The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1912-10-25
Says Neither Bull Moose Nor Taft
Had Majority and Each One
Was Afraid
McGOVERN BETRAYED VOTERS
Candidacy In Convention Was Mere
Pretense as Aid in Nomination
of the Badger.

Madison, Wis, Oct. 25.-"Was the
Republican nomination stolen from
Theodore ROOSEVELT"
This question is raised by Sena-
tor La Toilette in his latest article,
1Why I Continued as a Candidate"
in the current issue of La Follette's
Weekly Magazine. Senotor La Fol-
lette answers mo- and asks:
eff he had evidence to prove that
Taft could not be honestly and fairly
nominated, why did he not direct his
lieutenants to present that evidence
to the national committee, and then
to the convention and the country,
so clearly that the convention would
not have dared to nominate Taft and
that Taft could not, in honor, have
accepted the nomination if made.
"The reason is obvious. An an
alysis of the testimony shows that
neither Taft nor Roosevelt had a ma
jority of honestly or regularly elected
delegates. This the managers upon
both sides we'll understood. Each
candidate was trying to seat a suffi-
cient number of fraudulent creden-
tilated delegates, added to those reg
ularly chosen to support him to Sc
cure control of the convention and
steam-roll the nomination. It was a.
proceeding with which each was &C.
quainted and which each had san
ctloned in prior conventions.
"This explains the extraordinary
conduct of Roosevelt He could not
enter upon such an analysis of the
evidence as would prove Taft's regu-
1arly elected delegates in the minori-
ty, without inevitably subjecting his
own spuriously credentialed delegat-
es to an examination so critical as
to expose the falsity of his own con-
tention that he had an honestly elect
ed majority of the delegates.
He therefore deliberately chose
to claim everything, to cry fraud, to
bully the national committee and the
convention, and sought to create
condition which would make impossi-
Die a calm investigation of cases up
on merit, and to carry the conven-
ton by storm. He filled the public
ear with sound and fury. He ruth
lessly sacrificed everything to the one
of h ic hNir
He submitted no suggestion as to a
platform of Progressive principles
He clamored loudly for purging the
convention roll of tainted delegates,
without purging his own candidacy
OF his tainted contests and his faint
ed trust support. He offered no rea-
son for third party except his own
overmastering craving for a third
term
Senator La Toilette asserts. "The
charge of theft against the national
committe for seating Taft delegates
where Roosevelt delegates should
have been seated, came with bad
grace from those who made it." And
he quotes an article by Mr. Munsey's
chief political writer in support of
his statement that the Roosevelt con-
tests were made with the deliberate
purpose of deceiving the Republicans
of the country"
- Senator La Toilette tells the story
of the McGovern incident at the
Chicago convention, asserting that
the Wisconsin governor betrayed the
commission with which he was in
trusted by the voters in his state.
He says:
"A pretense was made that Nc
Governs candidacy was in my inter-
est, and would, in some mysterious
way, have aided in my nomination.