The Bottineau courant., 1912-09-13
sTRlKe Oh TINE EnDoRs EnEMTs
State Progrossives Must Shout
for Teddy or Have Moose
Opposition

the Bull Moose party, in this
state, q matter made doubly in
teresting from the fact that
Teddy Roosevelt, the head and
front and center Of the new
party, was at the christening
and gave it his hearty blessing.
Great preparations had been
made for the coming of the big.
chief by all classes, yet there.
was no tossing Of hats in the
air nor shouts Of welcome as
he stepped from the train,
neither was there any demon
stration from the sidewalks as
the leader and his escort, head
ed by a brass band, passed
down the streets to the hotel.
In no sense was it a. greeting
such as the Teddy of old has
been given many times before
in this city. There were pro.
badly less than 1OOpeople from
out Of town here to do him
honor, which is in marked con-
trast to the train loads from all
parts of the state which have
previously fastened here to
give him the cordial hand; and
this Notwithstanding heroic
efforts on the part Of the com
r1ittee to make the birth of the
new party one of the enthusias,
tic and great events of political
history. !.
AT the. park. where Roose.
velt addressed an open.air
meeting, and where he had
talked to ten thousand on each
of his other visits, less than
two thousand persons heard
him speak this time. There
are more people in the park
any summer Sunday Afternoon
when the band plays.
When Roosevelt addressed
the Bull Moose convention at
the Grand theater later, half
the seats in the house were
vacant, although the theatre is
in the heart of the city. There
were just fifty-one delegates at
that convention and probably
the balance Of the audience
was made up of local people.
Most of the retail merchants
associations have brought three
times the crowd to Fargo that
Roosevelt did.
And Teddy himself was not
the same Teddy we have known
in the past. The same confid-,
ent smile was there but little
of the fire of word or action
which in the past have made
his speeches eagerly listened to
from eginning to end, and
many did not remain to the
finish. There is nothing ap-l
parent today to show that he
added many votes to his
column, while OH the other.
hand his coming seems to have
put new life in the Taft forces
and to have electrified into en-
thusiastic activity the cohorts
Of Woodrow Wilson. s.s
Rooseve1t',s insistence that a.
third party ticket be placed in
the field nearly split the con-
vention, but the plans had been.
too well laid to be knocked out
by those who want to vote and
work for Roosevelt yet remain
republicans so far as the state
ticket is concerned, and the
program outlined several days
IS advance went through with
out q hitch, save that Dave
Rart1ett was ditched, for some
uslknown reason and Nehemiah
Davis of Minot, recently de-
3eated candle date for noninatiOn
Tor congress on the republican
ticket, was made chairnan OF
the convention inst cad. AZ no
time did the feins get away
from the hands of the little coter-
ie hand Hing thin g and old tim,
ers Ge actually refresh led at,
the rese ce gto HE Old time
conye yentipps WI ael, HE chair B
men of the Sco count ~ elegations
mad 40 the slate and the con
RAfltiO aleenil ND CE u KID N Ysha