The Washington times., 1911-09-05
REPUBLICAN, NATIONAL CON.
vENTIoN NOT YET OVER.

1
Presidential campaign have been rapid
since the close of the extra session OF
Congress. They have come in a fash
ion not to be expected in the dull sea-
son of summer-at time when there
is usually lull in politics as in ev-
erything else. Their effect has been
to make one thing clear, and that is
that the Republican national conven-
tion is not yet over. What is more,
there are constantly increasing signs
that the outcome of it will not be de.
termined until the actual voting has
taken place.
Much has happened since the Presi-
dent vetoed the tariff bills to shatter
the widely held assumption that his
nomination is a certainty. Those ve-
toes, especially the veto of the wool
bill, brought on the President q food
of criticism. Much of this was sharp
est in quarters where the President
had gained friends by his course on
reciprocity. The Presidents insistence
on revising schedules only after get
ting the reports of the tariff board
failed to satisfy most revisionists. who,
generally speaking, are more partic-
ular about seeing schedules reduced
than they are about having them re-
duced by any special process. On the
heels of the vetoes came the speech of
the President at Hamilton, Mass, and,
regardless of the truth of what the
President said, the tone of it was not
felicitous. 1t was not calculated to
breed harmony in the Republican
camp. And it has accomplished just
what might have been expected. 1t
has been taken as the forerunner of
speeches on the long Western trip in
which the President will assail the in
surgent leaders in their own States,
and will thus stir, up still more the
antagonism of hundreds of thousands
of progressive Republican voters.
Not only is the outspoken course of
the President not calculated to bring
him needed votes on election day, but
it has greatly added to the activity
of the insurgent leaders who are bent
on preventing the nomination of Mr..
Taft for another term. Headquarters
have been opened here, and almost
simultaneously the foremost insurgent
Republicans in Congress are coming
out in open opposition to the President.
They are speaking out for Senator La
Toilette primarily, but at the same
time are taking a course calculated
to force the Republican party to nomi-
nate some man other than Mr.. Taft,
preferably a progressive. They are
laying emphasis on the assertion that
the President, if nominated, will be de-
feated, an assertion which is certain
to make thousands of Republican poll
ticians and officeholders the country
over think seriously on the problem of
what course to take to make them
selves most sure of holding fast to
jobs they have or getting others they
covet. In the next three months there
will be great activity on the part of
the anti-Taft element, and many
States will be flooded with speakers.
1t is possible that La Toilette himself
will make a great swing around the
circle in the West.
True, on the face of things, it is i'm
possible to sit down and figure out
Just where the delegates are to come
from to prevent the nomination of
President Taft. The surface indica-
tions seem to make his denomination
a certainty. But on looking below
the surface it is seen there is no such
certainty as is generally assumed.
With a powerful and aggressive ele-
ment in his party in active revolt
against him, and with many Republi-
cans who are not fighting the Presi-
dent uncertain whether he is the
strongest to nominate, it is a safe
prediction that q large share of the
delegates will 60 to the Republican
national convention, not with their
minds made up, but wondering where
to turn. Already there is an ominous
amount of talk of compromising on
some third man, and such names as
those of Governor Osborn of Michi-
gan, Secretary of the Interior Fisher,
Governor Hadley of Missouri, and
Senator Cummins are mentioned. And,
always, there is Roosevelt. Stranger
things have happened than that the
convention should find itself driven or
stampeded to nominate man to head
the ticket now little discussed in con-
nection with the Presidency.