THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CONTESTS

...They show also, when the temper of the delegates pledged to the other candidates is considered, that Roosevelt's nomination was impossible even if every delegate to which he had any shadow of claim or which could be regarded as doubtful be counted for him...

...At the conclusion of the hearing on this contest the record showed that the Taft delegates were seated by a viva voce vote and that there was no demand for a roll call...

...Upon the contest in this district being called before the National Committee, A. R. Burnam, the Roosevelt National Committeeman from Kentucky, moved that the delegation be divided...

...If the command "Thou shalt not steal" is to have a place in the platform of the new party, I suggest that the promise "We will not steal" be coupled with it...

...The chairman, however, ran one Convention and the majority of the members of the committee the other...

...California subsequently passed her primary election law, which provided for the election of delegates from the whole state...

...Meantime the Roosevelt men in the convention were making so much noise and such an uproar that their representatives claimed before the National Committee that it was impossible to hear any motions or to take any votes...

...Governor Hadley was in error in assuming, as he did in his motion, that 2 Taft delegates were seated in the National Convention from the Eleventh District of Kentucky...

...that contests were passed upon by the State Central Committee which then made up the temporary roll of the Convention, and proceeded, with a large majority of delegates present, to elect the Taft delegates to the National Convention...

...As in all other such cases, the affidavits were conflicting, and there was certainly room for honest differences of opinion as to the merits...

...Each side before the National Committee questioned the regularity of the election of many of the other's delegates to the State Convention, and each side presented to the National Committee a statement of the alleged facts directly contrary to that presented by the other side...

...The representatives of the Taft delegates before the National Committee met the charges of fraud made by the Roosevelt people respecting the delegations from two counties to the State Convention by scores of affidavits...

...The Roosevelt members of the National Committee demanded a roll call on this contest, which was not sustained by the necessary twenty members...

...The faction headed by Cecil Lyon, who represented Roosevelt, controlled the regular Republican organization of Texas, and the delegation to the Republican National Convention from Texas, which Mr...

...Lyon headed, undoubtedly had superior claims so far as regularity was concerned...

...FROM THE brief analysis of the evidence I have given, it is not possible to determine the merit of all these contests, nor would it be possible to do so even if all the evidence before the National Committee could be set out...

...FIFTH ARKANSAS...

...Reading the evidence, however, which there is no use of attempting to state, leaves the impression on my mind that the Roosevelt delegates to the District Convention were in the majority and would probably have controlled if one convention had been held...

...When the roll was read at the opening of the Convention the Roosevelt men there protested, moved to another part of the hall, and elected their contesting delegates to the National Convention...

...Only one contest was presented to the State Committee for decision, and in that case it was decided to divide the contesting delegation between the Taft and Roosevelt men...

...The Seventh and Eighth Districts of Kentucky present the old question of one set of delegates being elected and certified by a district convention, and the contesting delegates asserting that there was fraud in the district convention which ought to vitiate its proceedings...

...Since the Roosevelt members of the National Committee, as shown by this action, had no confidence in this contest, it seems unnecessary to consider the evidence...

...It seems clear from the record that thereafter the Convention proceeded to call for nominations for delegates to the National Convention...

...indeed, it was the only reason I heard advanced by progressive Republicans for supporting him...

...The record shows that Secretary Hayward of the National Committee reported that in that district more than the authorized number of delegates had been elected, and Mr...

...Roe's conclusion, reached after painstaking study of the record, with regard to the merits of the "Thou shalt not steal" platform of Roosevelt.—Editor's Note...

...Any fair-minded person, however, who will examine the facts I have set forth, will agree that there is absolutely no basis for the claim that a majority of the delegates honestly elected to the National Convention were for Colonel Roosevelt...

...In many of these a roll call was not even demanded and the evidence leaves little, of any, room to doubt the correctness of the decision of the National Committee...

...The attorney for the Taft delegates, in opening before the National Committee, and referring to the claim that had just been made by the opposition, said: "We have here the most egregious mis-statement of facts I ever heard presented in my life...

...Grimstead presented the case for the Roosevelt delegates in this contest...

...One sent two Roosevelt delegates to the National Convention, and the other sent two Taft delegates to the National Convention...

...In the Ninth Alabama contest the attorneys for each side stated, as they did in practically every other contest, that all statements made were supported by affidavits, and then proceeded to make statements to the Committee of the purported facts of the case, which were directly conflicting...

