PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 308, 25 June 1912, Page 7

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

i THE PEOPLE OR THE PARTY. ONE VIEW OF THE SITUATION. HOW THE ROOSEVELT BOOM BEGAN. The situation in the Republican party which led to the demand for Mr Roosevelt as a candidate for the Presidency is interestingly reviewed in the current number of the Review of Reviews. That magazine's sympath-ics are decidedly with Mr Roosevelt. It bays: — The real situation at the present time in the Republican party ia not so much between "progressives" and "conierrfttives" as .between a coalition of selfish interests on one hand and the consistent Republican sentiment of the country on the other hand. It is not a party seriously divided within itself. Nor is it a party that cannot easily be harmonised. The great mass of the party is for the country and the welfare of the people. But the machinery of the party has to a great extent come undej- the control of self-seekers and special interests. The party does not lack intelligence, and its best thinking is done, not by those holding the high political offices, but by the rank and file who have time to think and are free from the bias of personal ambition and the restraints imposed by

political bargain and trade. There has | never been a period in the party's history when it was so necessary for its salvation that its private members should assert themselves, control their own convention, repudiate machine bargains, make a simple, honest platform, and nominate candidates in response to such demand as the party may have indicated by the middile of June. It is complained that the movement for the control of the Chicago convention rests unduly upon the selection by federal office-holders of the delegates "from Southern States that will cast no Republican electoral votes in November. If the administration were not reckoning upon its control of delgates from Ilaska, Porto Rieo, the Philippines. Hawaii, and those Southern States that are always solidly democratic —so the Progressives declare—it would have no assurance upon which to base its arrangements with local machines and organisations, like the New York County Committee and the Pen- j I rose following in Pennsylvania. The anti-Taft Republicans have been sharply criticising the methods used to get ' ! "snap judgment" and secure delegates | ! many months in advance of the convcn- ; tion. The Republican party is generous 1 I and it can forgive many mistakes. But, i these critics declare, the party does not ! like to be sandbagged, and it resents ! sinajp conventions and' cut-and-dricd ! schemes that disregard the will of the voters. The eighteen or twenty dele- ' gates elected in early February were' all of this sort. "ROPING" AND "TYING" THE DELEGATES.) [ At least it can be said that the Taft movement has made not the slightest \ pretence of being 1 based upon public i sentiment. Its own political and newsI j&iper supporters have furnished the I facts upon which the anti-Taft people : base their criticisms. The foremost | Eastern newspaper supporting Mr Taft I is the New York Times, and its Wash- ; ington correspondent has written wholjly from that standpoint in its daily specials!' It is significant, therefore, .'that the Times of February 15 should I have made the following statement:— I "And while the battle of the claimants i now goes on merrily, the Taft forces ! expect to rope and tie the delegates . from the Southern States. In 1 accordance with the plans on which they have been working for some time, practically all the Southern conventions are to be held before the end of next month. If there is any ground swell for Roosevelt working about the country, the Taft managers mean to have, their Southern delegates thoroughly '/asfcened before it can get time to exert its influence on them." This statement, of course, is as true as it is brutally frank. When these "roped" and "tied" bunches of delegates appear in the Ohicago convention it is a question whether their services may not chiefly be that of a warning against the methods that must be reformed if the party is to hold the confidence and respect of the' country. They may prove to be an "exhibit" rather than a conquering force. Tt may j be their last quadrennial appearance. : HOW THE REVOLT WAS PROVOKED. It may be that the bargains and arrangements long ago made will give firm control of the Chigago convention. Again and again, in the past three months •—scores of times, indeed—announcements have gone straight from' the White House to the effect that Mr | Taft would have all the delegates to ' t-he convention excepting a certain speci- ' fied minority of pitiable dimensions. It is true no delagates had been chosen. The hundreds of Taft d"legates were carelessly appropriated as if t'hey were so many turnips in half a hundred baskets. It was not for a moment considered that the delegates would have anything to say about it. They had all been delivered, unnamed but in numbered bunches, many months in advance in pursuance of bargains and arrangeI ments made with office-holding cliques | and State and local machines. It hap-

