Arizona republican., 1912-07-28
Maricopa County Wing of National Progressive Movement Begins
 Business
STATE CONVENTION
 DELEGATES NAMED
Resolutions Indicate the Responsibility of Roose- welt as Candidate for
 President

The Roosevelt brethren yesterday initiated the permanent organization of the National Progressive party in this county and elected delegates to the state convention to be held here next Tuesday for the selection of delegates to the national convention i in Chicago on August and to effect a state organization of the party in Arizona. Under the call for the state convention this county was given fif- teen delegates in the state convention. It was decided yesterday to name vice that number, giving each dele gate d half vote. The reason for that action is that there was not time for 1 the holding of primaries and the new party does not want to lay itself open at the very start, to the charge of being unmindfuI of the wishes of the ! rank and file so it was decided to put as many of them in the conven- | tion as possible, reducing individual | influence in the same ratio.
 Beside the selection of delegates a | county committee was named with one representative from each precinct, the whole number to select an executive l committed, these committees to rep
 resent the county organization until the regular primaries are held in Sep 1 tember By that time the party eX- poets 10 be fully organized so com
 mitteemen may be elected under the l law as is the case with other parties. Also, the convention yesterday | launched a petition for ultimate filing l with the secretary of state, designed
 to secure for the party recognition on l the ballot and all other prerogatiVes enjoyed by organized political parties | This petition will require signatures ! in a number eQualing two per cent of | the votes cast last fall for governor About seventyfive names were se- | cured yesterday and the circulation of | the petition will be vigorously pur-
 sued in the respective counties.
 But the big sensational event of the l convention is found in the resolutions
 of instructions to delegates to the
 state convention. The partisans of | MT Taft, who feared an effort might l be made to force their chief into the
 running, and the adherents of MT. | Wilson who were more or less ner- | vous lest an effort should be made 1 to attach the new party to their l candidate by endorsing him, breathed | more easily when the news came from 1 the convention hall that by a vote of some 75 to 0 resolutions had been adopted to the effect that there is but one man on earth who can represent the party perfectly in its race for the | white house and his name is Theo- dore Roosevelt. It was a somewhat needless worry on the part of the rank and file of the old liners for the | wiseacres had already opined that the doughty colonel would secure favor able mention during the day.
 The convention was in reality a mass meeting due to the fact that no primaries had been held and all who recognized themselves as adher- ents of the new faith were invited to enter and receive the right hand of fellowship. About seventy-five par ticipated while the meeting was at high tide, but they were coming and going all the time so there were per haps hundred voices participating in
 the third party sentiment during the day They were fairly representative of the various precincts in the county though the Phoenix contingent was
 naturally most numerous.
 1 The building of a new party is a
 more serious undertaking than the | booming of a leader in an old one. The managers of the new party con cede that however much they may deplore it, and know that whatever their strength is it must be depend-
 able to be at all effective To that end another new tack was taken yes
 terday
 1 Previous to the republican cOnven-
 tion in Chicago the Roosevelt parti-
 sans formed a great many clubs
 throughout the state and had rather a formidable membership these or
 ganizations being then regarded as
 republican clubs Yesterday a new
 blank petition was placed in circula-
 tion, it's caption being in substance
 the articles of faith of the new party,
 but admitted in the heading with the greatest candor, that it was the Roose- l welt Progressive League. presumably
 the holding company for the Ma
 tional Progressive party. Its pro
 visions are a sort of a blood oath to secure for Roosevelt the electoral vote of this state. All members of the old Roosevelt clubs will be given an op-
 portunity to subscribe to this league document and of course, new members , will be gleefully received. While the will sign it, and practicaly all mem bers of the convention yesterday |