Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 179, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 July 1912 — “THOU SHALT NOT STEAL” [ARTICLE]

“THOU SHALT NOT STEAL”

There are a number of good meh Who seem to take delight in quoting the eighth commandment and applying the same to the national republican convention which met last month at Chicago and to the national republican committee which passed upon the various contests brought' by Mr. Roosevelt. before the committee. This committee wAs composed of some fifty odd members, being men of experience and standing in the states and territories they represented. Out of the first 106 contests submitted there was a unanimous vote of the entire' committee on 101 of the contests. Such Roosevelt men as Col. Lyons, Senator Borah and Frank Kellogg, the trust buster of Minnesota, voted with the entire comipittee that these 101 contests were fraudulent. The statement of this one fact would seem to be all that would be necessary to carry conviction to > the average man that the stealing was in the crowd that would bring such flimsy and fraudulent contests. The contest that was fought the most bitterly was that in the fourth congressional district of California. This was where the Johnsons and Heineys and their zealots howled loud and long about the steal. Not knowing these men, a person would ordinarily give some heed to their sayings. But why did the committee seat the two Taft delegates from the fourth California district? And on what evidence did they act? A statement of the facts in the contests was never made by the chief howlers. Last January when the National Republican Committee met and made the call for the National Republican convention, California had no primary law. The states that had primary laws were taken care of in the call. The congressional district has always been the unit of representation in the Republican National conventions, just as the county is the unit in the selection of delegates to the conventions and just as the republicans made it the unit in dealing with the liquor question. After the call had been made the legislature of California was convened and their present primary law enacted. When the law was first introduced and the people sflw the purpose of the law there was serious objection made to it. Senator LaFollette wrote a letter tp the governor in which he told him that if they enacted the primary law as Introduced that the state of California would not elect a single delegate to the, Republican National Convention that would be entitled to sit

therein. The law as introduced enforced the unit rule in a Republican convention and that the Republican party from its inception had always opposed. That with a fair Republican primary law he would have a chance in California to carry two congressional districts, but with the unit rule established he would get nothing. But as the purpose of the enactment of

this law was to. get the entire delegation for Mr. Roosevelt and the gang that was against Taft and LaFollette,. they went ahead and enacted the law making the state the uqit The only time in the history of the Republican party that an attempt was made to enforce the unit rule in a Republican convention was when Grant was running for a third term, as Roosevelt is now doing. Logan, of Illinois; Cameron, of Pennsylvania, and Conkling, of New York, undertook to enforce the unit rule in these states and force the .nomination of General Grant There was a strong political editorial in The Chicago> Tribune at that time denouncing the unit rule as a pernicious democratic -doctrine and unheard of in a Republican convention. The convention defeated the proposition and it was never attempted again until this convention. The gang in California did not stop at passing the law making ithe state the unit, but in furtherance of their purpose to shut out LaFollette and Taft geremandered the state and changed the boundary IJnes of every congressional district, which in some places necessitated the changing of precinct boundary lines. In other words, it looks to an ordinary fair-minded man that the Johnsons and Heineys and the gang had entered into a conspiracy for the purpose of shutting out LaFollette and Taft. But when the primary came on the fourth district went overwhelmingly for Taft and the state went overwhelmingly for Roosevelt. The Republican party is a voluntary organization and anyone wishing to affiliate with it must conform with the rules. The fourth California district went for Taft under the call and under Republican principles and tradition Did the rest of the state have a right to disfranchise a majority of the fourth congressional district? We have stated the facts with reference to the fourth congregational district of California. We think that no fair-minded Republican can say that the two delegates wpre stolen for the president, but on the other hand reason and logic would say that there had been an attempt to steal two delegates there from Mr. Taft In Kansas under a Republican primary law Ex-Governor Bailey and another gentleman were elected delegates in one congressional district and no one raised any question about it, but it remained for the gang in California to try and place a precedent for a pernicious democratic doctrine in a Republican convention. At Baltimore the progressive Democrats made every effort possible and partially succeeded in stamping out the state unit rule. Any man can investigate and he will find that we have correctly stated the facts' in the fourth California district contest and we maintain that the convention and committee did absolutely right. A man can not have something stolen from him that he never possessed.