Arizona republican., 1920-06-05
Steam Roller Methods Alleged
 by Senator Moses When LOwden
 Awarded 28 Southern Delegates
WOOdDiSCOuntS Sc ItiSh MOtiVe $ ehi71d Rulings
IRepubIlcan A. P. Leased Wire1

Republican A. p. Leased Wire1
 CHICAGO, June 1.-The Wood man agers tonight apparently were having a disagreement over whether the Re- publican national committee has been steam rolling" the Wood delegates and whether they intend to take any action upon it. Aroused by the steady dismissal of Wood delegates through the days proceedings untl 28 were counted off, and a like number added to the Lowden column, Senator Noses of New Hampshire, one of the gener- al's campaign managers, issued a state- ment denouncing the national com mittee's procedure as steam roller ] tactics
 There were hurried conferences ! among the other Wood managers who { apparently had no notice of Senator Moses intentions. General Wood him self finally was brought into the con ! ferences and at midnight issued statement in which he expressed confi- denee that Chairman Hays was "ab- solutely fair in handling the situation and said he was 'loath to believe" that 1 the committeeman were seating dele gates on personal preferences rather than on law and facts.
 Claims Contests Frauds i Evidently a mistake had been made. said Senator Moses statement. The steam roller which was used so i effectively in the conventoin of 1912 and with such disastrous results to the party in the election following, has not been scrapped after all. It has merely i been in the machine shop for repairs and for some new attachments The 1 most important of the latter appears to i be patent reversing apparatus which enables the national committee, at will, i to disregard its prior formal action in i recognition Of certain national com mitteemen and state chairman against ! whose organizations there have been trumped up a series of fraudulent ] contests.
 "The chain of procedure which the national committee formed at its St. ] Louis meeting in 1917 and at the i Washington in 1919 contained three links. The first connected the national chairman with the recognized national committeeman iu the states, to whom were sent the official calls for the convention which assemblies next week
 The national committeeman trans m1tted this call to the recognized chai if-
 man. thus constituting the second link
 in the chain The third link connected | the state chairman with his organiza -
 ton in the counties Through the operation of this mechanism deIeoro -,5. friendly to General Wood have bean elected with entire regularity in every southern state. save two. The functf1u oR the national committee at this i1nc- ture IS not to determ inc Qualifica lions ] ll merely IS 10 establish that regular llty which entities delegate fo be placed upon the temporary roll leaving the ultimate question of his right to d seat to be determined by the conven- tion through it's committee on creden- tials.
 Yet the national committee with ] Chairman Hays conveniently absent rom the chair. is assuming to decide the matter in advance-but to decide it upon the narrow lines of the commit tees personal preference.
 I Says Committee FaVors Lowden General Wood g friends have always i understood that the national commit tee. as present constituted. favored the nomination of Governor Iowdpn We have never questioned their right to ! hold such preference But We do l question seriously and vigorously their right to color their decisions, which ! should be merely ministerial if not
 Judicial, by such preference; and tha | conditions under which SO many of the . present national committeeman hold their places only increases the strength with which we assail the course which ' they are pursuing.
 AS a result of the primaries and conventions held throughout the union, substantially one third of the members of the present national committee hava failed to get in the condolences of thcir i constituents and they will go out of oliACe the udN the convention ad1Dfifng. | Yet these Tepudiated committeeman. in i defiance of the popular judgment al- ] ready rendered, are seeking to GmnOea their peevish purpose upon the con
 Ventfon, the party and the country Certain facts are outstanding in tho ! compilation of pre- convention events. Chief among these is the demonstrated fact that three men have shown them /. selves to possess widespread and we'll I founded support among republicans. ENrfaers aH l onstrated strength are General Wood 4 Senator Johnson aAd AIr Hoover Ex~ Icept in his own state. Governor Low den has never succeeded in running better than poor third in any pii- mary. This is not said in any deroea- ton of any fact 10 which the country is not impervious even though the na-
 tional committee is
 There seems to be no secrecy about the national committees plans They think, by their high-handed methods. ! to remove from the Wood column a sufficient number of votes to the Low den column to equalize the apparent : strength of these two rivals on the first
 ballot. One hesitates to revive the
 harsh language of 1919. but there fs
 only one word which can fitly char { acterize such procedure. and J refer in 1 quisitive persons to the vocabulary of l eight years ago to learn what that | word is"
 Tactics Fatal in 1912
 Twice before in republican history
 have similar tactics been employed Tn 1892 at Minneapolis, no attention was paid to the merits of any contest and ] delegates were seated solely upon the ! basis of the common preference which they had with a national committee man who awarded them their seats. Twenty years later similar tactics were pursued in Chicago-and a student of political history may find somethirg Q ] election returns in these two years. so ! fatal 10 republican hopes
 ''It is true that the committee sits in ! the open with the paid agents of l George W. Perkins and others freely ! circulating through the committee
 room and whispering their darkening
 counsels into the ears of unsophisti- cated committeeman. Wiel this eE-