The sun., 1908-02-10
MANY CONTESTS AT CHICAGO
CONTROL OF NATIONAL COMMIT
TEE THE FIRST MOVE.
Majority Against Roosevelt and Tart Said
tOBe At Present { COnVentlOn Does Not
Always Accept the Committees RecOIn-
mendAtIOns- Times Predicted.

NAAIWNNg ANAhheb NNDeONFN AAeu hAaN @%sN
tOBe Ht Present & convention Does Not
Always Accept the Committees Recon-
mendAtiOns- Times Predicted.
There are to be SO2 delegates to the Repub-
lican national convention at Chicago.
Republicans fresh from Washington last
night said that the indications were that
the seats Of nearly 800 delegates would he
contested
A Republican national committeeman
has a post that has been growing in i'm
portanoe for several months. The present
national committee. Of which Harry >.
New. Of Indiana is chairman, makes up the
temporary roll Of the convention. The
national committee is TO meet in Chicago
a week before the date Of the convention.
June 49, TO hear the contests. The faction
which controls the national committee
will be very powerful in determining which
body Of contestants is to he put upon the
temporary roll.
Il is the very general understanding
that Mr.. New is a Taft man. although
the thirteen Congress districts Of his State
OF Indiana have declared solidly for Vice
President Fairbanks and have instructed
for Fairbanks. Mr.. Fairbanks and MIR.
New, however. have not hitched in recent
years, and for that matter the tie between
Senator Beveridge and Mr.. Fairbanks Is
not OF the stoutest kind Senator hemen-
way. Mr. Beveridge's collea que. 10 sturdy
IN his fidelity to the Vice president. While
The BeveridRe men say that Fairbanks VIII
get support from Indiana on the first ballot.
hey intimate that ii will be OF the per-
hInctOry I'VE expect to loee anyhow
kind. II is known that Mr.. Fairbanks
10 to have a bunch Of delegates from the
Southern States and expects support from
other quarters.
The men from Washington said last
night that the majority against Roosevelt
and Taft in the national committee 10 now
q in a total membership OF 54 and that this
majority is expected to increase Between
now and convention time the struggle Will
he TO control the national committee. In
times past. notably in 1884, the convention
upset recommendations OF the national
committee, and in 1892 the anti-Harrison
men at first controlled the national COM
mittee only to lose II, and as a result scores
Of Federal officeholders were seated as dele
gates and President Harrison as a result
was rsnOminated on the first ballot, only
TO be overwhelmingly defeated AT the polls
The Republican who captured control OF
the national committee from Quay Piatt,
ClaTkson Foraker and WOlcott and their
friends and used this control to scat the
Federal OfficehOlder contestants was John
G. New, HarrisOn's Consul-General to Lon
don, and father Of Harry New. Harry New
went through this fight with his father and
he knows the ropes.
The national committee will also name
the temporary chairman Of the convention.
and those in control Of the temporary con-
vention will name the important committees
of the convention, like those on credentials
and resolutions.
At St Louis in lS96 Marcus A. Hanna
and his friends controlled the national com
mittee. and in the preliminaries they bum
died the Thomas b. Reed delegates and
all delegates opposed to Mckinley out OF
tine window with scant courtesy and with
scarcely hearing. lt was on that occasion
that the late Sam Fessenden OF Connecticut
had a wordy war with Hanna and turned
upon Joe Manley of Maine. who had for
saken Reed with God Almighty hates
quitter." For this fracas Fessenden to
iiis last day was practically on the shelf in
Connecticut politics. The scenes at the
sessions of the national committee and the
credentials committees of the two parties
have in years gone by been riotous and
the Republicans here last night predicted
similar scenes at Chicago this summer