The Washington times., 1912-06-11
PUBLIC OPINION
HALTS PROGRESS Of
THE STEAM ROLLER
Conviction Grows No Candi-
date Will Have Majority
on First Ballot.
CONTINUED from First Page.)

lines that they cannot tell whittier to
turn first with their repair outfits.
Two days ago they had a list that
showed. according to outside report, Just
sixteen more votes than were necessary
from Iowa. That very day Lafe Young
came along with his demand that Iowa
give It's solid support to Cummins, and
Iowa Is making big play to do 1t. 1t
VIII not succeed In making a solid front
Tor Cummins, because he can't get the
four delegates-at-large: they are bitter
personal enemies. But most of the dis
trtct delegates, II Is now thought, may
be lined up for the Senator. II 80, that
culations for a first-ballot nomination.
Rut this isn't the worst of McKinley's
managerial troubles. lie now knows,
what was i1timnted III this correspon-
dHnce d two or three days ago, that I'm, In
trnth is there is u third candidate move
nient going on In Hoosierdom, that
proposes to take another bunch Of
delegates away from Taft. Report per
s.ms that Mr.. Barnes. Of New York. is
in close touch with those Indiana man
aeers who are working on this plan,
and that he, also. would like to see a
possible winner nominated. OF course,
Ralnes would rather have Taft and de-
feat than Roosevelt and victcry; but
the Indiana-New York project looks
tD an out~ide candidate.
Fear Loss of Control.
Dangerous stun to fool with, Is this
third candidate business, and the men
who are carefully working 1t know that
very well. They would be in tho midst
Gf a big program Of throwing Taft
right at this very minute. IL they didn't
fear that a movement OF that SOFT
would. IN fact. precip1tate and insure
Roose"elts nomination. The Roose-
\elt people are cheerfully confident;
pleased entirely Whenever the third
candidate talk breaks out II all comes
from Taft men who know Tatt can't
win and it's all grist to Senator Dix
on's mill. that is grinding away on the
can't AFFORD to commit suicide Just yet
"a Fonvtte anC Cummins are sittins
,, tight. hoping for a situation In which
the tail will way the dog.
! inc ans played out yet. The Wisconsin
man wants to dictate the platform
and he could do II in a minute IL ht
would agree, with either faction e
Of the privilege of writing the part,
declaration. But there Is no prospect
OF such deal The Roosevelt people
are going to make up a platform o.
what La Toilette would want in tn,
| end. They count that La Toilette will
not stand in the way of forcinl
tthrongh a strongly progressive dec
, laration.
The Roosevelt managers have sen
a strong letter to all Republican
members of Congress. call ling on then
to use their influence in favor Q
| nominating Roosevelt, on the grount
that Roosevelt is the one man win
can be elected. 1t is having effect
too. as indicated by the number o
| letters and kilograms that are com
ing from Washington in support o
More than ordinary interest attache
TO the Missouri contests because Mis-
souri, IS politically the most evenly dl
vided State in the Union. Thomas X
Niedringhaus, the new member of tn
Republican national committee. said to
I'm the last two elections the Reput
Democrats six. and Of the twelve Go,
ernor Hadley was the only man VIII
received a plurality greater than 1 pc
cent OF his party vote.
Missouri Is essentially a Rooseve
State, and the nomination of Rooseve
will mean a continuance of Republica
State government SO that eightee
electoral votes and the party's politics
/, up in what the committee seems to re,
ognize as contests.
: Not Legitimate Contests.
Some of them might properly
, termed contests: others have not enous
merit to entitle them to SO much col
,'deration. Tha contest for delegate
, at-large Is an example. More than IL
: delegates Q,152 II 1 remember rightly
, elected by their counties and the eli
r of st. Louis, met in State conventic
at st. Louis, April o. A State con
; mittee which stood eighteen for Tia
and fourteen for Roosevelt made up Il
l temporary roll of the convention. tt
/, State chairman called the convention
. order. The mayor of St. Louis, a Ia
man, selected by the committee, W,
; temporary chairman, The governor
e the State. a Roosevelt supporter, W,
: made permanent chairman.
a THAT convention elected eight del
r gates-at-large, and by a majority Of
votes instructed them to vote and wo
for Theodore Roosevelt. There was
\ walkout. Not a single man bolted
v that time. The next morning a doz
i men in a bed room In the Planter
z Hotel, declared themselves to be I
u convention. and selected four delegate
e at-large. Most of the men present we
y not even delegates to the State CO
Q vention and one of them, Otto F. s
- fel. slept through the entire proceedin
and repudiated the action Of the co
vention' when he awoke. Yet the
Ia four men are claiming seats In the &C
:, vention.
It Vote Nearly Unanimous.
a. TN the First district the vote 4
Is Roosevelt was so nearly unanimous II
e there was not anybody at the regul
J. convention who had the face to start
d rump convention. But later a few m
d met and declared contest which
l. seriously filed here and treated
though 1t was a real contest
le "In the Third district contests w
II made up in three counties. The T.
re men stationed some men In the de-
te of the convention hall with ball ba
re and kept the Roosevelt supporters
al of the hall until the contcsting II
III delegates were seated. That led to t
conventions where the three counties
m contest had a full quota of delega
st in the convention. but later when I
j. |