Bismarck daily tribune., 1908-04-24
IEMHER OF ASSOCIATED PRESS
utG49|e7=D
THE TEST: ARE THE Stall
WARTS EQUAL TO THE OccA-
SION?

We gather from the lugubrious
picture drawn by the Grand Forks
Herald of POLITICAL conditions with
in the Republican party that the ed
itorial department and the depart
ment of political claims are not
working in accord. The political
claims department for several weeks
has been setting out tables, calculat-
ed to fill the breast of the insurgent
with exultation and joy, but calcu-
lated to fill the mouth of truth with
exclamations of horror of the dis
tortation of the facts.
1t has been conveyed to the faithful,
through the Herald columns, that the
insurgents had this many or that
many delegates, as the necessities of
the case required, that the stalwarts
had a good many less and that so
many were doubtful. Insurgent
leaders coming into Grand Forks
have been interviewed and have ad-,
ded their roseate claims to those of
the Herald claim department, so that
the political claim editor has been
doing a wholesale business on very
small capital indeed.
But the real editor of the Herald
has looked upon those claims and
sighed heavily, realizing as he did
that they were unsafe and unrelia-
BILE. And in long and doleful re-
ply to a recent article of the Trib-
une the Herald practically gives up
the political ghost so far as the con-
vention at Minot is concerned
wherever it is possible to elect a
stalwart delegation" says the Her.
aid, cit is being done" "What do
the gentlemen who are doing the
harmony stunt propose to concede?"
askes the Herald. Surely this is a
plain intimation that the stalwarts-
will have the conceding to do. This
is rank treason toward the political
claims editor who has Justify
and at all times and places claimed
control of the convention for the
"progressives.
The trouble with the Herald is that
1t has entirely eliminated the human
:ly natural element from politics
Some weeks-or months-ago the
Herald announced that the Republi-
can party must be saved from the
machine" and the machine mum.
bered all who were in political of.
flee or who had been in political of
flee within the past few years or who
were in control in any way of the
party machinery. The machine mus
be destroyed, the leaders of the part!
driven to the woods, the control O
everything must be turned over tt
the progressives, who would fumi
gate the whole business and keep i
for themselves. To effect this re
generation, the "progressives" mus
get control of the Minot convention
and progressive" delegates must b
chosen in all the county conventions
The Herald deliberately and pur
posely provoked factionalism within
the party. 1t is not the nature O
men to retire calmly upon the simpl
say-so of self-constitnted part
censor, from participation in polite.
and the .Herald's scheme for purt
fication of the party has not prove
popular with the rank and file of th
party, as the relative strength of th
stalwarts and progressives or insure
ents or whatever they may be cal
ed, will show. Now the Herald i
disappointed again. 1t won't ,play. ]
wants the majority Of the delegate
to turn the convention over tol tn
minority and admit that the majorit
is clean and sweet and pure. Thi
is not human nature. Neither is
the policy Of the insurgents, wher
they have control. The stalwart dele
gates will in all probability be /
control of the Minot convention an
they will be responsible to the part