Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-02-17
Republican National Convention
Will Be Disturbed By Pro-
gram of "Allies"
ANT,-RoosEvELT FORCE STRONG
y Fear Expressed That They Already
Control National Committee = Both
Claim Balance of Power-Taft Evil
IDENTIFY Has Upper HoId-WiI South
srners Stick?

washington, Feb. 17.-If the oppon-
ents of the Roosevelt doctrines carry to
q conclusion their program of trying
to defeat the nomination Of Secretary
Taft by filling the republican national
convention with contesting delegations
from the southern states, it will be the
biggest undertaking Of the kind ever
attempted. Indeed, as bid for the
control of a government, it will be but
one step from open revolt with force
and arms.
Tho same scheme has been tried be-
fore, but never upon scale OF such
magnitude. Yet it's operation Is COM
paratively simple. A national conven-
tion certainly can be controlled by this
means, provided there be q sufficient
number of contestants, and majority
Of the national committee be favorable
to their cause.
The national committee makes up the
temporary roll of the convention and
the men named in the temporary roll
are the ones whose votes decide the va
rious contests. The particular state or
district in dispute does not vote, but
all the other contestants on the tenn
porary roll do vote. Hence, If the ma
tional committee will place enough
contestants upon the temporary roll to
give the ti-Roosevelt people ma
iority of that roll. they can control the
convention. First. by making the seats
of their contestants permanent, and
then. with this acquired majority, do
ing as they please in making the nom
1nation.
Fear Reacsionaries Control.
It will thus Hbe perceived that 1t is
solely q question Of who has the ma
tional committee. If Taft has it, the
& scheme will not work. If the reaction
aries have it, then it will. Both sides
claim it, but from the boldness with
which the anti-Taft people have COM
4 bined in the selection of uninstructed
contestants in Florida, and from their
known purpose to continue the same
tactics in the other southern states, 1t
is to be feared that the reactionaries
have captured the majority of the COM
1nittee.
But the control Of the national COM
rnittee will not avail If there be not
enough contestants to give Che $opposi-
ton a clear majority Of the temporary
roll. The Grant third-termers in the
famous convention Of 1880 had more
than fifty contestants and they had the
national committee. But it was not suf-
ficient, and Grant was defeated after
the most bitter struggle, next to the
present one, ever occurring in the re-
publican party. The very first test vote
in the convention of 1880 showed the
Grant adherents that they had not
brought enough contestants to the con-
vention by just seventy-tWo.
The result was that the Blaine fol-
lowers and the other opponents of the
third term were able to take the con-
tests away from the national commit
tee and unseat as many on the tenn
porary roll as they pleased. Which
they did, and generously, in their
strength, permitting John A. Logan and
some Of the other more prominent
supporters Of General Grant to retain
their seats.
Not Enou Oh Votes in Sight.
But in the convention of 1908, the
opponents Of the administration ticket
and policies will have to bring forward
considerably more contestants than
Grant needed to win. Conceding that
the reactionaries can hold together all
the delegates from all the 'favorite-son
states, and can perfect a fighting COM
bination Of all the fayorite sons, they
will still be 1s9 votes short Of a bare
majority of one There are about 345
votes In the southern states, and it will
really be necessary to have contests
IN most of them to stand any show OF
making up a temporary roll large
enough to swing the convention.
And besides, there is a large ques-
ton Of whether they can hold their
men together as Grant did his fam
Gus "Sparatan-B Band" of 3O6, to go thru
very many ballots. The information
here Is that many Of the delegates
from Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin,
Pennsylvania and New York will be
likely to have lively desire to line up
on the Taft side unless the reaction
aries can show vast preponderance of
strength early in the battle. If it comes
to a matter Of sticking it out for thir-
ty-six ballots, as did the Grant "stal-
warts" in 1880, the reactionaries will
fade away into thin mist. For there is
no personality in either Fairbanks
Cannon, Knox or any of the others APP
preaching that of General Grant, and
no leader in their whole camp to hold
q candle to Roscoe Conkling.
Will Southerners "Stick?"
Again, the means that must be used
70 pick up contestants in the south
are not Of the kind to bring stay-t to-
the-death material out of the south.
John Sherman's reference in his book
to Russell A. Alger regarding the con-
vention of 1883 shows that at least
some Of the southern republicans will
not "stay put" Even the friends Of
Alger afterward told tales to prove
this. One was that on one occasion in
the convention of 1883 several negro
delegates from the south came to the
Alger headquarters and offered to sell
their seats in the convention. The per-
son in charge politely declined to buy,
saying Alger had all the seats he
delegation shuffled uneasily for a
moment and then essayed to close the
deal at one, stroke.
Boss" he said, ode votes go VIII
desc Seats
Another thing not to be lost sight of
is the grave possibility of the conven-