Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1912-08-08


ma iority of whom were for Taft. and
that majority. acting through Its exec
utive committee. selected the Tart dele
gates to the state convention. Mean
time the city council Of Seattle had re
districted the city 1t before had 2oO
precincts Now substantially the same
territory was divided up into 3Sl pre-
cincts The chairman of the county
committee was a Roosevelt man he
had been given authority by general
resolution to Oil vacancies occurring IN
the committee A general meeting OF
the committee had been held after the
city council had directed the redistrict
ing Of the city, In which II was re
solved. the chairman not dissenting
that Representatives could not be Sc
lected to ill the 33l new precincts un
til an election was held In September.
1912 Thereafter and In spite OF this
conclusion the chairman assumed the
right by his appointment to q TO the
existing committee l31 precinct com
mitteemen, and with these voting In
the committee II is claimed that a pri
z U1HTA WIS OIuClGu hCA "oo
confusion in the meeting that this Is
doubtful However. the fact is that
the Taft men protested against any
action by a committee so constituted
on the ground that the chairman had
no authority to appoint the l3l new
committeeman. They refused to take
part In the primary. and so did the La
- -. - nNIA uvn VnrS rnnnrf
ed the number of votes in the primary
TO be something over 5000 The Roose
welt committee showed by affidavit the
number TO be 5000 out of a usual total
Republican vote Of $4,000 The action
of the chairman of the committee In
attempting to add l31 precinct men TO
the old committee was. Of course, be-
yond his power. The resolution au-
thorizing him to eli vacancies, or
course. applied only TO those places
which became vacant after they had
been filed and clearly did not apply to
l3l new precincts, 1t could not in the
nature of things apply to a change
from the old system to a complete new
system Of precincts created by the city
council, because II they were to be
filed the entire number Of 331 new
precincts different from the old must
be filled. One system could not be
made into the other by a mere add
tional appointment of 131 committee
men. No lawyer will say that such
action by the committee thus consti-
tuted was legal. Therefore the action
which the lawful committee of $50 took
In electing Taft delegates who made a
majority In the state convention was
the only one which could be recognized
as valid.
CONTESTED DISTRICT DELE
GATES.
ALABAMA. ~
Ninth District.
The Ninth Alabama contest turned
on the question whether the chairman
of a district committee had power to
fill vacancies, whether a committee
man who had sent his resignation tc
take effect only In case he was not
present, being present, should be pre-
vented from acting as committeeman
and, third, on the identity Of another
committeeman. The written resolu
ton under which the right of the
I chairman to appoint to vacancies was
claimed showed on its face that The
! specific authority was written In II
different writing and different coloret
pencil between the lines. A number o,
afldavits we're fled by committeeman
who were present when the resolution
J was passed to show that the resolu
; ton contained no such authority. Thi'
: gave rise to a question of fact upor
which a very large majority Of boil
J the national committee and the con
, mittee on credentials held that thu
: lead pencil Insertion was a forgery