...The roll of the State Convention, as made up, gave the Taft men a majority...

...The convention presided over by Chairman Graham, as conceded, was in session from 2 o'clock until 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and it was not contended that the Roosevelt contesting delegates to the National Convention were elected until after that time...

...The time actually allowed on a side for all the contests in this state, including both the delegates at large and the district contests was only forty-five minutes...

...The promise would certainly be as appropriate as the command and would be more reassuring to the country...

...But more than this—the knowingly false claims put forward by the Roosevelt managers to more than 150 delegates, for weeks prior to the Convention, were made with the deliberate purpose of deceiving the Republicans of the country into the belief that Roosevelt's nomination was assured and that therefore it was better to give him support, hoping that he would prove to be a half-way progressive, rather than to support a real progressive candidate whom the voter personally preferred but had been led to believe could not be nominated...

...At the conclusion of the hearing on this district before the National Committee, the roll call showed 36 votes in favor of seating the Taft delegates, and 14 opposed...

...FOURTH CALIFORNIA...

...that counties were given representation in the Convention that did not cast a single Republican vote...

...The first article dealt with the issue raised by Mr...

...In the third district of Oklahoma two conventions were held in the same city, on the same day...

...The Roosevelt representatives before the National Committee were permitted to produce for the Committee's consideration, 72 affidavits of which the other side had no notice, made by men who asserted that they were delegates to the Convention, and had voted for the Roosevelt delegates, but who admitted that they did not place Roosevelt delegates in nomination or vote for them in the Convention presided over by Chairman Graham...

...Only ten votes were secured for this motion...

...In the Arizona contest it was admitted that the state convention to elect delegates to the National Convention was regularly called and held on June 3, preceding the National Convention...

...He then proceeded to deny each and every charge which had been made by the representative of the Roosevelt delegates and asserted that the so-called primaries in Washington, were not conducted according to law, or with any safeguard and that the Taft people refused to participate in them...

...Those in charge of the Roosevelt campaign tried to seat more than 150 Roosevelt delegates without any evidence at all...

...Roosevelt who, defeated, cried "Robbery," and set about to create a third party upon the commandment "Thou shalt not steal...

...There was a question of fact as to whether or not Roosevelt or Taft carried the fourth district, but from the evidence submitted to the National Committee this question of fact could have been decided either way...

...Astute political managers would never have spent the time and money necessary to get up these "fake" contests unless they were known to have a very real value in delegates...

...In the Eleventh District of Kentucky, after the motion to seat Roosevelt delegates had been lost, one Taft and one Roosevelt delegate was seated from this district and the roll of the National Convention was so made up...

...G.-5, June 15, 1912...

...The claim on the part of the Taft people was that the chairman of the district committee was absent and that the secretary, a Roosevelt man, presided, and refused to recognize the Taft men or to put their motions...

...The claim on the part of the Roosevelt people was that the Taft members of the Convention bolted...

...Obviously if the alternates were properly elected, the delegates were, and there was no possible reason for including this district in Governor Hadley's motion...

...Those in charge of the Roosevelt campaign tried to seat more than 150 Roosevelt delegates WITHOUT ANY EVIDENCE AT ALL...

...The Roosevelt delegates to the State Convention bolted and held a mass convention in which their delegates to the National Convention were elected...

...That many of the counties represented in the Lyon convention held no caucuses or primaries to elect delegates to such state convention, but that in a hundred such counties the credentials of the delegates to the State Convention were made up and signed by individuals without the least authority...

...Roe's presentation of the contests at the Republican National Convention...

...The question which faction was in the majority depended upon the regularity of various proxies, the sufficiency of the resignation of various members of the district committee, the power of a chairman to make appointments to fill a vacancy on the committee, and the sufficiency and regularity of the resolution purporting to confer such power, and various other questions...

...Some of the progressives on this contest voted to seat the Taft delegates...

...Roosevelt is making furious outcry, and presents Mr...

...The Roosevelt people charged that Taft delegates were seated in the State Convention without proper credentials, and that the State Committee, a majority of which was made up of Taft men, did not pass fairly on the contested seats, and that Roosevelt delegates were forcibly kept out of the State Convention...

...that Taft fairly carried the state and that his delegates went to one hall and held a convention, and that Lyon's followers went to another hall and held their convention...

...Graham, their candidate, as chairman by the close vote of 711/4 to 703/4 votes...

