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The Commoner.
-VOLUME 7, NUMBER 40
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THE DEMOCRATIC national committee met
at Washington, Thursday, December 12,
and called the national convention for Denver
on July 7, 1908. The people of Denver offered
$100,000. Some opposition was expressed to
ward the acceptance of moro of this fund than
was actually needed for convention purposes and
Mr Clayton of Alabama voiced this sentiment in
a resolution to that effect. He was supported
by John Sharp Williams, Governor Hoke Smith
and others. Tom L. Johnson, Senator Stone of
Missouri, Mayor Dahlman of Omaha, and others
favored accepting the money. Mayor Johnson
said that money for campaign purposes is con
tributed by corporations with the view of secur
ing advantages in legislation or otherwise,' while
the contribution of Denver could not be ascribed
to any such purpose. The people of Denver, he
said, have a regular organization for the purpose
of attracting conventions to that city for busi
ness reasons and it was perfectly proper for the
democratic national committee to accept the
offer."
THE MOTION to table Mr: Clayton's resolu
tion was approved by the following vote:
Yeas: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia,
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky,-Louisiana,
Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Ne
braska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, NewYork,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee,
- Texad, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin,
Wyoming, District of Columbia, Alaska, Indian
Territory 31. Noes: Alabama, Arizona, Flor
ida, Idaho, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missis
sippi, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina,
South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Porto Rico
14. On the first ballot Denver received twenty
two votes as against seventeen for Louisville,
.flve for Chicago and one for St. Paul.i. July 7
was selected as the date for the convention after
a very brief discussion.
THE VOTE in detail on the first ballot for the
selection of the convention was as follows:
For Denver Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,
Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michi
gan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey,
Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Islarid, South Carolina,
South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, Wiscon
sin, Wyoming, Alaska, Indian Territory 22.
For Louisville Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Ida
ho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Mis
souri, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas, Ver
. -inont,, Virginia, West Virginia, Porto Rico, Dis-
frXliiuVi yjL vuiamuiii xi. x-ui Vjuiuugu iuvu, xm-
Jnbis, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina
-5. For St. Paul Minnesota 1. The com
mittee then proceeded to vote on the date of
holding the convention. June 30 and July 7
and 14 were all suggested, but the sentiment
was largely in -favor of July 7, and resulted
in the choice of that date.
O
AN IMPORTANT resolution adopted for the
democratic national committee was that
introduced by Mr. Johnston of Texas and ampnd
ed by Senator Tillman as follows: "Resolved,
That the democratic national committee cordially
approves the movement under way to insure
publicity, in the states as well as in the nation,
of contributions of money or other tUngs of
value, and of expenditures made by any person,
association, committee or other organization for
political purposes."
SENATOR TILLMAN has introduced in the
senate resolutions directing the commit
tee on finance to investigate the recent proceed
ings of the secretary of the treasury in connec
tion with the financial crisis and also to make
inquiry concerning clearing house certificates.
The resolutions were presented in two series,
the first dealing with the operations of the treas
ury department and the second with clearing
house certificates, both being divided into three
subdivisions. The first of the resolutions directs
the committee on finance to investigate and re
port to the senate, as follows: "First Whether
the issue of certificates of indebtedness bearing
three per cent interest, bids for which were in
vited by the secretary of the treasury Novem
ber 18, 1907, were for the purpose of'borrowing
money 'to meet public expenditures,' as pro
vided by section 32 of the act approved June 15,
1899, and if riot whether there is any warrant
of law for the issue of said certificates. Second
Whether the issue of $50,000,000 of bonds of
the Panama canal loan, bids for which were
called for by the secretary of the treasury on
November 18, 1907, was required to 'defray the
expenditures on said canal,' there being at the
time when both of these loans were made up
ward of $200,000,000 in the treasury for cur
rent expenditures. Third Whether any legis
lation was necessary to protect the people and
business interests of the country from the issue
of unlawful money, if clearing house certificates
are such, and to prevent the illegal increase of
the. public debt in time of peace."
THE SECOND series of the Tillman resolutions
direct the finarice committee "to investi
gate and report to the senate as soon as practi
cable," on the following points: "First
Whether clearing house certificates, with which
the country is now flooded, have been issued
under authority of law or contrary to the same.
