The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-10-11
BRYAN DELIGHTS BIG
GRAND FORKS CROWD
tcontinued from Page II

years from now the old committee
will be in charge. and It can do four
years from now just what the Taft
committee did this year.. and Just
what the Rooseelt committee did four
years ago. Four years from now, il
they have anoter convention of the
new party. they MAJ have some youne
bull moosers there who want to be
heard, but they Will find when they
get there that the old bull moosers.
with horns four years old. will be
there to horn them of.
Wants to Know Reason.
Now why did Roosevelt take other
things from our platform and leave
this? He said he took everything III
to take. that what he left was only
fit for weeds. Is tina, the way he
character!zes this plank that he didn't
both Mr. Taft's party and MI. Roose-
velt's. didn't want to change the sys-
TEN? 1t is because this system lends
itself to the machine. and Mr.. Roose-
Welt likes q machine just as much as
MI. Taft likes a machine. and 1t gives
them a machine to work with.
Gives Concrete Illustration.
But the democratic party. instead
OF talking about popular government
and doing nothing. gives you q con
crete illustration of what q party can
do when 1t Is in earnest. for It brings
the party government into harmany
with the people-makes representa-
tive government a reality in the party.
But there was another dif1culty at
Chicago.
They had some delegates from the
south who represented Imaginary con-
~stftuencies. To make It plain to you,
let me show what happened. Missis-
sippi had twenty delegates at Chicago.
How many voters did they represent?
Four thousand, five hundred. That
was the republican vote in Mississippi
four years ago. Four thousand. Ave
hundred? Why. In some Of those
southern states you can't find the re-
publican party with a search warrant.
Just before the convention a little Or
ganized body draws itself together and
sends delegates to the convention. And
there at Chicago Mississippi had twen-
ty delegates representing and speaking
for four thousand, five hundred repub-
licans. Why. in the First District Of
Nebraska we have $4,000 republicans.
four times as many as they had In the
whole state Of Mississippi. I don't
ashamed Of it. I Just mention It.
There is no excuse for so many re.
publicans in that district. Especially
was there no excuse four years ago.
when I was a candidate. But 1 men,
ton it just for the sake Of illustration
and comparison. Now. how many del
egates did those eighteen thousand re.
publicans have? They had two and
two-thirds. Two delegates from the
with five others in electing four at
large. That gave them wo-thirds Of
a delegate. That was their share. and
that gave them two and two-thirds,
or less than three delegates. to repre-
sent four times as many voters as were
represented by twenty delegates from
Mississippi. That is. Mississippi had
over six times as many delegates to
represent %one-fourth as many voters.
by Jour 1t will give you twenty-five.
about. And that means that every re-
publican in Mississippi had twenty
times as much influence at Chicago as
a Nebraska republican did. It touches
my state pride to have a Mississippi
republican SO much more important
than a Nebraska republican. I could
'concede some superiority to a Missis-
sippi republican on the ground that I
seen a Nebraska republican.
But my friends I wouldn't make the
ration twenty-fv v to one. That is too
much, I would on my present infot.
nation concede, however. sixteen To
one.
In Louisiana they had $1,000 repub-
licans. and they had twenty delegates
at Chicago. That is, that the Lous-
ana republicans had twelve times az
as much influence as the same num-
president as Il Nebraska republican.
And so you can go through the south
ern states and you will find that they
had from five to twenty-five times
as fuch influence az the same num-
states. Now nobody defends this. No.
body can justify 1t. and yet It has
gone on. Because 1t is conceded to
be the purpose Of the machine to use
these men. the administration can
bring them UP with patronage and
Wall street men can buy them when
necessary. And there has not been a
republican convention in a generation
where there was a contest that there
was not a scanCal about these dele
gates from the south. And yet Mr..
Taft's convention didn't change the
system. And four years from now
resenting these fictitious constituent
cies. and use them to sandbag a con.
vention. And Mr.. Roosevelt didn't
change the system and when he has
his convention II he is elected he
can marshal by patronage these men
from the south to control a conven.
ton. That is what happened Al Chi.
cago. These were two Of the evils,
and they have split the party. Bui
they haven't corrected the abuses and
neither side seems interested in cor.
recting them.
SO much for the republican convsn.