The Sentinel=record., 1912-06-09
CALLS ON LOYAL REPUBLICANS TO SAVE THE PARTY FROM
 PRESENT MACHINE.
THEFT IS NOT A PROPER TEST
Tells People the Bosses in Charge at Chicago Are Trying to Wreck the Grand Old Repub-
 ican Party.

ed upon tonight by Colonel Roosevelt to protest against the action of the Republican national committee in rui- ing on the contest for seats in the national convention from the ninth Alabama district He declared that every man who wishes to see the par ty continue to exist should protest at once, against those who are de- liberately trying to wreck it."
 The leaders, said the colonel, speak as if they were the regular Republicans. don't concede that theft is a test of regularity
 Colonel Roosevelt was in constant touch over his private wires during 1 the day with his lieutenants in Chi cago and number of his supporters visited him. Rooseyelt's statement follows:
 ''ln view of the action taken by the national committee yesterday in un- seating the two duly elected delegates in the ninth Alabama district and re- placing them by two men who have no more title to sit in the Republican convention than they have to sit in the Democratic convention, I would
 
 as is in my power to every good cit izen who regards the Republican par ty as an instrument for good govern ment, which 1t is wicked lightly to destroy.
 Alabama is entitled to 24 delegates ! in the convention. As regards seE- rrrai -cE the districts where there lIave. been contests It is my sincere belief that the right was as much on our side as on the side of our opponents, but in these districts there was room for honest doubt and talking the mat ter over with Senator Dixon, we both agreed to advise the Roosevelt mem- bers of the national committee to sup port no contest in any district where there was room for reasonable d'0uot as to the right of the Roosevelt dele gates to be seated Accordingly in all the Alabama districts in question. 1 the Roosevelt men in the national committee voted with the majority and this in spite of the fact that, as have already said, we regard the claims of the Roosevelt men in cer- | tain of these districts as being as good as those of their opponents.
 But in the ninth Alabama district, two Roosevelt delegates had been un- occasionally elected. The facts are as follows
 fThe Republican committee of this
 district, composed of 30 members, met | to call the convention Eighteen 1 members were favorable to my can didacy. 12 to Mir. Taft's The Taft men conceded that this was the reg
 ular district committee and began by | participating in the meeting, but as soon as it developed that the Roose-
 welt men were in the majority the l12 Taft men left the meeting and caIIed a convention Of of their own, ieay- ing IS members, clear majority of the regular committee, to call the regular convention in which the
 Roosevelt delegates were named, No serious evidence was presented before
 the national committee to eontravene these facts. The contest against these two regularly elected Roose- welt delegates had literally no foun- dation whatever, even of the most Aimsy description. There was no more ground for unseating these dele gates than there would be, for ex- ample. in unseating the Taft dele gates from Rhode Island or in any district in any state where there, IS no contest whatever. Yet the na- tional committeeman who are sup porting MT. Taft voted to unseat the two men properly elected and to seat in the national convention two men,
 who, as l have said, literally have no more right to appear as delegates in that convention than they have to
 appear in the Democratic national convention. They represent nothing
 whatever in the Republican party ex-
 cept the determination of certain members of the national committee, who have themselves been repudiatel
 by the Republican party, that the ma
 jority of the party shall not be per
 mitted to decide whom they wish to
 be the nominee for president.
 Now l wish to call the attention
 not only of all good Republicans but
 of all good citizens to just what this type of action means. As yet there
 is no law to govern national nom-
 mating conventions as there is to
 govern national although in certain states the nomination of
 candidates is carried on under the
 law of those states precisely as are the elections.
 Because of this lack of federal
 law, acts which if done to influence
 elections would be criminal, can be
 perpetrated with impunity so far as national nominations are concerned i But this is difference in legality land not in morality. Again and again