The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1912-06-20
Does Not Mean ultimate Sue.
cess Of Taft'S Candidacy
for Nomination.
PROBABILITY OF DARK
HORSE APPEARS GREATER
Present Mixup So Complex That
Almost Anything Is Liza
BILE to Happen.

Chicago, June 20-While the cleo
| tion of Senator Root as temporary
| chairman of the Republican national
| convention is conceded to have been
a Taft victory and concededly
| strengthens the conservative position
as to the presidential nomination, it
ls not by any means thought to have
settled the question of Tafts ultimate
| success.
Tafts nomination was regarded as
more probable than il was before and
Roosevelt's less probable.
But the probability OF a dark horse
nomination was greater than II has
been at any previous time during the
convention.
1t takes $40 votes to nominate
Root has 55s.
The Taft leaders, talking privately,
admit that Taft cannot get the full
Root strength on the first ballot.
How far he will fall short is prob.
lematical
Eight Maryland delegates who vot-
ed for Root are under Roosevelt in
structions and will vote for him on
| the first ballot.
Seven Illinois delegates are In the
same position. There are at least
four or five scattered delegates who
voted for Root who will vote for
| Roosevelt.
Assuming that the twenty all told
| of these Roosevelt votes which were
needed to give Root SOS. Taft's vote
on the first ballot will fall two short
of the $40 necessary to nominate.
| On the other hand Hawaii cast it's
six votes against Root, but probably
| will throw them to Taft on the nomi
| nation vote. This would give Taft
544 or four more than needed.
Narrow Margin Apparent.
When the bitterness of this Taft.
Roosevelt feud and the almost super
human efforts by the ablest politi
clans In the country to win over In
dividual delegates is considered, the
narrow paper margin by which the
| president remains In the race is ap-
parent
While In a mixup as complex as
| this almost anything is possible 1t
Is generally conceded that about the
| least likely possibility is Roosevelts s
nomination on the first ballot, If the
| delegates who made up the temporary
roll are seated by the credentials
committee.
Should there be no bolt and should
the first ballot result In no nomina-
ton the contest from that time for
ward will be anybody's fight
One feature of the situation which
| may have an important bearing on
| the result is the growing feeling
| among both Taft and Roosevelt dele
gates who still cling to their party
| loyalty, that the fight for supremacy
has gone to such lengths that the
nomination of either would result in
an absolutely fatal split of the party
While on the surface of things party
| loyalty seems to be at pretty low ebb
| the fact remains that aside from the
warning leaders the majority of the
| delegates-most OF whom are Office
holders-are at heart more interested
In party success than in the nomina-
ton of any particular candidate
Root Talked of as Dark Horse.
An interesting overnight develop
| ment was the dark horse talk for
| Elihu Root among the conservatives.
Roots speech as temporary chair
man was the effort of his life and
| those who are close to him are saying
that while he Is loyal to Taft he
| realizes that the latter's nomination
is at least difficult proposition and
that when he made his speech he was
inspired by the thought that his own
| nomination might be won by 1T.
The collapse of the Roosevelt plan
| Of battle came few minutes after the
| convention was called to order-due
| largely to absence from the floor of
the derin-chief of the pro-
| gressives.
The crux of the situation rests
| with the Roosevelt men. The real
| Taft leaders quietly but confidently
asserted that their opponents would
/ ran~ niu regular