The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-07-05

other for Roosevelt. Not until after
the August primary and the party
council held the same month will the
situation be cleared to any eXent.
Governor Stubs is regarded as the
! leader of the Roosevelt forces in this
state. The governor is frankly and
firmly for Roosevelt for president and
says he does not regard Taft as the
party nominee at all. The governor
, is a candidate for United States sem
atOr and will make his campaign as a
Roosevelt supporter. Other candidates
for office are hiding in the brush as
regards their choice for president. 1t
is the strangest situation that ever
confronted the party in this state.
The determination of the Roose-
Welt men to make the fight within
the party rather than to form third
party complexities matter still further.
1t will have to be fought out in the
party council. The insurgents plan to
nominate Roosevelt electors in the
primary and then place Roosevelt's
name on the ballot for November and
eliminate Taft entirely. They have
been told by Congressman Jackson
that they can do this thing.
The regulars have announced no
plan of action except to declare that
President Taft is the party nominee
for president and that all Republicans
who will not support him ought to get
out of the party. The regulars may
be depended upon to Withstand the
The primary may improve the situa-
ton if one wing wins a decided vic
tory over the other. But close vote
and a divided party council will leave
the situation as muddled as ever.
Candidates for state Office are
alarmed over the state of affairs and
do not know what to think. If the in
surgents bolt Taft in November how
will the state ticket fare? This cues
ton is being asked by several anxious
candidates. The answer is lost in the
fog. However, it is not expected that
any serious detection will occur on the
state ticket aside from governor. lieu
tenant governor and legislative offices.
The normal Republican majority in
Kansas is forty thousand. The state
ticket ought to stand a bolt and still
pull through with ten thousand major
ity. But this is guesswork.
The progressives argue that with
Roosevelt on the state ticket it will
go through by fifty thousand. But
what if the fifty thousand regulars. all
of whom are staunch Taft men, bolt
the Roosevelt ticket? What would this
detection do to the chances of party
success? The progressives claim TO
have one hundred thousand or more
voters in the state. Will over fifty
per cent of them bolt the ticket? If
not, then the president might stand as
good a chance as the colonel in No
vember.
In the meantime it would be easier
than it would be to get a state candi-
date to make a clean cut public state
ment of his preference for president.
All of them except Governor Stubs
wear three pairs of gloves in discuss
ing the matter with newspaper men.
The next party council ought to be
worth the price of admission. 1t will
have weighty and complicated affairs
to settle.
1t is conceded among leading Demo
Gratis that the nomination of Woodrow
Wilson was the best possible thing for
the party. They believe he will run
ahead of Taft in Kansas. 1t is also
believed by them that the Wilson vic
tory boosted Senator Hodges stock for
the primary. Jackson was a Clark
man. and the fact that he deserted
his leader at Baltimore will not help
him much at home. The Clark men
would naturally prefer a straightout
Wilson man to a Clark man turned to
Clark carried Kansas and had
an instructed delegation from this
state. But the delegates were Wilson
men and they jumped at the psychology
cal moment. Mayor Billiard of Topeka,
a candidate for governor, was also
Clark man. Billiards. standing in the
Democratic primary is as much a mat
ter of conjecture as anything well could
be. He will poll heavy vote in the