Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1910-07-07
The TACOMA
CONVENTION
STANDPAT REPUBLICANS PLAN
Ming TO CAPTURE IT.
A Lively Time Promised at the Re-
publican State Convention. Cor
pOratiOnS and Special interests
Hope, Through the StandpatfeTS
to Control the Gathering.


If the Standpat Republican leaders
in this state can accomplish their plr-
pose, the coming Republican state con-
vention, called for the sole object of
nominating candidates for the Su-
preme Court, will be turned into a
weapon for the punishment of the
Progressives of the party. This is
proven by the fact that in five OF
the dozen counties which have thus
far acted, the central committees have
chosen delegates to the state conven-
tiOn without holding county con-
vention or referring them to the peO-
Pile in any way. This extraordinary
star-chamber procedure already has
taken place in Benton, Kittitas, Grant,
Chehalis and Thurston counties, rep
resenting 81 delegates, while in. King
county. with 1852 delegates, authority
has been given to appoint the deie-
gates without the customary formality
of primaries and county convention.
This means that more than One-fOurth
of the delegates to the state conven-
ton thus far chosen are fully COM
mitted to machine or Standpat poll
cies. In Chehalis county protest al
ready are being made against these
high-handed methods of choosing dele
gates. Thomas Harlan, writing to the
Oakville Cruiser, says:
'"The state convention system of
nominating candidates for the SUI
preme bench having been restored by
central committee, as it now exists,
is obsolete, so far as anything is con-
cerned beyond calling county con-
vention in the usual and lawful way.
The argument attempted, that the
calling of convention would be cum
bersOme and expensive, is not sound
reasoning. 1t is subterfuge for a set
of politicians who call themselves the
the Legislature, no power exists in a
county central or executive, commit
tee or any other committee to appoint
delegates to represent Chehalis coun-
ty in state convention to nominate
Supreme Court judges. The county
county central committee, to send
themselves to the state convention to
give what they call insurgency jolt"
The South Bend Journal, which is
not committed to any candidate for
senator says:
"The action of the Chehalis county
Republican central committee in ap-
pointing delegates to the coming state
convention without holding primaries
or county convention decidedly is
high-handed, and yet it is the course
being advocated by the machine poll
ticians all over the state. Judges
nominated in convention composed
of practically self-appointed delegates
will rest under the suspicion of hav-
ing been named by corporations and
interests which do not dare take their
chances with men named directly by
the people,"
This sort of talk is an indication
of the danger that lies in a conven-
tiOn made up entirely of Standpatters
under unit rule, and under the COM
plete control of men determined on
adopting policies entirely hostile to
the best interests of the state from a
Progressive standpoint. With the
Standpatters in control at Tacoma
and the corporations and special in
terests behind the Standpatters, the
people may expect a reactionary plat
form against which. the Progressive
republicans of the state, led by Rep
resentative Miles Poindexter, will be
in honor bound to protest. Indeed,
the Standpat leaders make no secret
of the purpose to read Judge Poin-
dexter out of the party, and thus fur
nish docile members of the legisla-
ture with an excuse to ignore the
mandate of the primary, should the
Spokane candidate chance to be the
popular choice for senator.
There is one factor, however. that
is left out of the reckoning in these
Standpat plans to thwart the peoples
will. That is PoindeXter himself, and
he is not the sort of man to be read
out of the party now or In the future.
Here is what eX-Secretary Garfield
had to say about PoindeXter and his
fellows in an interview in Cleveland
the other day:
"These men have been, and still are,
republicans. They cannot be driven
out of the party, because they stand
for and fight for true representative
government The House Progressives
succeeded in partially restoring the
measure of representative action that
had been submerged in the control of
the Speaker and of the rules commit
tee. Those men revolted not against
the Republican party, but against
certain leaders of the party-leaders
who were seeking to use the party
for special interests rather than for
the public welfare.
There is no danger that Progress
sive Republicanism will develop a
sectional spirit in the party and the
nation. On the contrary, it has united
men of New England, like Gardner.
with the men of the Middle West, like
Madison. and they find common in
terest with Poindexter, the Progress