The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1908-07-23


men who bolted the republican ticket
two years ago, showed at Chicago that
1T was not so much to elect Allison that
they were fighting in the recent pri-
mary, as to defeat Cummins. With both
Allison and Cummins insured for the
Senate, and party harmony in sight in
Iowa, they bitterly and viciously OPP
posed the selection of Dolliver as vice
president, despite the fact that Roose-
welt and Taft both wanted him. Sena-
tor Dolliver himself was not averse to
accepting the vice presidency. In fact,
the Associated Press stated that he and
the president had talked it over before
congress adjourned, and that Dolliver
had agreed to accept the vice presi-
dency.
The standpat leaders at Chicago, how
ever, refused to present Delivers name
to the convention. Though cursing him
for duplicity only two years ago,y they
lauded his good qualities now, and in
sisted that Iowa needed him in the SEN
ate. They showed that his nomination
would let Cummins into the senate, and
they denounced Cummins as demo-
crat, demagogue, and dangerous rad
ical.
Then the President and Mr.. Taft, per.
sistent in their desire for western
man ip1ioo Tod tbo;, lo.;.a g.. o.
Cummins. For several days the stand
patters on the delegation fought this
suggestion bitterly, continuing their
personal attacks on the governor, in
order to kill his boom. Without his
own state delegation for him, the gov
| ernor had no chance to win the nomi-
nation, and on the night after Taft was
named for president, and after it was
too late to accomplish anything, the
standpatters on the Iowa delegation
coldly and formally endorsed Gov. Cum
Minis for the vice presidential nomina-
ton.
Of course it was too late, and he was
not nominated. The enemies of Roose-
Welt and Taft had gotten together while
the Iowa delegation was squabling and
showing their spleen, and Jas. S. Sher-
man, an obscure congressman from New
York, who cannot speak, who never
was heard of by the people before, and
whose only qualification is that he has
not heartily supported the president in
his reforms, was named on the first bal
lot. The Iowa og-in-the-manger" not
only prevented Iowa from securing a
vide-pressdency,-an honor that all
should have united on,-but they de-
feated Roosevelt's and Taft's desire to
have middle western man and an ora
tor on the ticket with Taft, and kept up
their quarreling and personal spite
work until the Presidents enemies got
together, and led by such reactionaries
as Speaker Cannon, named reactionary
for vice president.
The standpat leaders are now irving
to square themselves by claiming that
they finally endorsed Gov. Cummins for
the vice presidency. But they did not
do so until they were sure they had
killed his boom. They ignored party
interest, spurned the wishes of the
President and Mr.. Taft, destroyed Iowa S
chance to secure place on the presi-
dental ticket, and went out of their
way to further split the party in Iowa
instead of harmonizing it completely, as
they should have done. That is what
Iowas standpat delegation to the Chi
cago convention accomplished this
year. They threatened to lead another
bolt and produce political anarchy" in
Iowa if Senator Dolliver was named for
vice president. They threatened to
elect democratic legislature in Iowa.
They called Gov. Cummins democrat
and dangerous man. Yet in the face
of all these things, when Roosevelt and
Taft still insisted on Dolliver for vice
president, the standpatters signed a
written protest and refused to endorse
him to the convention. Then it was
that Gov. Cummins was presented and
was similarly killed by his own state
for nomination that other states were
fighting and scheming for.
If the national republican ticket lacks
a speaker who can cope with Mr.. Bryan,
and who will appeal to the progressive
votes of the middle and far west this
year, they can thank such men as LATE
Young, Geo. D. Perkins, J. F. Lacy, and
Ernest e. Hart for it. Most of them are
sore-heads and have personal spites
against the Governor that guided them
completely in their actions at Chicago.
Even Col. Hepburn, though not dele
gate, butted in and helped keep the vice
presidency away from Iowa, for fear it
might give the progressives some rec
ognition. If the Colonel had known the
feeling in his district better this year
he would have kept out of the Chicago