The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-06-18


i'll the convention the delegates whom
the states of Washington, California,
Arizona, Texas and the rest have just
beaten at the polls.
Threat Made in Declaration.
III the convention proves false to the
cause of the people: if It records the
will of the bosses, whether vet I'M
beaten as in New York and Colorado
or beaten, as in Massachusetts and New
Jersey, Pennsylvania and Kansas, it
will wreck the Republican party, 1t
will put back the cause of democracy,
it VIII be false to every principle of
honor and justice. Tt cannot with hon
esty or propriety stand in any shape or
way for the action of the national COM
mittee, neither by accepting that COM
mittee's nominee for temporary chair
man, nor by accepting it's decision as
to the seating and unseating of con-
tested delegations.
Stolen From Rank and File.
1.-THE majority of the national COM
mittee have acted with deliberate dis
honesty; majority committee compos-
ed nearly half of politicians from ter
ritories and states that never cast
Republican electoral vote, and nearly
half of politicians who have just been
repudiated at open primaries by the
people of their own states, has stolei
from the rank and file of the Republi-
cans from 60 to 80 lawfully elected del
equal number of fraudulent delegates,
not elected by the people and claims
the right to nullify the will of the
people by placing these fraudulent del
egates on the temporary roll call of the
national convention with the hope of
thereby controlling it in the interes
of the candidates and of the bosses
whom the people have just now en-
phatically repudiated. This attempt to
bind the convention by an act of de-
liberate dishonesty, this attempt to de-
fraud of their rights the plain citizens
of the Republican party, by the bosses
whom that party has just repudiated,
brings in question certain elementary
principles which lie at the foundation
not only of party procedure and party
organization, but of free government
of social order.
81 hold that the convention in itself
is of right the only judge of the quail
ficationS of it's own members. From
Washington, California, Arizona, Texas,
Kentucky, Indiana, Alabama and GER
tain other states the people elected del
egates who are legally and morally en-
titled to sit in the convention. The
discredited politicians making up the
majority of the national committee with
the determination to nul1ify the will
of the people, have substituted for these
men certain others who have not the
slightest claim to seats in the cOnven-
ton. A minority of the national COM
mittee composed of honorable men,
have voted on every case strictly on its
merits, have in each case protested
strongly against the action of the ma
jority, showing beyond the shadow of
doubt that the men thrown off the tenn
porary roll by the majority are en-
titled to seats. by every consideration
of law and of morals I have careful
ly examined the facts in these cases
myself and I say to you that there is
r ,IoxS A1-1% H. fr1f
question were honorably and lawfully
chosen by the people and that the eff
fort of the majority to unseat them rep
resents nothing but naked theft, car
ried on with the sole and evil purpose
of dishonesty substituting the will o
the bosses for the deliberately express |
ed judgment of the people.
1T is for the convention itself to de- |
eide thesesca SEES; and by the convention
I mean the lawfully elected members tf |
the convention. The men fraudulently |
put on the temporary roll by the dis |
honest action of the majority of the |
national committee must not be allow |
ed to vote on their own caseS-and tc
allow the beneficiaries of the theft &C
vote on one another's cases is of course
to allow them really to vote on then |
own cases.
Would Keep Contested Delegates Silent |
by every consideration of real JUS |
whom 1 speak, who were elected by |
the people, put on the roll call at once
But we do not ask this. Although we |
are deprived of our just rights when |
those men are not allowed to vote from |
the beginning, we ask merely that |
neither set of contestants be allowed |
to vote on any question before the |
convention until the 1000 members of |
the convention whose seats have not |
been contested shall themselves decide |
which of the contested delegates are en- |
titled to membership.
II believe that even with the addi- |
ton of these fraudulently seated dele |
gates Mr.. Taft's supporters are in a |
substantial minority of the convention; |
and I do not merely believe, I know,
that we have a large majority of the |
legally elected members of the con-
vention. The question involved in the |
action of the national committee is of
vastly more Importance than my /
nomination or the nomination of any
man. The whole system of the cor
rupt alliance between crooked business
and crooked politics is stake in the
making up of this temporary roll; it
has been made up crockedly by the |
of the national committee /
with the purpose of perpetuating the
of the corrupt political boss
even when the people have declared
against him. If these methods were |
allowed to prevail, the Republican
party would come to an end; for it I
would cease to be the party of the 1
people. 1t would pass under the con- Ii
troll of an oligarchy of the representa-
tives of privilege and no method of Il
that control would re- H
main available to the people. If this II
action by the majority of the national II
committee is allowed to stand, pri-
maries are a farce and election the II
idle exercise of a useless privilege. We
refuse to recognize or abide by this
theft of the rights of the people by II
n a na1 ron ami 90 iC
Of all honest members of the conven-
ton to fight that action from the mo-