Evening star., 1924-09-26
Court Action or Agreement
Needed to Give President
Straightout Ticket.
LA TOILETTE HAS EDGE
IN CONVICTION OF MANY
Non-Partisan League for Pro
gressive, But Is Partly Split.
G. 0. P. Complains of Neglect.
BY &. GOULD LINCOLN.
STAFF Core espondent of The Star

FARGO, n. D., September 2s-Out OF
an intricate maze, the people of Nor=b
Dakota are at length approaHntAn
some kind of an arrangement wiHca
will determine who are to be the
Coolidge presidential electors, and
who are to be the La Toilette cleo
tors, and what is to be their respec-
tive places on the ballot.
Until these questions are finally
settled, either through court action,
or through agreement, it is exceed
ingly difficult to make prediction how
the election will turn out.
The presidential electors for the
Republican party were chosen by d
vote of the people last spring. So
were the Democratic electors. 1t so
happens that four out of five of the
Coolidge electors so chosen are out
and-out supporters of La Toilette.
and if elected in November would
cast four of the electoral votes OF
the State for La Toilette
Demand New Electors.
There was a demand after the can
dldacy OF La Toilette for the presi-
dency was announced in July that
these La Toilette supporters be
dropped from the ticket and that
Coolidge supporters be put in their
places. 1t seems a reasonable de-
mand. In fact. many of the La Fol
lette supporters in the State concur
red in it.
They want straight-out fight, with
the La Toilette electors in a group by
themselves on the ballot. For one
reason or another, the La Toilette
campaign managers in the State post
poned and evaded the issue. The four
La Toilette electors on the Republican
ticket rendered their designations. But
these were held up by the La Fol
lette managers, F. a. Vogel. the La
Toilette State chairman, and Roy
Frazier. the Non-Partisan League
chairman.
Negotiations to bring about an ad-
justment of the difficulty, conducted
with the La Toilette managers by rep
resentatives of Republican National
Committeeman Harrison Garnett
failed. and last Monday the RepubIi-
cans filed suits in the State Supreme
Court to have the La Toilette sup
porters removed from the Republican
ticket and to replace them with bona
fide Coolidge supporters. The court
will hear argument in these suits next
Monday.
Filed New Names at Capital.
In order to make sure that Repub-
lican electors and La Toilette electors
should appear on the ballots, lists OF
such electors were filed yesterday in
Bismarck, the State capital. The time
in which these lists could be filed un-
der the law expired at 5 pm. Under
these petitions, however. both the
Coolidge and the La Toilette electors
would go in the Independent column
along with the Farmer-Labor electors
for Candidate Foster.
On high authority, 1 learned today
that fresh negotiations looking to a
settlement of these troubles out OF
court were under way, and the pre-
diction was made that in the end that
four La Toilette electors would be
withdrawn and Coolidge electors sub
stituted for them, and at the same
time :he La Toilette electors. brack-
eted together, would be placed in the
Independent column, but if these new
negotiations fail. then the matter
will be determined by the court
Non-Partisans Are Split.
Due to the position which the Nom
Partisan League holds in politics in
North Dakota, probably no such
mixed situation exists politically in
any of the other States. The leaguers
are supporting La Toilette. But the
league itself is divided into factions.
a. G.. Sorlie, the nominee of the Nom
Partisan League for governor, was
for a time suspected of not standing
four-square for La Toilette. 1t was
charged in some quarters that he
hoped for Republican votes by keep
ing his mouth shut.
a group of leaguerS, ardent sup
porters of La Toilette. met on Tues
day in jamestown and voted to file
| ~I,N
liam Lemke, defeated candidate for
governor in 1922. The same group
voted to file petitions for the nom
ination of an independent list of La
Toilette electors.
The nomination of Lemke meant
disaster to the Non Partisan State
ticket and also to the La Toilette
ticket in the national election, II
did not take Sorlie long to announce
that he was 100 per cent for La Fol-
lette and always had been" Having
smoked out MIR Sorlie, Mr.. Lemke and
his friends were apparently satisfied.
Lemke himself told me he would not
run for governor, admitting that with
two candidates in the field the Nom
Partisan LUeaguers could not hope for
victory. against the Fusion ticket
headed by Halvor Halverson for gov
ernor.
Nothing in 1t for Him.
AS he put it whimsically, what
good would it do me to run ahead
of Sorlie, if 1 ran second to Halver-
son?'
But Mr.. Lemke's friends went ahead
and filed the petitions, signed by the
necessary 800 voters, to put Lemke
in nomination, should, in the next
few weeks, it become desirable for
him to run.
While this breach in the Non Parti-
san ranks-and it may be said also
in the La Toilette ranks-has been
healed to all appearances, Fusionists
and Republicans are expecting To
benefit through the soreness which
may follow the jamestown meeting.
with it's denunciation of Sorlie. They
believe the result will be to better
the chances for the election of Hal
verson as governor and the Coolidge
Dawes electors.
The situation so far as the Repuh-
licans are concerned is not entirely
satisfactory from the. harmony point
of view In the first place, bad feel