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 Correspondent of The Star
FARGO, n. D., September 26.-OUt o.
an intricate maze. the people of North
Dakota are at length approaching
some kind of an arrangement which
VIII determine who are to be the
Coolidge presidential electors. ana
who are to be the La Toilette elec-
tors. and what is to be their respec-
live places on the ballot
Until these questions are finally
settled. either through court action.
or through agreement. it is exceed
ngly difficult to make prediction how
the election will turn out.
The presidential electors for the
Republican party were chosen by q
vote of the people last spring So
were the Democratic electors. 1t 50
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 ~
the State for La Toilette
Demand New Electors.
There was demand after the can
didacy of La Toilette for the prcSi-
dency was announced in July thai
these La Toilette supporters l.,
dropped from the ticket and tha
Coolidge supporters be put in thei
places. 1t seems a reasonable de
mand. In fact. many of the La Fu'
lette supporters in the State concur
red in it,
They want a straight-out fight, with
the La Toilette electors in d group b,
themselves on the ballot For on,
reason or another. the La Follett.
campaign managers in the State post
poned and evaded the issue. The fou'
La Toilette electors on the RepubIfcal
ticket rendered their gnations BIZ
these were held up by the La Fol
lette managers, F. A. Nogel, the |.
Toilette State chairman, and Ro
Frazier, the Non-P Partisan Leagu
chairman.
Negotiations to bring about an ad
justment of the difficulty. conduct
with the La Toilette managers by rer
resentatives of Republican Nationi
Committeeman Harrison-~~Garne.
failed, and last Monday the Republj
cans filed suits in the State Suprem.
Court to have the La Toilette sup
porters removed from the Republics,
ticket and to replace them with bona
hde Coolidge supporters. The court
will hear argument in these suits next
Monday.
Filed New Names at Capital.
In order to make sure that Repuh
Gcan electors and La Toilette elector.
should appear on the ballots, lists Q
such electors were filed yesterday il
Bismarck, the State capital The tim,
in which these lists could be filed un
der the law expired at pm. Unde,
these petitions, however. both tn,
Coolidge and the La Toilette electors
would go in the independent column
along with the Farmer-Labor electors
for Candidate Foster.
On high authority. | learned today
that fresh negotiations looking to
settlement of these troubles out o
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 The La Toilette electors. brack-
eted together. would be placed in the
Independent column. but if these new
negotiate fail. then the matter
will be determined by the court.
Non-Partisnns Are Split.
Due to the position which the Non
Partisan League holds in politics an
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
petitions for the nomination of Will
liam Remke. 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 Nom Partisan State
ticket and also to the La Toilette
ticket in the national election. 1t
did not take Sorlie long to announce
that he was 100 per cent for La Fol-
lette and always had been" Having
smoked out Mr. 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-
SOM"
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 Repub-
licans are concerned is not entirely
satisfactory from the harmony point
of view. In the first place, bad feel
(Continued on Page 5, Column A.