The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-23

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 1ssxnp~ps~~.-sz-sss.-z~. ment. Therefore I ask you to go to your several homes to find out the sen timent of the people at home and then again to come together 1 suggest by mass convention to nominate for the presidency a progressive candidate on a progressive platform. a candidate and a platform that win enable us to ap- peal to northern and southern, eastern and western. republican and democratic alike in the name ofzour common Amer j ican citizenship. If you wish to make the fight, make it, if you wish me to make the fight I'll do it with one con dition The only condition l impose is that you shall feel entirely free to sub stitute any other man, and in such case will give him my heartiest support.
 Not a Republican Convention,
 "wherever, in any state. the republican party is true to the principles of it's found- CTS and is genuinely the party of justice and of progress, expect to see it come bodily into the new movement, for the convention that has just sat in this city is in no proper sense of the word a re- publican convention at all. It doesn't rep resent the masses of the republican party. It has served the purpose only of group of sinister political bosses, many of whom have used the party merely as an adjunct tp money making, either for themselves or for the great crooked financial interests which they serve.
 .The bosses who stole enough delegates to enable them to dominate the conven- ton have no kinship of soul or spirit with the men who started the republican party on it's career as an agent of liberty and justice. You. my friends are the heirs iii the spirit of Abraham Lincoln when he refused longer to be bound by shackles of the past and faced the new issues in the new spirit that the times demanded.
 "I5ut we are more fortunate in one re- spect than our predecessors, for we wno now stand for the progressive cause, the progressive movement, have done forever with all sectionalsm and we make our ap- peal equally to the sons of the men who fought under Grant and to the sons of the men who fought under Lee, for the cause we champion is an emphatic one. and the cause of the south as well as the cause of the north. if II tF
 Thou Shalt Not Steal'
 q am in this fight for certain principles, and the first and most important goes back to Sinai, and is embodied in the commandment, Thou shalt not steal. Thou Snalt not Stedl a nOItiildllOu. luOu shalt not steal either in politics or busi- ness. Thou shalt not steal from the peo- pie the birthright of the people to rule themselves. l hold in the language of the Kentucky court of appeals. that steal ing is stealing. No people is wholly civ ilized where a destinction is drawn be- tween stealing an office and stealing a purse.
 I do not know whether our country men fully realize the gravity of the crisis which we face There is no use in hold ing primaries no use in holding cleo tions. if we permit a small group of un- serupulous politicians. some of whom are certainly acting in the interests of big crooked business to exercise the veto power over these primaries and elections by upsetting the results at their own pleasure. The convention which to61.,,' closes it's discreditable career here in Chi cago represents a negligible minimum cr rank and C of the republican party But what it has done and what 1t has pro- vided for the future offer material for serious consideration.
 Used 90 Fraudulent Votes
 ''The old national committee, chosen, by the politicians, four years ago made up a temporary roll including some % fraudulent delegates who had not been elected by eiie people and thereby thes controlled majority of the convention. This fraudulent temporary roll in turs chose a fraudulent credentials committee and all the fraudulent delegates voting on one another's cases, thereby made up the permanent roil which constituted athe fraudulent convention. Then thisaffaudu- lent convention chooses new and not less fraudulent national committee. Now, gentlemen, there are those who ask us to stay in the party which has just fraudulently nominated for the presidency q man who inspired and profted by the fraud.
 ''They ask us to submit to infamy In the present on the ground that perhaps we may be able to prevent such infamy in the future. They seem to forget that the vicious circle has been completed and that this fraudulent convention has pro- vided in it's fraudulently chosen national committee a means whereby they can hope once again four years hence, and with the like impunty to overthrow the will of the majority of the voters at the primaries The national committed, over whose selection and retention in office the voters have no control whatever. makes up the fraudulent temporary roll call which controls the national convention. The national convention thus fraudulently made up names another national commits ffe. and the new narlon"f iron1fnaffee con- stltuted by the same clements that con tsitufed the old one, has already shown by It's actions that it can be trusted four years hence to repeat the msbenavior of the old one The vicious circle must be broken. The powerful crook. the political bosses, have and ought to have no feel ins but contempt for the honest man who submits to their violent and interruptions dishonesty. If we permit fraS of this kind to triumph We do a shameful thing. and show either that we are faint at heart or dull of conscience.
 As for the principles for which I stand. l have set them forth fully in the many speeches I have made dur ing the last four months while mak- ing an Gctive contest for the nomina- ton which I won and out of which l have been cheated
 .Fundamentaliy these principles are first. that the people have the right to rule themselves and can do so bet ter than any outsiders can rule them; and, second that it Is their duty so to rule in spirit of justice towarf every man and every woman within our borders and to use the government sn far as possible as an instfunlS ut for