The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-06-28
REPUBLICAN ELECTORS.

REPUBLICAN ELECTORS.
It's a distinguished honor for any
man to be chosen to represent a state
in the electoral college. That there
should be competition among men at
the primaries for the Republican nomi-
nations for places as electors on the
November ballot is natural. And on
this score it was perfectly proper that
additional candidates for these honors
should file nomination petitions in ad'
dition to the ten that had already been
filed in accordance with the sugges'
tions of congressional district conven-
tons This was also a wise move tc
provide for a contingency that might
arise if one or more of the original
candidates for these places, declined
nomination or found it impossible
for one reason or another to accept
one.
But the placing of extra electoral
candidates in the field for the mere
purpose of waging a conflict at the
primaries for the nomination of electors
personally favorable to President Taft
or Colonel Roosevelt, was wholly un-
necessary, regardless of the present
avowed intentions of Governor Stubs
to force such a contest. No matter
what Mr.. Stubs ideas in the premises
now are, the candidates for Republican
electoral nominations are all retgular
Republican candidates. No matter what
ten are chosen. they will take their
places on the November ballots in the
and Sherman and the Republican
ioLra
cessfuI in Kansas on election day, the
electors chosen on it will be morally
obligated to vote for the election of
Taft and Sherman in the electoral col
lege. To be sure. there is no law to
compel a member of the electoral col
lege to vote in accordance with the
vote of his party that placed him i
the college. But presidential elector
would be false to his trust if he al
lowed any personal prejudices to sway
him in such an important particular.
As a matter of fact a presidential
elector is virtually instructed by a ma
jority of the people of his state tic
vote for the presidential candidate on
whose ticket he ran. And it is decid-
eddy unusual to say the least that such
a champion of '1et the people rule as
Governor Stubs should suggest that
it would be perfectly proper for Re
publican electors from Kansas, chosen
on the regular Republican ticket, tc
vote in the electoral college for the
election of Theodore Roosevelt as pres
ident. Any presidential elector who
would so disregard his trust would be
communicated from aff1liating with |
any political party in the future. Nc |
party has use for traitors. And he /
would also be a fit subject for the con-
tumely of all men.
Governor Stubs is utterly wrong in |
his assertion that the August pri- |
mary is the time to determine whether |
Kansas will send a Roosevelt or q
Taft delegation to the electoral college. |
The time for Kansas to determine |
what delegation it will send to the /,
electoral college is election day, next !
And from the announced |
determination Of Colonel Roosevelt to
nave brand new party from the
ground up, with national committee
men of its own from every state, with
delegates from every state to the con-
vention that it is proposed to hold in
the near future for the creation of
this party, it is apparent that Governor
Stubs will have to form some other
plan to get the Roosevelt ticket and it's
electors on the Kansas ballot. If this
new party is formed some way surely
ought to be found to get it a place on
the Kansas ballot. But the Colonel
has distinctly stated that his new
party must be distinct and separate
from any other party in existence; that
there must be nothing of a compro-
mise or straddle on the part of his fol-
lowers with any existing party. This
announcement was a sad blow to the
Roosevelt enthusiasts who left Chicago
With the idea that it would be all right
'or them to swing, if possible, the Re-
publican organizations in their states
bodily into the Roosevelt party, and
Governor Stubs is one of the few
Roosevelt leaders who has failed to
axe cosniZance of the latest stand of ,
he colonePs in respect to the new
party. He'll probably hear from the
colonel before long. And then it will
De UP to him to join the new Roose-
Telt party, or renounce it and stay in
he ranks of the Republican party of I
Kansas which is considered as regular
or Taft and Sherman, the nominees
If the regular Republican national
even by Arthur Capper, a
for the regular Republican
nomination in Kansas,
nd whose candidacy has SO far been
cccptable to Governor Stubs.