The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1912-02-21
WILSON is WINNER
LEADS IN OKLAHOMA AS RESULT
OF PARTY CAUCUSES
CLARK FOLLOWS CLOSE

Thirty-Two Counties and Speaker
Champ Clark Carries Twenty-Five
and Governor Judson Harmon Car
ries Only One County in the State.
Unofficial returns of the Democrat
ic precinct caucuses held throughout
Oklahoma Saturday from all except
Two counties show that delegates in
structed for Governor Woodrow VIII
sen Of New Jersey as presidential
nominee will control 80 Of the coun-
ty conventions to be held next Sat-
urday; the supporters Of Speaker
Champ Clark will control % counties
and Of Gov. Judson Harmon OF Ohio,
one. In 16 counties no instructions
were given the delegates.
The counties in which the precinct
meetings instructed for Gov. Wilson
will send 252 delegates to the State
Convention; for Speaker Clark, 200,
and for Gov. Harmon, 16, and unin-
structed, 120. The State Convention,
to which delegates will be selected
next Saturday, will be held in Okla
koma City, February %. The final
result depends on how the 120 unin-
structed delegates votes in the cleo
ton next Saturday for State dele
gates.
The Washington correspondent OF
the Atlanta Journal says Governor
Woodrow Wilson's friends in Wash
ington are jubilant over the unex-
pected strength he developed in the
Oklahoma primaries. They think
that in the convention Governor Will
son will have ~ out of the 72 coun-
ties in the State. This would leave
80 counties to be divided among the
other candidates, and insure Cover
nor Wilson the vote CT Oklahoma in
the National Convention.
The dispatch goes on to say that
it is regarded as certain that Wilson
men will control the state conven-
ton although Speaker Clark and his
friends are still hopeful that the
counties not yet heard from will
change the result This is the first
test of strength and Wilson's friends
say the result is encouraging. While
the Wilson people, led by Senator
Gore, had made stubborn fight in
Oklahoma, it was not believed that
the Jersey governor could overcome
the odds in the speakers favor. Okla
homa is populated with thousands Of
Missourians. and it was believed that
Clark would have a natural adVan-
tage on this account.
Governor Wilson's friends in Wash
irgton are doubly delighted over the
reports from Oklahoma. In the first
place they had small hope of defeat
ing Speaker Clark in Oklahoma, and
and in the second they were discour-
aged by the positive claims given out
in Washington Monday morning by
the Clark men, The speakers Sec
retary and his campaign workers
s1udiously circulated the report that
Clark had carried three-fourths Of
the Oklahoma counties in the pri-
mary and this claim was accepted
by the friends of Wilson as correct.
The Clark followers evidently be-
lieved the reports they circulated,
for Monday night the speaker and
many Of his political advisers held
sort of jollihcation conference at the
Willard hotel. The newspaper cor
respondents in Washington were fur
nished with copy from the Clark
headquarters, telling of the speakers
wonderful victory in Oklahoma. But
later returns showed that Wilson was
leading, and his friends now feel as
sured that he has won great victory
in Oklahoma, which is the first State
to indicate its choice of candidate.
Should Wilson lose the State, his
friends feel that he has won victory
in the handsome showing he has
made.