The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1912-07-18

ana tnat he believed that half OF the
democrats of South Dakota would
vote for me. He said he regarded
the governor as a rcactionary and
that the democratic platform meant
nothing" fsrfa0N feau -7
ROOSEVELT DECLARES AGAIN ~.
TAFT STOLE NOMINATION
New York City.-Theodore Roose-
welt further discusses the seating of
contested delegations in the republi-
can national convention at Chicago in
an editorial entitled Thou Shalt Not
Steal, which appears in the current
issue of the outlook. He says, in
part:
The American people are entitled
to know that the charge of stealing
the Chicago convention of 1912 is
more than campaign recrimination
and that frauds complained of are
more serious than the mere repetit-
ion of loose practices which might
have found unfortunate precedents in
some previous convention of both
parties.
z'Seriously and literally President
Taft's nomination was stolen for him
from the American people, and the
ratification or rejection of that NOM
~ination raises the critical issue
whether votes or fraud shall deter
mine the selection of American pre-
sidents.
president Taft was remoninated
by q majority of barely 81 votes and
two OF these were publicly raped at
the last moment from Massachusetts
II, therefore, more than 19 or 81.
4 nf p hi ~ yntncA nN- r1~~, - I
fraudulent all claim To an honest ma
jority disappears. The demonstration
can De made as to many more than
this number without touching on a
single honestly debatable case.
This reckoning takes no account
of the notorious fact that even the
undisputed part Of Mr.. Taft's support
was largely artificial and is misrepre-
sentative. made up of delegates from
the outlying positions, from hopeless
~ democratic states and states where
the people had been successfully de-
|. MED the expression of their will. 1t
! is sufficient to consider only the four
confessedly indefensible cases of Cal.
. ifornia. Arizona, Washington and
Texas which alone wipe out the mar
: gin. All that could be added from
, the other cases would only increase
? the Roosevelt majority of the honest
convention. But l wish it distinctly
, understood that many of these other
cases were as clear as the California
. case itself.
Three of these cases were a direct
assault upon the right of the people
to elect their own delegates at the
primaries, since in them a few score
I of politicians decided that the vot.
ers as a whole had no right themselv.
! es to decide whom they wished to see
nominated. As
Numerous other cases, ass clearly
shown by the minority of the nation.
4 al committee and by the minority oil
the credentials committee of the
convention, were just as bad. AS
Y have said, one Louisiana case was
worse. In one Indianasscase the Tat,
delegates we're elected only by first
! packing the credentials committee by
y refusing to let in Roosevelt delegat.
es' in whose cases pretended contests
had been filed and then by reversing
this ruling and letting the contested
Taft delegates vote in their own
cases. There was no form of trick or
: fraud which did not find favor in
,. the eyes of the conspirators.
II have merely cited a feE cases Sc
conspicuous that the facts cannot be
truthfully disputed and sufficient ir
: number to show by actual figures
that the nomination of Mr.. Taft
.. could not have been procured by
!, their inclusion.
; The men who were responsible
for the official delegates in question
cared not one rap for the rights OF
! the wrongs of any Of the cases. They
were concerned only with getting
I the requisite number of delegates.
! {Theysd did steal asSmany al were need
. FED: they would have stolen as many
more as might have been needed.
; mo free people can afford to sub
, NIT to government by theft. If the
will of the people is defeated by
: fraud, then the people no not rule.
II those who are thus foistea on them
represent the special interests in
stead of the people, then the inter-
ests and not the people rule"