The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-08-03

will support the candidates of another
party is so unprecedented, so prepos-
ferrous and so infamous that it is hard
to believe it can be seriously proposed.
1t is still harder to believe that anyone
can be found who was willing seriously
to propose procedure which, II sue
cessful, would disfranchise tens of
thousands of the voters of Kansas. And
yet that is precisely what is meant by
the proposal to place in the Republican
column electors who, if elected, will
vote against the Republican nominees.
Disfranchise Republican Voters.
MT. Stanley has announced that if
the Taft candidates for electors can
not be placed where they belong they
will not appear on the ballot at all,
and every Republican will approve of
that position, for certainly neither our
candidates nor our party, should be
subjected to the indignity of having
Republican candidates for elector
showed over into the independent col
umn. The defeat of the Taft electors
at the primary therefore means that
no man in Kansas can cast a vote for
Taft. Is it possible that Mr.. White,
Governor Stubs, Mr.. Capper, and the
rest, can desire to bring about that
condition, deliberately to disfranch1se
every Republican in the State?
THE contrary result at the primary
on the other hand, would not dis
franchise any Roosevelt voter, for Mr..
White has announced that II the
Roosevelt electors are defeated next
Tuesday they will be placed on the
ticket anyway. The defeat of the
Roosevelt electors therefore Will not
disfranchise anybody. for those who
wish to vote for Roosevelt will be
able to do so.
"The fundamental fallacy of the
Roosevelt leaders, continued Mr.;
Scott sis in assuming that Taft and
Roosevelt are both Republican candi-
dates. and therefore that the issue is
simply which one of them the Repub-
licans of Kansas prefer. OF course
that isn't the issue at all. Mr.. Taft is
the candidate of one party and Mr..
Roosevelt is the candidate of another
party, and the issue is which one of
them. if either. the people of Kansas
prefer.
Replies to Stubbs.
'.I see that Governor Stubbs is quo
ted in the State Journal as charging
that those who fought the injunction
suit are trying to defeat the will OF
the people, There could not be a more
groteSque nisStatement of the fact. 1t
is the governor himself and those
working with him, who are trying TO
defeat the will of the people by en-
Geavoring to bring about a condition
which will make it impossible fer
vote to be cast in Kansas for the
candidates of that party which has
been dominant in the state, with the
exception of short intervals, since its
admission to the Union. It surely can
not be denied that every citizen of Kan
sas has right to vote for the candi-
date of his choice. That right would
be denied to many thousand of our
citizens if Gov. Stubs and his CO.
workers have their way. 1t is they
therefore. who are trying to defeat the
will of the people
But if the temper of the audiences
to which I have spoken is any criterion
they will not succeed. The fraud which
they are attempting to perpetrate is so
palpable that many even among their
own followers balk at it. The average
Kansas citizen believes in fair play.
and no matter how anxious he Is for
his man to win he will not be party
to a plan to rob his neighbor of the
right to vote for his man. And that is
precisely what this Bull Moose plan
is-a plan to deprive the followers of
Taft of their right to vote for him, a
plan to deceive the thoughtless voter
into casting a ballot for Roosevelt
when he believes he is voting for Taft
"a plan to steal the electoral vote of
Kansas for a candidate who boasts that
the cornerstone of his new party shall
be the commandment Thou shalt not
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