Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-07-05
7. R. Writes Editorial,
"Mr. Tait's Majority"
Says Nomination Was Tainted
By Trickery and Fraud.
Convention Should Be RepudIaisd
BY Every Honest Man.

of an editorial by Theodore Roosevelt
which appears in the current issue of
the outlook
The writer says in part:
The Chicago Evening Post and
the Indianapolis Star were original
~ Taft papers. They believed that
the voters ought to choose Mr. Taft
over me in the primaries, and advo-
Gated their doing so. But they also
believed that the voters themselves
had the right to decide When the
Taft managers in Indiana stole the
majority of the delegates for Mr. Taft,
these papers Immediately protested,
taking the same attitude that another
paper which had favored Mr.. Taft. the
Spokane Spokesman Review, Shortly
afterwards took in reference to the
theft of the Washington delegates.
The Chicago Evening Post on
June "a, spoke of the Chicago con-
vention as follows:
In our judgment that nomination
WAS tainted nomination. There was
in it trickery and fraud. Stripped of
its practical essentials, it was a
nomination made by minority in
stead of majority. The miserable
q votes above the nominating point
which the steam roller drivers were
able to muster. fade instantly away
under scrutiny from any standpoint
of representative determination
When 7 went into the contest for
the nomination. l was, of course, pitt
ted against very heavy odds. To
start with. Mr., Taft had over two
hundred and sixty delegates from
the territories and from states con-
trolled by Federal offieeholders, in
which there was no real Republican
party. and he thus began the con-
test with nearly half the necessary
number of delegates TO nominate him.
In addition, he had with him, the
votes of certain purely boss controlled
states. like New York. Connecticut.
Rhode Island. Utah. Wyoming and
Colorado. where the voters had no
chance to express their preference
(and where tn leading papers were
controlled by the special interests, so
that the sources of general informa-
ton were choked and the truth was
seduIously hidden from the people,.
Adding these votes to the others, Mr..
Taft had nearly four hundred dele
gates III WHOSE lIlC DcODtc
had no say whatever
Nevertheless, we started in. making
our fight. especially in the primary
states. In these states the rank and
file of the Republican voters had
their say instead of the politicians,
and in these states We beat Mr.. Taft
on the popular vote over two to one
in total vote of three million. or
Whereabouts and in delegates beat
him very nearly In the proportion of
seven to one. So overwhelming was
tour victory in the states where the
people had even a partial chance to
texpress themselves in primaries that
I'VE overcame Mr. Taft's nearly solid
vote from the rotten borough states
and among the boss-picked delegates.
and obtained a clear majority of all
the delegates elected to the conven-
tion--that is. about five hundred and
sixty delegates. BY Mr.. Taft's direc-
ton and connivance, and under the
personal supervision of his private
secretary and one member of his
cabinet, Messrs. Barnes. Penrose, Gug-
genheim, Crane, Franklin. Murphy
and Mr.. Taft's other lieutenants pro-
ceeded to steal from the people enough
delegates fraudulently to convert my
majority into a minority.
1.-The nominating vote for Mr.. Taft was
561. being 81 beyond the majority neces-
sary to nominate him. From these q
the first to be subtracted are two votes
which the chairman. Mr.. Root. in his
capacity of modern Autolycus, the SNAP
per-up of unconsidered trihes," took from
Massachusetts. This leaves a majority
of but 10. There were on the roll over
so Taft delegates who had been defeat
ed by the people as delegates, but had
been seated as such by the National
committee. Not one of tn 80 men op-
posing the Taft delegates had as poor a
title as the Taft delegates from the bor-
ough of Manhattan of the city of New
York. As regards 70 of them, their title
was absolutely plain, and quite as good
as the title of the uncontested Taft dele
gates. Deducting merely the latter
number Mr.. Tafts vote sinks at once to
ASH. or so less than We're required for his
nomination. These 4S1 represent the
maximum of legally obtained votes which
Mr.. Taft could obtain in the convention.
1T was 60 votes less than were necessary
for a nomination. Not only was the nom
ination of Mr.. Taft absolutely fraudulent,
but so was the seating of Mr.. Root, and
so was every motion adopted by the
fraudulent National convention.
but there are other deductions which
must be made from Mr.. Taft's delegates
If we wish to find out the exact extent
to which they represented the people. In
the first place we must deduct the Il
votes from the territories, which cast
no electoral votes. This reduces Mr..
Tafts vote to 1859. Subtract Florida,
Georgia. Arkansas, Louisiana, South Car
DINA and Virginia, where there Is no
real Republican party, and Mr. Taft's
vote becomes 22O. Subtracting from these
the boss-picked delegates from the states
where the people had no choice, thers
remain about 20 delegates, considerably
less than 10 per cent Of the total num-
Der of delegates, 1918 all told. To these