...At the worst the National Committee seated less than 50 Taft delegates on insufficient evidence...

...OKLAHOMA...

...In the Eighth District, the vote in the National Committee "was 35 to 17 in favor of the Taft delegates...

...MICHIGAN...

...If the vicious contest conducted by the representatives of President Taft and Colonel Roosevelt for the Texas delegates before the National Committee proves nothing else it establishes the fact that both these candidates were most anxious to receive the support of these "rotten boroughs" in Texas, in many of which there was not even the semblance of a Republican organization...

...NINTH ALABAMA...

...During the last few weeks preceding the Convention this claim that the nomination was "cinched" was the stock argument in favor of Roosevelt's candidacy...

...The Fourth district was claimed by the Taft people...

...But these 72 must be immediately reduced by 2 from fifth Arkansas, 1 from Eleventh Kentucky, and 2 from Eleventh Texas, for the reasons pointed out above...

...What has been said here relates to the contest over the Texas delegates at large, but it applies with equal force to the district contests...

...Rolls were called and the record of the vote on the questions coming before the Convention was preserved, and presented to the National Committee...

...TENNESSEE...

...KENTUCKY...

...The last article—which follows—discusses the evidence in those contests about which Mr...

...that under these circumstances there was nothing for the Taft people to do but to hold a convention of their own, which they did in the same hall at the same time with the Roosevelt people...

...Some of the progressive members of the National Committee voted for the Taft contestants...

...Each gathering purported to pass upon the credentials of its members, and of course complete confusion resulted...

...At the worst, the National Committee seated less than 50 Taft delegates on insufficient evidence...

...The one fact upon which both sides agreed before the National Committee was that the Republican vote of the state four years ago for President was only 64,000, and two years ago for Governor, it was 26,000, and yet Texas had 40 delegates in the last Republican national convention, while California with a Republican vote of 240,000, had only 26 delegates, and other Republican states were similarly represented...

...There was of course no time to read the affidavits and the National Committeemen were, as in other cases, obliged to depend upon the words of the attorneys appearing for the respective delegations...

...TEXAS...

...The mission of each is to control patronage...

...In the Michigan contest it appeared, without dispute, that the Taft delegates were elected in the Convention regularly called...

...They show that Roosevelt never had anything like a majority of the honestly elected delegates to the Convention...

...No roll calls were demanded, no appeals taken from any of the rulings of Chairman Graham, but after the convention which he presided over had adjourned, the Roosevelt delegates remained in the hall and elected the Roosevelt contesting delegation...

...The Taft men continued in the Convention as originally organized and selected their delegates to the National Convention...

...The serious question presented by the contest from this district was, therefore, whether the rules and call of the party or the statute of the state should govern...

...In the State Convention in Washington which the Taft people controlled by a very narrow margin, it appeared if any one of the ten contests which came before the Convention had been decided in favor of the Roosevelt delegates, they would have controlled the Convention...

...ARIZONA AT LARGE...

...and the falsehood taints his entire campaign...

...It is not possible to determine how many delegates were captured for Roosevelt by this falsehood, but there certainly were some...

...These figures can fairly be reduced...

...THIRTEENTH INDIANA...

...In this Convention there were no roll calls and it was not possible to determine how many delegates participated therein (0...

...According to the rules of the National Committee and the call for the National Convention, delegates to that convention were to be elected by congressional districts...

...that one Roosevelt and one Taft man be seated...

...G-1, June 15, 1912...

...0. O. 3, June 12, 1912...

...They cannot with the least show of fairness be increased...

...The chairman selected one meeting place for the Convention, and the majority of the committee selected another, and removed or undertook to remove the chairman, and elect someone else in his place...

...These cases might have been decided either way by the National Committee without justifying any charge of bad faith against the Committee...

...The Taft delegates were seated by the votes shown in the table presented last week—38 to 15...

...It was further charged that the Taft people violated an agreement not to call the Convention to order until a certain hour, while a compromise was pending, also that in the primaries held in Washington, the sentiment of the state seemed to be overwhelmingly for Roosevelt...

...The claim of the Roosevelt faction before the National Committee was, in the first place, that some of their delegates to the State Convention were forcibly kept out of the armory where the Convention was held, and further, that the Taft delegations to the State Convention from two counties were improperly seated in the State Convention, and that Roosevelt delegates should have been seated in their place...

