The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1912-06-25
NOMINATION WAS
OFFERED TO TEDDY
Although Unexpected to Him, T. R.
Says He is Pleased With the
Convention Result.

Cleveland, Ohio, June %. = A new
party from the ground up is the Roose-
velt program After a series of dis
cussions with his lieutenants today be-
fore leaving Chicago, in which there
We're several sharp clashes, Colonel
Roosevelt decided to cut entirely away
from the party with which his whole
public career has been identified. His
decision was disappointment to
those who favored the organization of
what might be considered an inde-
pendent republican party, with which
various state organizations might CO.
operate and still maintain, it was hop
ed, nominal regularity
There must be no compromise, no
straddle," Colonel Roosevelt said.
AS an indication of his Determination,
he said that when he returned to Oys-
ter Bay he would communicate with
a number of democrats whom he
thought might wish to join the new
party.
When he had left Chicago with the
first plans completed, and his leaders
scattering to all parts of the country,
Colonel Roosevelt expressed himself as
pleased with the outcome of conven-
tion work, although it was unexpected
to him.
The republicans nomination for pres
ident, Colonel Roosevelt asserted last
night, was his for the asking on the
day that President Taft was nominal
ed He declined to accept it, he said,
on the terms under which the offer
was made.
On his way back to Oyster Bay, the
former president gave glimpse into
the secret history of the last day of
st6e convention, when it was apparent
that the tide of battle had turned re-
sistlessly against him.
1t was a plan to seize control of the
convention at the last moment by a
sudden move, overturn the Taft major
ity and make Roosevelt the nominee.
This is the story as he told it:
early Saturday morning a group
of delegates from southern states ar
ranged private interview with Col
onel Roosevelt. They told him they
had come to offer him the nomination.
They had with them a list of the
known Roosevelt delegates and stated
that they were authorized to speak for
a block of Taft delegates who were
willing to swing over to Roosevelt to
avert rupture in the party. The num-
ber of these delegates they assured
Colonel Roosevelt was large enough
to nominate him or any other candidate
he might name.
One provision was made, Colonel
Roosevelt continued 1t was that he
must accept the nomination for the
convention as then composed, and not
insist upon removal of the seventy
eight delegates whom he contended
were fraudulent before he would rec
ognize any act of the convention.
Colonel Roosevelt said he Informed
these emissaries that if he should be
nominated under these conditions he
would accept the nomination. He told
them to go to the delegates whom they
represented and bring back to him a
pledge signed by thirty delegates
freeing to combine with the Roose
welt delegates and then make the at
tempt to start all over again to or
ganize the convention and to unseat
the seventy-eight contested delegates
At attempt failed. Colonel Roosevelt
said a considerable numoer of sigma
lures to the pledge were obtained, but
that it had proved impossible to hold
a sufficiently large part of the dele
gates i'm line for the course of action
upon which he insisted to give it the
chance of success.
The chief point of interest to Col