The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-03-04
THAT COMMITTEE
4 MAJORITY or ITS 1EEsfBERs
 CLAIMED BY TAFT MANAGERS.
His ManageRn, Who Have Been Making . Quiet Canvass, So Declare President Wanted
 to Know

Washington Special to Brooklyn Eagle. If was announced at the Taft head quarters in this city tonight that majority of the Republican National Committee is Dro-Taft. 1t was also announced that . large majority of the committee have expressed themselves as Indignant over Che reported whole. sale promises made by representatives of anti-Taft candidates that contesting South would be seated In the conven- ton regardless of the regularity of the conventions that elected them.
 For the past rwO weeks. Mir. Tafts ducting a canvass to determine the state of feeling on the part of the mef1. bers of the National Committee on two important questions. It Is understood that the work was taken up by special direction of the President. The first | thing that the President vented. to know. the day following the Florida convention. was how the NatIonal Com | he sent for Hitchcock that day and asked him to resign from the Postof- | flee Department and take charge of the
 Taft campaign, this was the thing up- permost in his mind He didn't want the National Committee to be captured by the 'antis." for the committse is to | pass upon contested election cases and
 Is to make up the temporary. roll caii | of the convention. The President fore saw how the committee might unseat enough Taft delegates to make the con- ventfon anti-Taft. AS a result of the inquiry which was | then set on foot, the positive announce ment is made tonight that the commit | tee Is pro-Taft by narrow margin. A ~, nounced' I so it is sal said the plan n of en- en- couraging contests from the South by pledgfng the committee to aeat anti- Taft contestants, regardless of the | It is said that the committee members hotly resent being put In false poe sition by this means. The Taft man
 agers assert that aiI co contests orought o,i tt settled strictly on their merits and that
 1t will be impossible to pack the eon. vention by the wholesale admission Of l contesting anti-Taft men who are not | It is a notable fact that the friends | of Secretary Taft are growing daily more and more confident that their fa- | They say that the ground is being cut from under the "antis" by the viz
 orous campaign that Is being made In
 socs tsTSsts u7sase. iS fo Ts ssfes rs woR IS | being prosecuted with vigor and with l surprising results. Secretary Taft has | received a great many letters from per- | formation that they are for him after | Governor Hughes is out of the race.
 Some of these writers are unknown to
 the Secretary. One man stated that ne
 was for Hughes first and Taft second. The Secretary replied that he was glad the New Yorker was standing by the Governor, and that he wanted nothing done to further his own campaign that
 would embarrass the prospects oi Hughes.
 The Taft managers have changed
 their hostile tactics lately and are now ,
 pressing for instructed delegates n
 many States where. formerly they
 would have been coutepted with mere
 Endorsements. This Is particularly true
 of Minnesota and West Virginia A
 month ago Minnesota was conceded stS La Toilette and Hughes. Frank Fl
 Hitchcock. manageP-in -chief of the Tat I boom stated today that he had reeeiv.
 ed reports from every Congressiona
 district in MinnesUte and that as
 result of this information he expected
 the State Convention would instruct
 The same claim is made for Wes
 Virginia, which has always been con
 ceded to the opposition. Taft's friendl
 in the various States are taking cour
 age at the spread of his boom ana ar'
 forcing the hand of the opposition bl
 making open demands for instruction
 The atmosphere of Taft headquarter is a decidedly optimistic one thes'
 days. The managers there are, more
 over. as certain as the White House Il
 that the Secretary of War is bound t
 be nominated.