...The charge that he action of the National Committee in seating some Taft delegates where Roosevelt delegates should have been seated was "theft," "robbery," "plain stealing," etc., comes with poor grace from those who are mak-ing it...

...It was also charged that, at the Lyon convention, no temporary roll of delegates was made up...

...No member of the National Committee in the thirty minutes allowed for the presentation of a contest, could possibly learn the truth concerning the conflicting claims of the two factions represented before it...

...Both organizations claimed to be regular, and both claimed a majority of legally elected delegates...

...WASHINGTON...

...Two Taft men were placed in nomination and no Roosevelt delegates were nominated...

...This leaves 49 delegates in the National Convention as the maximum number which was given to President Taft by the National Committee and which could on the evidence fairly have been given to Colonel Roosevelt...

...The question between the contesting delegates was almost entirely a question of veracity, and Senator Borah so stated before the National Committee...

...To these 5 should be added, 2 from Alabama, 2 from Indiana, 2 each from the Seventh and Eighth Kentucky, 6 from Michigan at large, and 4 from Tennessee, or 23 in all...

...Mulvane, a Taft National Committeeman, moved that the delegates, Darling and Ward, be placed on the temporary roll from that district with their appropriate alternates, while Lyon moved, as an amendment, that the delegates be placed on the roll as alternates and the alternates as delegates...

...Thereupon the Taft delegation was seated by a viva voce vote without any demand for a roll call...

...I do not by any means say from my examination of the Record that all of these 49 should have been counted as Roosevelt delegates, but I do say that justification could be found in the evidence for so doing...

...Both Taft and Roosevelt made it plain before the National Committee that they were quite willing that support such as this from Texas should be the determining factor in their nomination...

...Each side claimed and produced voluminous affidavits to show that their faction was in the majority...

...In Tennessee there are two Republican organizations, each claiming to be regular...

...On the Seventh District contest, the vote in the National Committee stood 38 to 13 in favor of the Taft delegates...

...This contest was decided by a roll call...

...The National Committee, by seating the Taft delegates, virtually decided in favor of the superiority of the rules of the party and the call for the Convention...

...The Executive Committee of the State Committee, pursuant to what was declared by the Taft people to be "immemorial procedure" (E-1, June 12) made up the temporary roll...

...On the other hand, it was charged by the Taft people that such regularity was obtained by the worst "steam roller" methods;—"that the worst methods of political brigandage were used there in that convention, to disfranchise the Republican voters of the state...

...Even if the entire 72 contained in the Hadley resolution had been given to Colonel Roosevelt, he would not have had enough to nominate him...

...The existence of the noise and confusion was admitted by the Taft representatives of the National Committee, and it was asserted that Chairman Graham by the use of a megaphone, made himself heard above the uproar and by that means properly conducted the business of the Convention...

...While in the state of Texas the Roosevelt forces controlled the organization, in the state of Washington the Taft forces controlled it, and they seem to have made good use of such control for the purpose of seating Taft delegates...

...The record in these two contests (the Second and the Ninth) comprises hundreds of pages of sordid political transactions and it can serve no good purpose to review it...

...It was conceded before the National Committee that in the district convention in the Thirteenth District of Indiana, the Taft men organized the convention and elected Mr...

...In opening his case he said: "I could not possibly read the affidavits in the record here inside of three or four hours...

...To this the Taft men made answer before the National Committee that no Roosevelt delegates were excluded from the armory that had the necessary tickets or badges to admit them as delegates, and that if any of them were not provided with such tickets or badges, it was their own fault, and they charged that the confusion which had arisen with regard to distributing the tickets was caused by the Roosevelt people, who had seized the armory the night before, thereby making it uncertain whether any convention could be held there...

...In the contest between Taft and Roosevelt in the California primary, Roosevelt admittedly carried the state, and carried every congressional district in it except the Fourth...

...and how the contests were decided by the National Committee...

...In the Texas contest the fight was between local leaders of factions of the party, rather than between Taft and Roosevelt...

...The Eleventh district, however, which is included in Governor Hadley's motion, printed last week, was not in contest at all, and is not contained in the list of contests as made up by the Secretary of the National Republican Committee...

...It seems that a majority of the congressional committee was made up of Taft men while the chairman was a Roosevelt man...

...Now if these 49 be added to the 466 which represented the maximum possibility of Roosevelt's strength in the Convention, as it was made up, you have 515...

...The second article showed, by tables, the number of delegates contested from each state at large and from each district...