Second Whether the issuing of such certificates
by an association of banks, both state and na
tional, and the use of the same as money sub
jects such certificates or notes to the tax of ten
per cent provided in section 3412, United States
revised statutes. Third Whether it would be
permissible under the law as it is for an asso
ciation of banks, warehouses and elevators to
issue certificates based on cotton, wheat and,
tobacco, stored in such warehouses and eleva
tors, and fully insured, to be used as -money in
marketing said crops in the same way as clear
ing house certificates are now used."
npHE POLITICAL circles were deeply stirred
X by the following newspaper dispatch:
"Washington, D. C, Dec. 11. In view of the
issuance of the call of the republican national
committee for the convention the president
makes the following statement: 'On the night
after election I made the following announce
ment: "I am deeply sensible for the honor done
me by the American people in thus expressing
their confidence in what I have done and have
tried to do. I appreciate to the full the solemn
responsibility this confidence imposes upon me,
and I shall do all that in my power lies not to
'forfeit it. On the 4th of March next I shall
have served three and a half years, and this three
and a half years constitute my first term. The
wise custom which limits the president .to two
terms regards the substance and not the form,
and under no circumstances will I be a candidate
for or accept another nomination." I have not
changed anxl shall not change the decision thus
announced.' "
O
REFERRING TO Mr. Roosevelt's statement
the Washington correspondent for the
Sioux City (Iowa) Journal says: "If any man
knew of the president's intention to make the
foregoing declaration at the- present time he
kept the president's secret well, for there was. no
intimation that it would be made for some time
to come, When the president was in Tennessee
last October, returning from his bear hunt in the
swamps of Louisiana, he was informed thut the
republican leaders of that state proposed to hold
their state convention as soon as possible after
the call of the national committee for the na
tional convention, and that they intended to
send a. solid delegation instructed for the re
nomination of Mr. Roosevelt. As the national
committee was to meet in Washington early in
December it was expected the Tennessee conven
tion would be not much moro than a month
later; that is, early in January of the new year.
The president has told a great number of in
dividuals during the last few weeks that he
would not be a candidate for the presidency next
year, and he reiterated this declaraion to cer
tain members of the republican national com
mittee last week. It was Mr. Roosevelt's orlgi-
nal intention to wait until after the election of
the first delegates instructed for him and then
to issue a. convincing disclaimer of his candi
dacy. According to the plans then making for
an early convention in Tennessee, the president's
announcement to the contrary would have come
some time next month. The best information
obtainable as to the president's intentions toward
the third term movement has always been that
he would stand by his declaration of 1901, and
that he was simply waiting for his own time
in which to reiterate that declaration. As re
cently as last Saturday, however, it did not seem
likely that Mr. Roosevelt would make his an
nouncement during the present year, and it
seemed more than possible that he would, in
deed, defer it until well into 1908. On that
day he had an hour's conference with two of
the leading republicans of Tennessee, and it
became known that the president had asked
them to defer the holding of their convention
far beyond the date on which they had first
expected to hold it. The president himself said
to a dozen visitors last Saturday that he thought
he had the southern convention projects pretty
well in hand, and that none of them would bo
held very early in the new year4 There was
only one theory for this determination of the
president to head off the early conventions,
which seemed likely to elect delegates instruct
ed for his renomination. That theory was and
for confirmation it lacked only the president's
statement in so many words that he wished to
hold the political situation under control as long
as possible in order -to prevent his enemies from
gaining control of the convention."
THE OMAHA (Nebraska) World-Herald says:
"The first effect of President Roosevelt's
reiterated refusal to again-be a 'candidate is to
discourage the progressive element of the party.
This feeling is tersely stated in a dispatch to
the Des Moines Register and Leader from its
staff Washington correspondent. The Register
and Leader, it should be noted, stands at the
very head of the genuinely progressive repub
lican newspapers of the country, and so its views
are entitled to weight as being fairly representa
tive. The dispatch alluded to is in part as fol
lows: "If the truth be told, the outlook is to
day not encouraging for the nomination of a
progressive candidate. Vast railroads and cor
poration forces are enlisted to prevent that very
thing, and it looks now as if they had already
accomplished their purpose, xhe best judgment
here is that Taft is "a beaten man and there is
no. doubt that anti-administration forces control
the national committee. Cortelyou is looked
upon as satisfactory by certain, interests and they
are backing him. Hughes, too, though many
believe him radical, is supported by big conserv
ative interests and so it is with Fairbanks, Can
non, Knox and Foraker. After the meeting of
the national committee here last week, the con
servatives openly declared they had the adminis
tration beaten and that things had reached a
point where the president could no longer con
trol the situation. In short the indications are
now that the republican convention will nomin
ate a conservative candidate and the democrats
will name Bryan and the real battle between con
servatives and progressives will be fought out
at the polls."
i3
THE WASHINGTON' correspondent for the
Minneapolis Journal sends to his news
paper the following' dispatch: "The streets and
hotel corridors of Washington are full today
of echoes of the Gridiron dinner Saturday night,
and Governor Johnson's wonderful speech there.
It created a sensation such as the club has never
witnessed in the twenty-three years of its ex
istence, say the old members,'and has had the
effectrof bringing Johnson once more to the fore
as a presidential possibility. This may sound
strange in view of the mortgage Bryan seems
to have on the nomination, but nevertheless it
appears to be true. One of the guests at the
Gridiron dinner ,was Colonel Nelsori, proprietor
of the Kansas City Star, the greatest newspaper
in the Missouri Valley, , He has announced
publicly that he Is now for Johnson for the nom-
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