Today -100: September 28, 1910: Of cholera and conventions

100,000 of “the better classes” have fled the cholera outbreak in Naples.

The NY Republican Party convention votes Roosevelt in as temporary chairman, defeating VP Sherman, overturning a decision made at an advance committee meeting in August, from which several members had stayed away because they were told nothing important was going to happen. But the indirect primaries spoke (how it worked was that New York Republicans voted for delegates to this convention; the convention will choose the candidates for governor, congress, etc; one of the planks Roosevelt wants is direct primaries, but the convention is still divided on that issue), and progressive delegates outnumber Old Guard ones (567-445 on the chairman vote). Therefore, in the NYT’s words, “the Old Guard turned its State Convention over to Theodore Roosevelt this afternoon, body, soul, and breeches.” Oh, it’s that sort of convention.

TR’s speech called for a “war against dishonesty.”