The Meeker herald., 1914-10-17
Carlson And The Bull Moose

Under the above caption, the Fort
Collins Review throws some inter-
esting side lights on the acrobatic
political career of George Carlson,
the Republican candidate for gov
ernor. Here it is:
There is good deal Of interest In
the files of any newspaper. AS gem
eral thing, newspaper files are valua-
BILE mostly for their historical interest.
Consequently a glance over the files
of The Review along in the months
of July, August and September, 1912,
may be expected to throw some in
teresting sidelights on the candidacy
of George Carlson, Republican nom.
inee for governor.
For instance, in The Review OF
July q, 1912, speaking of an ap-
preaching Bull Moose meeting at
Colonial Hall, we find the following:
"'Phil Stewart, candidate for gov
ernor; Ben Griffith, attorney general;
Merle Vincent and George Carlson
are the four who are booked to fur
nish the fireworks. All four are
members of the ring which held
meeting in Colorado Springs and in
dulged in an expose of the corruption
of the RepublI ian party, and an
nounced that they would not sit in
the councils of the ungodly, but
would hold separate conventions
again, in the issue of August l,
the evening of the Bull Moose rally,
we note the following:
"'It was freely predicted on the
streets today that Carlson would fail
to appear on the program and the
statement was based on rumor that
the district attorney obtained the en-
dorsement of the Weld county regu-
lars on his promise to be good and
wash his hands of the insurrection in
the party. I. N. jenkins, the advance
agent for the troupe, who was in the
city this afternoon making arrange
ments for the meeting, stated EN-
phatically that Carlson is with the
party and that he will speak
'.On the day following, The Review
gave the following brief interview Of
the meeting:
Laying bare the corrupt in
fiuences which dominate the Repub-
lican party in Colorado, demanding
that the citizens in the party break
down the 'machine' at the coming
primaries, Phil Stewart, Ben
Griffith, Merle Vincent and George
Carlson spoke to small audience at
Colonial Hall last night.
George A. Carlson opened the
meeting in speech in which he de-
clared himself unequivocally for a
cleaning out of the party machine.
"And on Page l of the same issue
appears the story of the Republican
assembly. with the following signifi-
cant reference to the "unequivocal"
position of Carlson:
"'Within "a hours after he had de-
clared empbatically that the Pro-
gressives, of which he claims to be
one, were battling for principles and
that they will stand by these princi-
Piles to the end, Carlson opened his
speech of acceptance with these
words: "Im going into the fight and
fight all the way down the line for
the Republican ticket"
"In the issue of September 10, ap.
peared the story of a real Bull Moose
rally, in which the name of Carlson
does not appear.
"In the interval between the first
days of August and the first days of
September, the modern Saul of
Tarsus had seen the great light. The
Progressive party-''the party of
principles"-ha but few votes to
offer an ambitious candidate, and
Carlson had recinded his secession
proclamation and had retired in good
order to the party whence he came.
at must not be presumed, how
ever, that these passing references to
ancient history indicate that Carlson
is not consistent in his politics. He
is consistent. He wants public Office
and wants it SO consistently that he
Is willing to belong to the right party,
without regard for principles or mere
names.'