New-York tribune., 1910-08-24
TINE TO BEGIN.


The advice of The Tribune on the day
after the 'old guard perpetrated its
trick. that it was time TO begin the long
promised fight. holds good to-day. and
with added force. No party can go to
the polls with any hope of success If 1t
does net free itself from machine
caught in fragrant act of deception,
and now that the utter untitneSs OF the
Barnes Woodruff group is exposed in
SO concrete and definite a manner a
fight can be fought with perfect GER
tainty of success. No defence and no
apology can be made for the 'old guard.
Its members have practised a shabby
and dishonorable trick and have been
caught at it.
These men who like TO call themselves
headers" of the party have been ex-
posed in an attempt TO discredit Presi-
dent Taft and to deceive the public.
They have sought TO stir up factional
strife in the party by humiliating ex-
President Roosevelt and pretending that
in doing so they were carrying out the
wishes of his successor They have de-
liherately done all they could TO make
Republican success at the polls next No
vember impossible. The record of their
selfish conspiracy is all written plain
where every Republican may read it
with amazement and shame There is
ne room for dispute. President Taft's
dignifed and dispaSsionate account of
his part in various consultations regard
inC this states affairs exposes the
treachery of the "od guard to the ma
tional administration and TO the Repub-
lican party. 1t is no longer q mere
matter of opinion whether or not the
ready in its desperation to wreck the
party in order TO save its own hold upon
the machinery. The proofs are where
every one may see them. The movement
for the reorganiza ton of the Republican
party in New York enjoys now the in
estimabe advantage Of having had the
"old guard prove its ease for II.
Taking the state committee and the
state convention out of the hands of the
cibal at present in control will be easy
L: would never have been difficult had
the fight that was always TO begin
really been begun in earnest. The con-
spirators had only bare majority of the
state committee AT its last meeting. and
that was obtained by concealing the real
object Of the meeting and filling the
places Of committeeman with proxies.
Even on the Supposition that the proxies
reflected the actual sentiment Of the
communities they were supposed to rep
resent. the "old guard would have had
only a bare ajority of the state con-
vention. The desperate character of the
tactics employed shows that the Barnes
Woodruff group was conscious of its
own weakness. If its members had been
sure of their position they would not
have taken the risks they did take to
demonstrate their capacity to play poll
tics against amateurs" For men who
were sure of their control of the c0nven-
ton there would have been nothing to
gain from preventing Colonel ROosevelt'S s
promised progressive" speech that
would make it worth while TO run the
risk of being found out. And weak as
they were then they have since been
Unmasked. They will be repudiated by
the honest Kepublicanism of the state
just as they have been repudiated by
Mr.. Taft, whom they were willing TO
InisrepreSent and discredit