aft forces had one insuperable advantage. The
temporary roll of a nominating convention is made up by the National
Committee of the party. The Republican National Committee had been
selected at the close of the last national convention four years before.
It accordingly represented the party as it had then stood, regardless
of the significant changes that three and a quarter years of Taft's
Presidency had wrought in party opinion.

In the National Committee the Taft forces had a strength of more than
two to one; and all but an insignificant number of the contests were
decided out of hand in favor of Mr. Taft. The temporary roll of the
Convention therefore showed a distinct majority against Roosevelt.
From the fall of the gavel, the Roosevelt forces fought with vigor and
determination for what they described as the "purging of the roll" of
those Taft delegates whose names they declared had been placed upon it
by fraud. But at every turn the force of numbers was against them; and
the Taft majority which the National Committee had constituted in
the Convention remained intact, an impregnable defense against the
Progressive attack.

These preliminary engagements concerned with the determination of the
final membership of the Convention had occupied several days. Meanwhile
the temper of the Roosevelt delegates had burned hotter and hotter.
Roosevelt was present, leading the fight in person--not, of course,
on the floor of the Convention, to which he was not a delegate, but
at headquarters in the Congress Hotel. There were not wanting in
the Progressive forces counsels of moderation and compromise. It was
suggested by those of less fiery mettle that harmony might be arrived
at on the basis of the elimination of both Roosevelt and Taft and
the selection of a candidate not unsatisfactory to either side. But
Roosevelt, backed by the majority of the Progressive delegates, stood
firm and immovable on the ground that the "roll must be purged" and that
he would consent to no traffic with a Convention whose make-up contained
delegates holding their seats by virtue of fraud. "Let them purge the
roll," he declared again and again, "and I will accept any candidate the
Convention may name." But the organization leaders knew that a yielding
to this demand for a reconstitution of the personnel of the Convention
would result in but one thing--the nomination for Roosevelt--and this
was the one thing they were resolved not to permit.

As th