The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-18

1 l trations of how MT. Taft's theory of gov ernment of the people by representa- tive part of the people actually turns 1 out to be in practice. In Ohio, primary
 was held for the district delegates but
 the Taft managers. who had control or
 the state central committee. refused our ] request that there should also be pri-
 mary vote for the delegates at large. At l the primary I beat MT. Taft by 4l.e0o Tn
 a vote which was about 80 per cent of l that polled at the last election for gov
 ernor. It was an overwhelming repudia-
 ton of Mr. Taft by the plain people, by
 the rank and file of the republican party
 of Ohio. But this did not affect the state
 convention.
 Anyway to Get Delegates
 1 MT. Taft was not above sending an
 appeal to his leaders in the state con
 vention. begging them to give him the
 vote anyhow, in spite of the way in which
 he had been repudiated at he polls. In 1 that convention the county in which the l city of Cleveland stands had some 50
 delegates. That county had gone against | MT. Taft about three to one; he had even run behind Mr. LaFollette. His repudia-
 ton by the people of the county had been
 so complete that 1t is to me literally in- comprehensible how any man with any
 pretensions to honorable feeling could
 fail to accept the verdict. But MT. Tafts lieutenants, helped by Senator Burton, un-
 dertook to steal from the people their right to deliver what verdict they chose. l Their task was no more reputable than any form of burglary and was far more 1 damaging to the community than bpr- I glary. They were successful. They suc- l ceeded in getting from the city of C1eve-
 land. which had repudiated Mir. Taft,
 three to one at the polls, a delegation 1 of politicians which was 10 to 1 in his | fa 6al ia at the state convention and earned MT. Tafts effusive gratitude by stealing for I him favor the people of Ohio the six dele gates at large. He was not entitled to these delegates. The people of Ohio, who were defrauded in his interest. were entitled
 to them. The people were cheated out of l their rights because they were misrepre-
 sented by the convention. MT. Taft asked l the Ohio state convention to misrepresent | the people, and 1t did misrepresent the people. MT. Taft need never again ex- I plain what he means by government of l the people by a representative part of I the people. He has shown in actual prac- | tice that he means government of the peo- | pie by politicians who shall misrepre- 1 sent them in the selfish interest of some l one else.
 1 My second example is the national | committee itself. The recent action of I the national committee illustrates we'll what has happened in our country in the | twisting of nominal representative gov ernment away from it's original purpose | until it becomes thoroughly unrepresenta- l tive and misrepresentative.
 Original Purpose of Committee 1 "All this party machinery was original l ly designed simply in order to make the will of the party genuinely effective. It | had no other purpose then. It can have no other legitimate purpose now. Un- | til within a very few years no man would have been brazen enough openly to an- nounee that this was not it's purpose. It I has been reserved for MT. Taft and his | friends in this crisis openly to act on such an assumption. The other day, S7
 of Mir Tafts adherents on the national | committee stole from the people of Cali l fornia their right to give their votes of | California to the men of their choice. These 37 politicians, none of whom lived In California, assumed to override the will I of the quarter of a million of California voters, who had recorded their will at | the primary. The 37 men who do not live
 in California have given seats to two Taft
 men, whom the quarter of a million Cali | fornia voters had refused to seat. These | two Taft delegates have no more right to 1 sit in the republican convention than i they have to sit in the democratic con vention. They were defeated in Cali l | greater than MT. Tafts entire vote. In. | der the act of the legislature all the l delegates ran on one ticket, the Taft and 1 Roosevelt delegates alike binding them l selves to abide by the result. No dele l gates were elected by districs. MT. Taft sent an urgent appeal to California just before the primary election, an appeal which showed his complete acquiescence
 In what was done-and unless he was
 prepared then to protest, it was dishon- orable to protest afterwards.
 Yet on the plea of a henchman of MT. Patrick Calhoun, 37 adherents of Mir Taft l on the national committee robbed the peo-
 pie of California of their rights and seated l the two Taft-Calhoun delegates.
 The Taft Committeeman
 "Of these 37 men, four represented the | territories of Alaska, Haiwail the Phili- 1 pines and Porto Rico. Twelve represented states that went democratic four years 1 ago. Fourteen came from republican
 states, every one of which had repudiated MT. Taft and his committeeman at the | primaries held this spring. In other words of the 37 Taft men, in Mir. Taft's | interest, who robbed the overwhelming
 majority of the republican voters of the 1 great republican state of California of | their rights, 16 represented republican l states whose voters by overwhelming ma- I jorites had repudiated the men them l selves, and MT. Taft also at the primaries 1 held this spring. There remain out of 1 the % only seven men, six of these rep l resenting states where the republican voters have had no chance to express | their preference for President. In other words, out of the 37 men on the national committee. who in Mir Taft's interest dis 1 franchised California so far as two of its 1 delegates are concerned. but one single man represented state where the ma l jority was republican. and where, when it l had had chance 1t had not repudiated 1 both the man himself and MT. Taft. The action of the committee in seating the 1 Taft delegates from Washington was even 1 worse; and in the other states I have named, it was at least as bad. This Is
 MT. Taft's theory of government of the | people by a representative part of the
 people, when it is reduced to practice. l From the practice of this theory under
 the pretense of needing the forms of de- l mocracy, it is but one step farther to cast | aside all pretense whatever; and MT. | Tafts lieutenants have taken this step 1 again and again; from swindling the peo- | pie by sharp political tricks. they have | gone to the point of deliberate theft Mir | Taft in encouraging what was done in the Ohio state convention, showed his
 anxious desire to defeat the will of the people by sharp trickerq, which kept just
 within the law. But in electing and seat l ing the delegates whom the Taft na- 1 tional committeeman have put on the
 temporary roll of the convention from
 Washington. Arizona. Kentucky. Indiana,
 Texas and other states, a much longer
 step towards dishonesty has been taken Result of Robbery