pens, 'however, that there is a spirit abroad in the land which hates this sort of thing. Everywhere, in order to upset bargains so carefully signed, sealed, and ratified, the Republican masses began to clamor for Presidential primaries. When the National Committee met at Washington in Deee-ber. it was requested to lend its encourr-ement to a movement, by means of which the Republican voters could express (heir Presidential preference and could make sure of choosing their own delegates to the convention, instead of having their deler ) gates imposed upon them. But the Na- | tional Committee was not sitting in Washington merely for the benefit of the 'Republican voters. It was taking its orders from other sources. The inevitable, of course, happened at onte. Every kind of effort, formal and informal. began to be made to ascertain the will oi: the voters. "PROGRESSIVES TN THE ETELD." The progressive movement delevoped new strength in the Middle West and on the Pacific Const. as a protest against an alleged combination of organised politics and financial interests, which had undertaken to hold the national convention in its own way without consulting the public. The Progressives, to a considerable j extent, rallied around Senator La Eoli lettc, of Wisconsin, as a candidate, not j chiefly because of their personal attitudi , toward "Mr. La Eollettc. but because oi

Iris courage ami vigor in assorting I self nsrainst bad tendencies. and his loud ••m-ortl :i= a man of reforming and denio- < !';i tie principle?. If a higher wisdom and ( a. broader judgment, had been directing the efforts on behalf of Mr. Taft's nomi- \ nation, there would probably have been , a change of tactics. A wiser course 1 would liave favored uninstrnetcd delegations and a convention of strong Republicans. who would find t'heir candidate after they 'had begun to ballot at Chi- '. cago. lint the announcement went forth from the White House that the President. with his official vantage point, was ; determined to fight the other candidates | and if possible force his own nomination. I- i It was plain that a nomination wrested in this fashion from ail unwilling party ! 1 might mean defeat in November. ' | ' THE STRAW BALLOTS. Tri flie States which had not gone over to the Democratic party in 1810, every

I test and post-card ballot that was taken I among Republican voters showed a surJ prising anti-Taft sentiment. The strength of this feeling vent beyond tile anticipations of the most sanguine of those supporting the progressive movement. Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South. Dakota, lowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, California, Oregon and Washington were unquestionably anti-Taft in go far as the sentiment of the Republican voters could be ascertained. In Mr. T&ft's own State of Ohio there was reported to be a preponderating sentiment in favor of some other candidate; and the same thing was disclosed of Indiana and Illinois. At the very moment when Mr. Penrose was at Pittsburg telephoning Mr. Taft that the solid Pennsylvania delegation was assured, the post-caTd ballot of Pittsburg stood about 10 to 1 against Mr. Taft. Whether or no.t the hasty action of the New York County Committee represented metropolitan sentiment, it was unquestionably true that the great Republican half of the State of New York, lying north and west of Manhattan, was strongly anti-Taft. But although Senator La Follette was widely respected for his courage and his record of achievements, he was not, by common Republican consent, regarded as the man for the emergency. SENATOR CUMMINS A CANDIDATE. While strong in several of the Western States outside of Wisconsin, Mr. La Follette lacked strength in the neighboring States of Michigan, lowa and Minnesota. lowa Republicans in general were p,regressive, and they were willing to send a delegation to present the name of a candidate of. their own. Mr. Cummins consented, to be a candidate and made announcement of the fact on January 20. He did not for a moment permit himself to be diverted from his Senatorial duties, and his candidacy came aljout in a most creditable fashion. Under normal conditions a dozen names might similarly have been brought forward for presentation to the convention. DEMAND FOR ROOSEVELT.

But conditions -were far from' being normal. Republican officialdom had set oat, so to speak, to fight the non-official Republican party for control of the convention. Under the circumstances there had to he an early agreement among large masses of voters upon a people's candidate. The post-card ballots everywhere showed a surprising demand for Colonel Roosevelt. The great postcard vote carried on by the Kansas City Star had. up to February 10, shown 74,702 for Roosevelt, 8590 for La Toilette, and only 8513 for Taft. The Indianapolis Star showed that Indiana Republicans were 3 to I in favor of Roosevelt as against Taft. In spite of Beveridge's refusal to be voted for, there waa so large a list for him as to show that he would easily have defeated Taft in Indiana. While the ballot of the Minneapolis Journal did not give Roosevelt so overwhelming a lead, he was nevertheless far ahead of all other candidates, and La Follette was decidedly ahead of Taft. Indications, in so far as they could be discovered, in New York were in like measure for Roosevelt as against Taft. The inquiries conducted by the New York Press showed not only that Roosevelt's strength was greater than Taft's, but that a dangerously large percentage of Republicans would not vote for Taft even if nominated. Mr. Roosevelt in February indicated that if ; he were offered the nomination he would not refuse it.