Perth Amboy evening news., 1912-07-23
FORT SOUNDS
new KEYNOTE
Says No One Bound by
Fraudulent Convention.

Asbury Park, N. j., July 23.-At the
New Jersey state convention of the
National Progressive party, which
opened here ct noon today, former
Governor John Franklin Fort, as chair
man, made the following address:
Gentlemen OF the Convention-For
the compliment you pay me In making
me your presiding officer l return my
grateful thanks. We gather today I'M
der circumstances which are quite
unique. The movement we are start
ing here is destined to be f~arreaching
and Of great moment to our state and
the republic.
At the Republican primaries held in
this state on the 2Sth day of May last
a solid delegation Of twenty-eight men
was sent to the Republican convention
held at Chicago on the 10th day of
June last, carrying a commission from
the Republicans Of New Jersey ap-
proved by $4,000 Of our fellow citi-
ems. This was the first commission
Of hat kind ever taken by any dele
gate fro 1 this state to a national po-
pitical convention. The people of New
Jersey by that significant vote de-
clared that their representatives at
that convention should support Theo-
dore Roosevelt as their choice for pres
ident of the United States. What
New Jersey did at that time every
other state having the direct primary
also did. BY a majority Of Owe 1900
GOO votes the states that are surely
Republican n which could surely
give their electoral votes for q Re-
publican president all declared for
The, dore Roosevelt. BY any fair
count Of delegates duly elected to that
convention Colonel Roosevelt would
have been nominated. But the will Of
the people, thus forcibly expressed at
the polls, was defeated, and by the
fraudulent action Of the Iational com
mittee, composed largely of men re-
pudiated at the primaries, another
nomination was made. For the first
time in It's history the Republican par
ty stands pilloried before the nation
as the receiver Of stolen goods. No
amount Of excusin: or explanation can
remove this crime or wash away its
stain. 1t is so burned into its record
hat neither time nor repentance can
ever efface 1t. And this is the party
with which most Of US here have al
ways been associated and by which
some Of us have been greatly honored.
10 you your delegation at Chicago
comes today to give an account Of its
stewardship and to submit for your
consideration its conduct In repudiat-
Ing the fraud and crime Of that con-
vention and to ask your condemnation
of the action of hat convention for its
fraudulent subversion Of the popular
will.
Chicago Convention R~epudiated.
1t Is not my purpose at this time to
go into the details of the fraudulent
seating Of over seventy delegates In
that convention who were not legally
or morally entitled to their seats. l
have in my possession a clear, con-
Iincing statement made by John Boyd
Avis. the New Jersey member on the
committee on credentials Of that con.
vention, giving the facts as to the I'M
seating of .Sorty-fve Of the honestly
elected delegates to that convention
which, at my request, he prepared.
These forty-fve alone would have re-
duced the vote of Mr.. Taft in that on
vention, without counting other fraud
.ulent delegates, to a number far below
that required to nominate. Mr.. Avis
paper demonstrates what your dele
gates all know-that Mr.. Taft was not
the nominee of that convention, and no
Republican Is bound in law or morals
to support him at the polls. A Repub-
lfcan convention has been held In the
great Republican state of Iowa and by
a vote Of 773 to 349 it has repudiated
the action of the Chicago convention
M its nominee. South Dakota has
done the same. California, Kansas,
Nebraska, Maine, Pennsylvania, Min
nesota, Maryland, New Jersey, West
Virginia and other states will do like
wise. Before November the Chicago
convention will be a stencil In the nos
trils Of every honest man.
Moral forces are counting for more
T. public life today than ever before.
Party zeal and partisan spirit awake
no echoes. A party name no longer has
any potentiality.
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