AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14928, 28 February 1912, Page 7

AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

MR. ROOSEVELT IS WILLING.

A BITTER CONTEST LIKELY.

TAFT HOLDS THE MACHINE.

By Telegraph.-- Association.—Copyright. New York, February 26. Mr. Roosevelt (who has announced his willingness to stand for the Presidency if a sufficient invitation is tendered) says he believes that the principle involved in the contest is genuine rule of the people. He therefore believes that the law should be amended so that the people would be able to indicate their choice through direct primaries. (E,cceiTed February 28, 12.10 a.m.) New York, February 27. Mr. Roosevelt states : " My hat is in the ring, and it is going to stay there." The Washington correspondent of the Times states that Mr. Roosevelt's declaration has caused excitement, and heralds the bitterest Presidential contest since the civil war. President Taft's lack of political experience has alienated the extreme Republicans. Mr. Roosevelt's enemies accuse him of treachery and inability to subordinate political decency and personal dignity to the dictates of a spiteful intolerant nature. Mr. Roosevelt's friends urge that his Radical bark is worse than his bite. The outlook is obscure. Mr. Roosevelt may be helped by his skill as a political press agent, but the Republican machinery is in President Taft's hands. Mr. Roosevelt appeals mainly to the west, while the eastern States preponderate in the Republican Convention.

The President of the United States is not elected by the direct vote of the people. The people vote for electors, and those electors chosen in each State meet therein, and vote for the candidates for President and Vice-President. These ballots (representing the voice of the people in a secondary degree) are then sent to Washington, and are opened by the President of the Senate in the presence of Congress, and the candidate who has received a majority of the whole number of electoral votes cast is declared President.