THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 307, 24 June 1912, Page 5

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

TAFT'S PROSPECTS. By Cable —Press Association —Copyright. New York, June 21. At Chicago Mr. Roosevelt's supporters are working vigorously to prevent Mr. Roosevelt holding ihis own convention, lest the Republican Party be irrevocably ■plit. Mr. Taft's chances are now the rosiest possible. Attention is being centred on the Democrat's dark horse, Mr. Bryan, who is creating trouble in the ranks. He objects to Judge Parker acting as chairman of tiie Democratic Convention. The latter has a large following, and is almost certain to win.

FURTHER intricacies. THE COMPROMISE CANDIDATE. RIVAL BARRACKERS. Received 23, 5.5 pjn. Chicago, June 23. The Convention is quieter. The regular Republicans, it is asserted, eontrol the votin;; on the Reports and Credentials Committee by increased majorities. Owing to Senator La Follette's Wisconsin followers opposing Rooseveltites the people in the galleries are greeting every freeh Taft victory with a noise like a steam roller. Rooseveltites derided the Taftites, who jestingly stated that "the bull moose has been capped." Many urge the selection of a safe compromise candidate, whose progressive record «ould not be questioned. The Rooseveltites show a tendency to prefer Taft's nomination to another, believing that this would be in favor of an independent progressive It is suggested that should the Rooseveltites regain the Convention they would not vote, but would subsequently hold a fresh Convention in August for the nomination of Roosevelt on the independent ticket. Mr. Bryan states that there is a tendency on the side of both parties to split the progressive and conservative wings, and this may ultimately involve the rearrangement of party distribution. Mr. Bryan telegraphed to prominent Democrats, appealing to them to prevent Barker's election to the chairmanship of the Baltimore Convention, describing Parker as a reactionary.

TAFT SECURES THE NOMINATION. STRENUOUS POLITICS. THE FIGHT ADJOURNED. i Received 24, 12.20 a.m. Chicago, June 23. Taft has been nominated at the first j ballot. Sherman was nominated for the vice-Presidency. Roosevelt has definitely decided not to take any further part in the Convention, but to confine his efforts to the formation of a third party. The announcement was made that Roosevelt's name will not be submitted to the Convention. Hadley and Deneen refused to accept nomination for the vice-Presidency. Terrific enthusiasm was shown when the voting indicated that Taft was winaing. At the outset the Rooseveltitea stood on chairs, shook their fists at the chairman, and called him abusive names. "Thieves and robbers" were heard in all directions and the police were obliged to intervene several times. The sergeant-ftt-arms was active every minute., calming over-excited delegates. Roosevelt, replying to his nomination as an independent candidate, declared that the Taftites did not represent the Republican party, but showed cynical defiance of the people's wishes. The Taftites used the Republican party merely to advance croked financial interests. Three 'hundred Roosevelt delegates refused to vote. Taft received 561 of 1078 votes. Roosevelt intends to call a national convention in August. THE CONVENTION. CARPET-BAGfiERS AND SELFSEEKERS. A severe criticism of the methods of the American party conventions is made Iby Professor C. S. Potts, of Texas University, in the current number of the Review of Reviews. Professor Potts, in the course of his article, remarks that it is an extraordinary fact that the party conventions have remained free of all legal control ever since their establishment ■three-quarters of a century ago. Yet they have throughout dictated to the country whom it shall have for a President.

They have been free to adopt such principles of representation as they chose, to make such rules of procedure as seemed good to them, or as temporarily'served the purposes of the political" wirepullers who chanced to be in control, and to raise enormous sums for campaign purposes 'by fair means or foul, and spend •them as they pleased without accounting to anyone. The first criticism levelled at the present convention system is based upon the grossly unfair method of representation now in use by all the political parties The States are given representation ir the national conventions, not according to the party vote or the strength of party sentiment in the several States, but according to their vote in the Electoral College—two delegates for each elector. This basis was hit upon by the Anti-Masons in 1831 in the first national convention ever held, and it has not been changed from that day to this. The electoral vote is roughly proportional to population, but has absolutely no relation to party strength. The result is shat a large State will have a large vote {id a great deal of influence in the naonal convention in selecting the party's candidate, but at the final election it may give him an iwrignificantly small popular vote and n«f" a single Presidential elector. Thus, in the Republican Convention of 1908 Texas gave Taft 36 Convention votes, while Indiana gave him 30. In the final election Texas gave him only 65,000 votes and no votes at all in the Electoral College while Indiana gave kim 349,000 votes and its entire electoral vote.

These facts in themselves would seem to be sufficiently startling to bring about an immediate re arrangement of the Convention votes. But that is not all. Any person who knows anything about political conditions, North and South, knows that the average of intelligence and moral character among Republican voters is much higher in the North than in the South. In many of the Southern States the Republican party is still made up largely of negroes and carpet-baggers, or the political offspring of the carpetbaggers. The result is that the present plan of convention representation is not only grossly misrepresentativß, but it loads the dice in favor of the ignorant and vicious. One would think that the wise and virtuous should bave the greater weight in the councils of the. party, but here we have an arrangement by which fifty-fold power is lodged in the hands of the worst clement of the party. But -the story is not yet complete. These ignorant and relatively vicious elements of the party are, through the purchasing power of the Federal patronage, converted into pliant tools in th<j hands

of a Republican President for securing his own re-nomination, or for dictating his successor. All of the thousands of post offices and other Federal positions in the Southern States are distributed by the State Republican machine, and it is a notorious fact that the patronage has been used for political purposes. For example, a letter to a postmaster in a South-western State, written by the Republican State Chairman of that State, was recently given to the press. After calling the postmaster's attention to alleged irregularities in the conduct of his office, the letter concludes: —"If you will bring a delegation to the State and district conventions instructed for Taft and Jim Harris, I will see that you are reappointed." Thus these over-represented Southern States constitute a system of rotten or pocket boroughs in the hands of a Republican President, just as indefensible and probably just as harmful as the rotten borough system swept away by the English Reform Bill of 1832.