Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-04-05
interview with Wallace Batch
elder.
BETHEL. VI. ADJ

Batchelder, one of the three members
of the New England Roosevelt Com
mittee and Chairman of the Vermont
Roosevelt Committee. said
"On receipt of confirmatory returns
from Vermont in Washington Senator
Joseph M. Dixon, of Montana, Chairman
of the National Roosevelt Committee,
left for New York. was called to be
there at noon Tuesday. Monday even
ing my orders were revoked and by
direction of Col. Roosevelt | was told
"stay right on firing line. Hold your
position at all hazards. Stay at Bethel.
We will 60 to YOU" At ten O'Clock
Monday evening Senator Dixon tele-
graphed me that he would arrive in
Bethel Tuesday afternoon at PAL with
Judge cambridge Colby, a leading
member of the New York City Bar,
and Col. Henry L. Stoddard, editor of
the iNew York evening Mail and Ex-
press. The Senator requested that
such Roosevelt supporters as could be
reached in time be asked to confer
ence to be held in Bethel to meet the
Senator and the two other gentlemen.
They came as arranged Tuesday after
noon on the mail. Fifty-two men from
different parts of the State had been
reached by wire and were present
Tuesday afternoon and evening. An
informal dinner was held at the Bethel
Inn at 7:15.
Senator Dixon expressly stated that
he and the National Committee were
determined not to do anything to die
tate to the voters of Vermont or even to
the Vermont Roosevelt Committee but
to make sure that everything possible
is done to see to it that if it is true that
majority of the Republican voters in
Vermont prefer that Theodore Roose-
welt and not William H. Taft be
nominated at the Chicago convention
those voters be not defrauded of their
right to be heard in that convention.
The claim OF the Taft machine that Mr.
Taft has carried the State of Vermont
in the caucuses has about as much
foundation in fact as the unqualified
statement of Frank C. Williams, Chair
man of the State Republican Committee,
which he made less than week before
the caucuses and caused to be published
in the State and Metropolitan papers
that while there was a little Roosevelt
sentiment in his own county of Orleans
and in Lamoille and Caledonia the rest
of the State was solid for Taft. In this
connection it is entirely fair to call at
tention to the fact that at the caucus in
Chairman Williams own town of New
port his Taft ticket was defeated and
straight Roosevelt ticket to the State
and District convention was elected by
a vote of 1877 for Roosevelt to go for
Taft, and it is but fair to the voters of
Vermont to call attention to the fact
that in st. Johnsbury Lieutenant
Governor Slack. who was one of the
men who had repeatedly claimed that
Vermont was solid for Taft, headed the
Taft ticket and made a hot fight and
was defeated by straight out Roose-
welt ticket to both District and State
conventions by majority of &C.
The statement put up by Chairman
Williams of the State Committee is
most interesting to one who knows
something of the game of politics as it
is played in Vermont. Let me tell YOU
one of the tricks of trained politician
when the votes are running against him
as last resort he discovers that the
other side has insulted the voter or the
delegate and he forthwith feels hurt
for that delegate or voter all for the
purpose of appealing to his prejudice
and not to his good Judgment. That is
exactly what Chairman Williams is do
ing. He has no right to make claim for
either side. When he does so he is
serving faction. In this contest he is
apparently fighting as loyal a faction of
the Republican party as ever followed it
in victory and defeat. Loyal because it
desires to adhere to the principles
which inspired its formation and its great
achievement. He opposes the faction
which desires the nomination of man
who can win in November. Senator
Dixon did not insult the delegates. That
was discovered by the Taft men for the
effect it is hoped it will have. 1t
illustrates the statement that every
effort will be made and every influence
used which lot of trained politicians
can command to defeat the express will
of the people. The Indiana delegates
were bought and a Roosevelt conven-
ton was made Taft convention. What
the Taft machine at Washington did in
Indiana it will attempt to do elsewhere.
This is directed at the machine not at
the delegates. If the machine feels
that it has been insulted it can make
the best of it. The picture at this stage
of the contest of the machine shedding
tears over insulted delegates is certain.
ly ludicrous.