Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1912-07-29
old GUARD REPUBLICANS ADMIT THEY ARE SURPRISED At Showing MADE BY CONN
ton OF new PARTY AND BY DEFLEcOk OF FORMER STAND
DID BODY OF MEN ASSEMBLED DETERMINED TO change POLITICAL CONDITIONS
new COLONEL PHARD TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN SOUNDS KEYNOTE
SPEECH THAT SHOWS The RECORD OF BOTH old PARTIES MUCH ENTHUSIASM
PRVNLED-END OF BOSS RULE IS FORECAST
YOUNG men PREDOMINANT IN LIST OF DELEGATES
and ALL LINES OF INDUSTRY ARE REPRESENTED

been worse boss-ridden than New
Mexico. Several years ago a band of
looters formed a close-fisted corpora
ton to utilize and appropriate every
political asset in sight. They preyed
upon every legislature for plunder and
pef, and even extended their opera
tons to Washington where they hung
around the political bargain counters
for official plums for themselves and
those who We're willing to become the
tools of the interests.
The climax came like the stroke OF
trip hammer, when the people of the
state proceeded to smash the slate
that had been fixed in a dark closet of
the Las Vegas convention in Septem-
ber, 1911. Secret pass words for ad'
mission to the inner chamber, and
dark lantern methods adopted by the
bosses at that convention, in which
the will of the people was severely
set aside, received a blow from which
they have not, and never will recover.
; Other blows have been struck the
special interests in the state. 1t fan.
. cied itself safely entrenched behind
an unamendable constitution, largely
its own production, which would for
all time give temporary power, have
! run riot with the thought that the
voters were blind and submissive, anc
/ without sufficient independence to do
their own thinking. But there has
come a great awakening. The people
are now taking their political fortunes
into their own hands. The party cry
acts no longer as the sound of the
tocsin to engage in political battle
over a name-whether that name be
democrat or republican.
Every ballot that was cast last fall
for an easier method of amending
the constitution was tongue of elo-
quence, a voice of justice, a declara
tion of independence, a blow for free
dom, and a blow against the special
interests, and for these reasons the
gang did not cast any of that kind OF
ballots.
Other blows will be struck in the
interests of the people. They de
rland and will have with the muta
tions of time legislation along the
advance thought of the age. If this
is a government of, by and for the
people as we claim, then the people
will govern. If the source of all po
litical power is in the people, as We
assert, then they will exercise this
power in their own way Il .hey make
mistakes they are the mistakes o.
themselves, and in due time and il
their own interest they will correct
them, but the mistakes of the specia
interests against the people are nev
er corrected by the interest itself, un
til the people force the correction.
If the people of this state possessed
the power to recall public servants
they could, and would exercise tina
power now. Through the gerryman
dering OF the legislative districts pro
F. yided for in the constitution of tn,
state, the reactionaries and standpat
ters were able by the narrowest maj
: gin to elect majority of the senate
whose proceedings throughout thei
1 first session characterized them a
1 the creatures of the interests and tn
4 enemies of legislation demanded b.
: the people. Measures that We're inin
i ical to the bosses, and the interest
V for which they Stood but favorabl
j. to the people, met with their persist
g ent and united opposition.
The common citizens of the stat
are interested in the passage of ser
u atorial and presidential preference ac
u by which the voter will be able to e,
> press and declare his choice of pc
!, sons for these great positions in az
vance of legislative or conventions
action. They are likewise intereste
l. in the revision of the election laws {
s the state by which fraud at election
l. if not entirely eliminated, would b
g reduced to the lowest degree of pro-
g Continued nm papo Five