The Daily Missoulian., 1912-07-29
AO(O!||N|NoUS REPLY
..ll'a,'.N|A|p!g 103cAARGES


sa 80 y (
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WORDS. the call &C the national COM
mitfee was at variance with the state
law. The state law sought to enforce
the state unit rule and required the
| whole 26 delegates to be voted for all
over the state, assigning two to each
district on the ticket. to abide by the
statewide election, while the republican
national convention has insisted since
| 1850 upon the unit of the district.
That haA been the party law. This
convention recognized the party law
and allowed the two delegates who
had received, in the Fourth district, n
vote larger. than their two opponents
assigned TO That district, to become
delegates &c, the conyention. This was
clearly lawful. for state has no
power to limit or control the basis
| of, representation of voluntary ma
! tional, party in q national convention.
The fact that President Taft by tele-
| gram approved all the &c delegates
as representing him IL said to be an
estoppel agsinst his claiming the elec-
ton of two, or those delegates IN the
, Fourth district. What IL there In
consistent'uT his approving the can
diducy Of all his delegates and the
\ election'of fwb OF them? Why should
ne thus be estopped TO claiming thar
part of the law was imperative be-
cause In cbnflirt with the call OF the
convention?
,.. .t,.e, j., Warrington.
The contest In Washington turned
on the question where the Taft dele
gates appointed by the county com
mittee In King county. In which Sc
attle is situated, were duly elected 10
the convention, or whether n primary,
which was subsequently held, ana at
which Roosevelt delegates were elected.
was properly. called, so that It's re-
sun was legal. Under law the county
committee had the power TO decide
whether, IT. would select the delegates
directly .6r, should call primary.
In some, counties Of the state, one
course was pursued, and In other
counties the other In kirg county, tho
COMMITTEES consisted Of ESQ mon, the
majority Of whom were for Taft ana
that majority, acting through its ex.
ecutjve; committee, selected the Taft
dslssatss &c. the state convention.
Meantime the city council of Sc
attle had redlstrcted the city. It be-
fore had 250j precincts, Now. sub
stantially. thes same territory was d.
vided up into ,8S1 precincts. The chair
man of the county committee was n
Roosevelt mani He had been given
authority by general resolution to fill
vacancies occurring in the committee
A general meeting of the committee
had been held safter the city ceuncn
had directed the redistrlcting of the
city In which at was resolved, the
chairman not dlssenting, that no rep
resentntives gould be selected to fiil
the 3s1 new pteclncts until an. election
was held inllSaRtember. 1912. There
after. and In spite Of this conclusion
the chairman ASSUMED the right by his
appointment to add to the existing
committee l3l precinct committee
men. and with these voting In the
| convention, II Is claimed that pri-
mary was ordered There was SO much
confusion in the meeting that this is
doubtful. However. the fact il that
the Taft men protested against action
by n committee 80 constituted. on the
ground that the chairman had author
ity to appoint the 1871 new committee
men. They refused to take part IN
the primary and 80 did the La Toilette
men. The newspapers reported the
number of votes I'm the primary to be
something over 1900. The Roosevelt
committee showed by affidavit the
number to be 5000. out Of Il total re-
publican vote of $4,000. The action
of the chairman of the committee In
attempting to add l3i new precinct
men. TO the old committee was, Of
course. beyond his power. The resolu-
tion authorizingl him to fiji vacancies,
of'eourse.j anplidtsonly to those places
which became vacant after they had
been filled and clearly did not apply
to 131 new precincts II could not. IN
the nature OF things, apply to a
change from the old system to COM
plete new system OF precincts, created
by the city council, because II they
were to be filled. the entire number
OF 3S1 new precincts. different from
the old, must be filled. One system
could not be made into the other by a
mere additional appointment of 1871
committeeman. No lawyer will say
that such action by the committee thus
cohstituted was legal. Therefore. the |
action which the lawful committee OF
$50 took in electing Taft delegates
who made a majority In the state con-
vention. was only IN accord with what
could be reeossized as just and
legal S2s
As an appendix the statement carries
in detail. the, vote In the national COM
mlttee on each Of the contests and
statement OF the dates OF the Taft and
Roosevelt conventions In contested
states. 'rhe object of the latter is TO