ELDREDGE, HOWEVER, ASSERTS
THAT HE DID NOT MAKE
AN ERROR.

Open charges that figures were juggied
at the Republican state convention on
Thursday were made yesterday by in
surgent" leaders. It was pointed out thas
Salt Lake county had 133 votes. and that
OF thlS number Senator Reed SmOOt and
congressman Joseph Howell each re
ceiVed l32. while G. +. Loose of Provo re-
celNed the entire l33. according to the
Official" figures.
John James. secretary of the conven-
ton. proved that there was something
back of the charges of irregularities when
ne admitted last night that an error
had been discovered in the figures turned
IN by Joe Eldredge. chairman of the salt
Lake delegation. Mr. Eldredge, he said
had been told of the error and had cor
rected it. Secretary James declared that
the mistake did not in any way affect
the results, as shown upon the Official
record up to the time Mr.. Edredge was
allowed 10 make his alteration.
Mr.. James. however, insisted that SEN
atOr SmOOt had received 132 Of the total
of l33 votes, and that National Chairman
Loose had received the entire 139. The
secretary, after considerable fencing
stated that Mr.. Eldredge's count showed
about j. or q votes more than the total
of l33 allotted to Salt Lake county. but
he declared that he was not in a posi-
ton to explain Just how Mr.. Eldredge
had made his correction claiming that
the records Of the convention were locked
up somewhere.
Leaders of the insurgents" say that the
count of the votes al the convention was
absolutely false. and proves that the ma
chine against which they have been fight
ing has stopped TO tTickery 10 defeat the
movement for independence in the ReDub-
lican party. If Mr.. EldTcdge was allowed
to make a correction. it was said. it was
not until after the Salt Lake delegation
had dispersed and was in the nature of
a secret proceeding which should not have
been allowed.
Among the Salt Lake delegates there
were fifteen or twenty men who agreed
not to vote for Senator SmoOt said
an insurgent leader yesterday. There is
no doubt that there were many more who
did not vote for the head of the machine
How. then, could Smo0t have received 132
of the 133 votes?
How did Loose get the entire 135 votes?
when just before the convention II was
agreed among the Salt Lake DELEGATES
that the vote Of this county should go
TO Weber county. as it was not thought
proper to send two Provo men to the
national Republican OnventiOn-Smoot
and LoOse-and leave Ogden without rep
resentati0n. More than fifty Of the Salt
Lake delegates. who favored the selection
of Senator SmOOt as one Of the delegate.
desired to see A. r. Haywood in the Utah
delegation instead of Loose
What became of these votes? # Mr.
Eldredge made an error it was most
extraordinary thing Delegates who have
been robbed of their votes would call this
Honest Treatment Impossible.
THE convention proved one thing: In
dependent Republicans cannot hope for
fairness or honest treatment in the pres
ent party organization in Utah. If it is
a fair fight. party worker IS willing 10
be beaten in convention and then work for
the party'S candidates at the polls but no
man with a spark of independence in his
makeup could endure to be Tamped upOn
in the manner adopted by the party ma
chine in this style
Republicans ali over the state. Tt has
shown them that Senator SmOOt and the
federal officehOlders control the party
organization with a machine whose exist
ence is dangerous. The men who control
this machine are INSCRIPTIONS and, juds-
ing by the light shed upon their meth
DDS at the convention, they viii stop at
nothing.
.'The future for the Republican party
in Utah is very dark. There VIII be
many more desertiOns next fall. There
are many men who attended the recent
state convention who have announced
that they will never again take part IN
the party elaboration as there is no hope
for those who wish to act independent
" of the machine.
1t was said that on Thursday morning
about $50 o'clock about twenty members
of the Salt Lake delegation met and chose
Joe Eldredge as chairman of the delega-
ton. Later. when the other delegates
gathered at the Salt Lake theatre and
learned that Mr.. Eldredge had not only
been made chairman. but that Ii had been
agreed that the Salt Lake votes should
be cast for SmoOt and Loose, both cf
Provo, there was great dissatisfaction. and
a new understanding was reached. by
which the Salt Lake county votes were TO
go TO only one of the Provo men.
Senator SmOOt
PhalanX of Postmasters.
When Eldredge announced the vote
z a. .-.vT-s a,,I efara.a lion
among those who had not been present
at the delegation caucus. but Indignation
did not swell to the bursting point until
the delegates met and compared notes af-
ter the convention.
As proof that the federal OfficehOlders
had resorted 70 machine politics TO con-