The Sentinel=record., 1912-06-07
TAFT IS SURE
 OF MAJORITY
HIS MANAGERS CLASS RoosE WELT CLAIMS AS ABSURD AND
 WITHOUT FOUNDATION.
Claim Majority of National Commit tee and Delegations From 42 of the 53 States and Territor-
 les Represented.

Chicago, June 6.-Taft and Roose- welt members of the Republican na- tional committee tonight conferred with campaign managers and advisers to decide plans for the bringing of contest hearings before the commit tee tomorrow morning.
 Questions of policies to be pursued at the hearings and also of the pos sible exact strength of the Roosevelt and Taft men On the committee were debated until late hour, while the advice Of leaders in Washington. New York and other cities was obtained by telegraph and telephone.
 The Taft managers said that can yass of all contests showed that in a majority of cases to be brought before the committee the Roosevelt contests were without merit and therefore President Taft will be as- sured of at least two-thirds of the contested seats in the convention.
 In one or two statements issued tonight by Congressman William B. Mckinley, head of the Taft forces, the following appears:
 "Of the 53 stateS and territories and districts represented in the Re- publican national convention this year. President Taft has the entire delegations or mjority of the dele gations from 20 states in the north and west 10 from the south and five from the District of Columbia and territories, or a total of 35 MT. Roosevelt has the delegations. or the majority of them. from if states in the north, and west and two of them of the south, or a total of 16. Sen ator Robert Nj LaF'ollette has two, Wisconsin and North Dakota.
 Furthermore President Taft has representation of the delegations from seven of the states which MT, Roose- welt has carried In this contest, in- creasing the number of political units represented in his total of delegates to 42 out of 53 in the convention.
 Tn the face of this analysis of the delegations by stat-s, as they have been elected to the Chicago conyen- tion. the utter absurdity of the claims of Mir. Roosevelt and his managers that they control the coming conyen- ton is apparent They will have, in fact. all the difficulty possiblein man
 
 delegates who already realize they are heinz led into ditch, if not into an actual bolt ny lost cause
 United States Senator Dixon, who told of the committee action in vot- ing for sessions open to the press, stated that the decision was a vic tory in the committee for Colonel Roosevelt. In this connection he said:
 This is the first time We ever have had any publicity of these meet ings at all and 1t is the result of the demand made by the friends of Colo mel Roosevelt.
 'We wanted to make our fight in the open. We asked for the seat ing of no man who, under every rule of justice, is not entitled to seat. We were and are willing for the whole world to know our position and the facts unon which wa hasa nnr claims.
 There is no question we have the legitimate votes to nominate Roose- welt by safe majority. We want the public to know upon what we. base that claim. We still insist that the pUbslC hHOW dt lHe ldCAS.
 R B. Howell of Nebraska chosen for national committeeman at the state primaries, after conferring with Senator Dixon. issued a statement in which he said
 MT. Rosewater will retain his seat in the national committee for the present without contest as I have been requested by Senator Dixon to defer the presentation of my ereden- tials.
 "I now am legally entitled without question to perform the functions of national committeeman from Ne bfaska
 T have been thoroughly in accord with the Roosevelt management in this matter from the beginning"
 The Rusewater and Howell contest, it was expected before the committee met. would devplop the tirts step of strength between the Taft and Roosevelt members. Certain Taft adherents said the Roosevelt man. agers were unwilling to take the ini- tiative in asking for a roll call in any such clearly defined issue at this time.