The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-07

men on the committee, were debated until lato hour. while the advice of leaders in Washington, New York and other cities was obtained by telegraph and telephone. The Taft managers said that a cam vass of all contests showed that, in a majority of cases to be brought before the committee, the Roosevelt contests were without merit and. therefore. Pres ident Taft was assured of at least two thirds of the contested seats in the con vention.
 Mckinley's Claims
 In one of two statements issued tonight by Congressman William B. Mckinley, head of the Taft forces. the following ap- pears:
 The 5s states and territories and dis tricts represented in the republican na- tional convention this year President Taft has the entire delegations or a majority oi the delegations from 20 states in tbe north and west; 10 from the south and five from the District of Columbia and territories or total of 35. MT. Roose- welt has the delegations. or the majority of them from 14 states in the north and west and two from the south, or total of Is. Senator Robert M. LaFollette has two. Wisconsin and North Dakota.
 "Furthermore. MT. Taft has represen- tation on the delegations from seven of the states which MT Roosevelt has car ried in this contest. increasing the mum Der of political units reached in his total of delegates to 42 out of 5s in the con- ventionz
 Tn the face of this analysis of the dele gstions by states, as they have been elect ed to the Chicago convention, the utter absurdity of the claims of MT. Roose- welt and his managers that they con trol the coming convention is apparent. They will have, in fact, all the difficulty possible in managing the so-called Roose- welt sure delegates. who already realize that they are being led into a ditch. t not Into an actual bolt by a lost cause"
 Senator Dixon Comments
 United States Senator Dixon, when told of the committees action in voting for sessions open to the press, stated that the difference was a victory in the com mittee for Colonel Roosevelt In this con nection he said:
 This is the first time we ever have had any publicity Of these matters at all, and 1t is the result of the demand made by the friends of Colonel Roosevelt.
 We wanted to make our fight in the open We asked for the seating of no man. who, under every rule of justice is not entitled to a seat. We were, and F1w 4l.4I~ our position and the facts upon which we base our claims.
 There is no question we have the legi;i- mate votes to nominate Roosevelt by q safe majorty. We want the public to know upon what we base that claim. We still will insist that the public know all the facts
 No Contest on Rosewater
 R. B. Howell of Nebraska, chosen 4or national committeeman at the state prf- maries, after conferring with Senator Dixon, issued a statement, in which he said:
 Mir Rosewater will retain his seat in the national committee for the present without contest as have been requested by Senator Dixon to defer the presenta- tions of my credentials.
 T now am legally entitled, without question, to perform the functions of na- tional committeeman from Nebraska.
 q have been thoroughly in accord with the Roosevelt management in this matter from the beginning
 The Rosewater and Howell contest 1t was expected before the committee met. would develop the first test of strength between the Taft and Roosevelt members. Certain Taft adherents said that the Roosevelt managers were unwilling to take the initiative in asking for a roll call on any such clearly defined issue at this time.
 Congressman Mckinley also claimed for the Taft forces credit for open sessions of the national committee. He said the President recently wrote Har- ry S. New, asking that the fullest pos sible publicity be given proceedings preliminary to the national convention and in accordance with that request tho republican national committee voted to admit to it's meeting representatives Of the five newspaper associations. The true significance of the test vote today. he said was the established fact that three -fourths of the republican national committee voted to uphold President Taft.
 To Prevent Bolt
 Fred W. I'pham, who will have seat in the republican national convention as a delegate from the Nslth Illinois dis trict. plans to introduce a resolution at the opening of the convention designed to prevent a bolt on the part of either side.
 It will pledge every delegate to support the nominee of the convention and will call upon the committee on credentials to deny a seat to any delegate who will not make such pledge
 Precedent for such a resolution is said to be found in the convention of 1880, when the anti-third-termers talked of boltIng if Grant were nominated. reso- lution of similar nature is declared to have been adopted at that time.