The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-06-19
BLUFF AND BLUsTER FAILS.

BLUFF AND BLUSTER FAILS.
In the only orderly way that a
temporary Organization could be per-
fected the momentous Republican
national convention of 1912 has been
| organized. And the election of Elihu
Root as its temporary chairman is a
convincing victory for William How
ard Taft-one that presages the re-
nomination for the presidential Of
flee to which he is entitled.
Regardless of the frenzied har-
argues of distinguished representa-
tives of the Roosevelt forces, there
was nothing of real merit to their in
sistence that the delegates to the con-
vention should pass on their fitness
as such before even a temporary or
ganization of the convention had been
effected. Not only was this at var
lance with the customs and usages
that have prevailed in the Republi-
can party for many years. 1t was al
so a proposition that had nothing of
justice in it. To permit only the un-
contested delegates to participate in
the temporary organization of a con-
vention would in effect be giving the
control of the convention to the side
the most contests regardless of their
merits. 1t was a natural suggestion
to come from the Roosevelt forces.
They had done this very thing. And
that most of the two hundred odd
contests that they brought were with
out merit has already been evidenced
by the unanimous action of the mem
bers of the national committee-in
oil, hn Mt hue eli cfS on
tin deciding the bulk of those con-
tests in favor of President Taft. There
was nothing of merit to most of the
contests brought by Mr.. Roosevelt's
friends. And to deny the large num-
Der of Taft delegates, who were thus
contested, a right to a voice in the
temporary organization of the con-
vention, would not have savored much
of the square deal that Mr.. Roosevelt
and his friends are SO insistent upon.
In fact, the rather feeble fight that
was put up by the Roosevelt forces to
prevent the procedure of electing a
temporary chairman on the temper
airy roll of the delegates as deter
mined by the national committee, is
pretty good evidence that all of the
talk preliminary to the assembling
VI
welt forces proposed to bring about a
temporary organization was merely
more of the bluff and buster that has
characterized the Roosevelt campaign
for third term nomination since it's
very inception.
There was bluff and buster at it's
beginning that President Taft would
not get a delegate from single
cfa 70. Of he a
exception of Utah and Arkansas. and
that Roosevelt would get all of them.
President Taft obtained many dele
gates in several of the states west of
the Mississippi besides Utah and Ark
ansas, and entire delegations from a
of such states and against
whom the Roosevelt leaders did not
even have the temerity to bring con-
tests. There was bluff and buster
that Colonel Roosevelt would carry
every state where presidential pri
maries were held. And some of his
talking friends are still insistent
that he did so. The fact is that he
failed to get the popular vote in four
such states, President Taft winning
in two of them and Senator LaFol-
lette getting the victories in two.
and file of the Republican party has
demanded the nomination of the Col |
Onel because of his victories in the |
primaries in several of the states and |
this notwithstanding the fact that
only about from one-quarter to one |
third of the normal Republican vote |
in those states was pol1ed at the pri- |
maries There was bluff and buster
hat newly elected national commit |
-eemen favorable to Roosevelt would |
demand and take their places on the |
national committee before that body |
undertook the preparation of a tenn
porary roll of delegates for the con-
7ention. Nothing came of that. No |
more so did anything come of the
emphatic insistence that the conven-
ion would only be organized by the
1ncontested delegates or on a tenn
1orary roll of delegates that had
been fixed to the liking of Colonel
Roosevelt
There will be more bluff and blus-
er ON the part of the Roosevelt forces
before the work of the convention Is
concluded, but such activities of the
mouth have never been known to win
rictories except possibly in a poker
game, and there the successful bluff
er is seldom verbose.