The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1912-03-21
NATION WATCHES
NORTH DAKOTA
RESULTS IN TUESDAYS PRl.
MARES MAY AFFECT VOTING
ELSEWHERE.
TAFT HAS 1876
Roosevelt Has IS, cummins 2 and La
Toilette None.-champ Clark
Has 66 and Governor VIII
son 10.

Bismarck, N. D., March 19.-To
North Dakota belongs the distinction
OF holding the first presidential pref
erence primary. On Tuesday the
various political parties will elect
delegates to the national conventions.
and at the same time express their
choice for the party's nominee for
president.
The primaries have attracted ma
tional attention, not only because they
are an innovation, but principally on
account of the fight now being waged
between Roosevelt and Taft.
The general expectation is that the
result of the North Dakota primaries
will exert an important influence over
the other statewide presidential pri.
maries that will be held in four other
states in the lear future, as well as
over the state conventions.
Oregon, Nebraska, Wisconsin and
New Jersey all will hold presidential
preference primaries within the next
10 weeks, and the date for CALIFORNIA;
primaries is expected to be set soon.
Just now Roosevelt seems likely to
capture the Republican delegation of
North Dakota, while Clark, Wilson and
Judson Harmon appear to have about
equal chances for winning the Demo
cratic delegates.
Senator McCumber comedies an
anti-Taft delegation. One reason as
signed is that the farmers of North
Dakota became deeply incensed at the
president because of his advocacy of
Canadian reciprocity. The North Da-
kota delegates expenses, up to 5000,
incurred in attending a national con-
vention, are paid by the state, and
there is at least the moral obligation
on them to comply with the instruc-
lions given them at the time of their
election.
Taft Leads So Far.
Chicago, March 10. The week
closed with 1876 delegates in the Taft
column. some of them contested.
Roosevelt has Is, Cummins 2 and La
Toilette none. On the democratic side,
Clark has sc and Wilson 10. The Clark
delegates are 10 from Oklahoma, 20
from Kansas and SO from Missouri.
The Wilson 10 are from Oklahoma.
The two Cummins delegates come
from the seventh Iowa district.
The Roosevelt delegates come from
Oklahoma and New Mexico, with IA
in the former and one In the latter
state. The Roosevelt managers claim
more than half of the New Mexico
delegation, but letters and kilograms
from convention officials say the dele
cation will divide as stated. 1t is un-
instructed.
The Taft delegations come from
states as follows:
Indiana, 4; South Carolina, 4; Okla
homa, a; Florida, ~; Georgia, %; vir-
ginia, %; Philippines, 2; District of
Columbia, 2; Tennessee, IA; Alabama,
20; Michigan, 2; Missouri, 4; Iowa, 6;
New Mexico, z; total, 1876. There will
be 1,O76 delegates in the Chicago con-
v%ention, and a majority, sufficient to
nominate, will be $50. With 1875 dele
gates to date, President Taft has one
fourth of 539 and one over.
Senator Dixon, manager for Colonel
Roosevelt, issued a statement indicat-
ing it is his purpose to contest "a of
the delegates already elected for Taft.
OF these contests IA are in Alabama,
2 in the District of Columbia, IL in
Florida, IL in Tennessee, and IS in
Virginia. This includes practically all
the delegates thus far elected from the
South. There were a similar lot of
southern contests prior to the conven-
ton of 1908, and the national commit
tee was in session for several weeks
in Chicago, prior to the convention,
hearing them. The committee in prac-
tically every instance decided in favor
OF Taft delegates.
The contests this year are brought
on precisely the same grounds as the
contests of four years ago. These
southern contests, in fact, have come
up before all republican national con.
ventions for twenty-five years on simi.
lar grounds, and have been decided in
the same way by the successive ma
tional committees.