The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-18
ROOSEVELT HURLS VERBAL BOMB AT THE TAFT COHORTS
 IN MONSTER DEMONSTRATION

lege in the world of business and theli tools and instruments in the world oi politics.
 Can Be No Compromise
 There can be no compromise in such q contest. It is natural that the repre- sentatives of special privilege, who know that special privilege cannot con- tinue If the people really rule, should resort unhlushingly to every kind oi tricSery and dishonesty in order to per petuate their hold upon the party, and should bo eager, caliously, to destroy the party if necessary to prevent it's being controlled by its rank and file But for this very reason we feel We have a right so1emnly to appeal to all honest men to stand with us on what has now become a naked issue of right and wrong. There can be no yielding no fiinching on our part. We have the people behind us overwhelmingly. We have justice and honesty on our side We are warning against bossism against privilege, social and industrial we are warning for the elemental vir- tues of honesty, and decency of fair dealing as between man and man; we are warning to save the republican party; and the only reward for which we ask is to put our party In such shape that it shall be of the highest possible service to the people of the United States Now let consider what this fight has been for. The is- sue has been sharply drawn. not mere ly by the words of Mr. Taft or myself, and of our supporters. but by our sev- oral actions. I have stood for the right of the people to rule and for their duty, so to rule, as to work for moral, political and industrial justice MT. Taft has no less explicitly stood for a government of the people, by what he calls a representative part of the peo- pie, and while he has, of course, stated In perfunetory fashion that he favors industrial justice, he has violently op- posed every practical method advanced for actually doing away with industrial injustice. for actually driving privilege out of it's entrenchments, and for actually equalizing opportunity. At the present moment we see before our eyes here in Chicago just exactly what MT. Taft's doctrine of government of the : people by a representative part of the people really amounts to. Eight years ago I received electoral votes from 31 states.
 Changes in Eight Years
 ''In 20 of these states direct primaries have been held, or if not direct pri- maries at least primaries sufficient to | give the people a reasonable chance to express their preferences. In these 20 states where the rank and file of the re- publican party had a chance to express their preference. I won 295 delegates, Mir. Taft 67. MT. LaFollette 36. That Is, in those states which went republican eight years ago MT. Taft obtained be- tween one-seventh and one-eighth of the delegates where the people had q chance to express their will. These primary states are scattered every where throughout the country, from Maine to California. and it is impos- sible to doubt that they give an ac- curate measure of what the vote in all the republican states would be if the people had been allowed a chance to vote. But MT. Taft's representatives, wherever possible, prevented the adop- tion of primary law. They pre- vented 1t in Michigan, for instance they prevented it in Montana Without ques ton Montana and Michigan would have gone for us at least as strongly as H. linois and Oregon had there been Q primary law. Before the people oi either state Mir Taft did not stand tho chance to get a single delegate. His led captains recognized this fact, and , prevented the people from voting he , and they distrusted the people with req son; and, with equal reason, they trust ed the professional politicians; and in Montana and Michigan Mir. Taft won ueleSdleSt 10 the S01cheTlnR delight O1 every friend of privilege and bossism In the land, whose relish is peculiarly . keen in seeing delegates won against the will of the people
 "The republican primary states cast over two-thirds of the republican vote in the electoral college. In them the , people spoke. They went overwhelm- ing for me. and still more overwhelm- , ingly against MT. Taft In the other states that went republican eight years ago no primaries were held, and in all but one the politicians had nearly com plete sway. In these states Mir. Taft secured 176 votes, I secured 40, MT. Cummins 10
 Got Majority in Primary
 "Of the republican states, therefore I received the overwhelming majority of the delegates wherever the people could express themselves, and taking these states all told in spite of MT
 Tafts triumphs in the states where there were no real primaries, received 1855 delegates dncluding those which the national committee has stolen). as against the 243 for MT. Taft, the SC for MT. LaFollette and the 10 for MT cumnlins. To put it in another way squarely carried 21 of the old re- publican states and these states cast 26S votes in the electoral college within three of majority of the total electoral vote. MT. Taft carried enough states twhere there were no primaries to give him S2 electoral votes; Mir IaFollette carried two states with 1S electoral votes; Mir. Taft and Mir Cum mins divided one state with 13 votes There remain states which, although democratic at the last election, con tain genuine republican party states like North Carolina and Oklahoma where there were primaries and where carried every delegate except three It thus appears that in the republic , an states MT. Taft was beaten two tc one, and that in the republican states , which hold primaries where the people could express their desires, he was | beaten by over seven to one. I cal your attention to one significant feature in the attitude of the Taft papers ir chroncaling MT, Taft's victories and defeats. When their headlines an nounced a defeat for Mir Taft, it meant that there had been vote by the peo- pie themselves in primary state When, during the last ten days, they have announced a victory for Mir. Taft it has meant that MT. Tafts representa- tives in the national committee have thrown out delegates elected by the , people at large to represent them. My [ victories have been won before the peo- pie, and by the people; MT. Taft's have been won by the bosses and by the rep resentatives of special privilege, by the I national committee, and by boss con- ttrolled conventions of machine politi- clans.
 Difference in Victories
 } q carried Washington at the polls he carried 1t before the national com } mittee He never has had, and has not now, a chance with the people: and