The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1889-02-07
CABINET CHANCES.
The Problem Now in Good COndi-
tiOn for O Casual and Reminis-
cent Review.
Blaine Will Probably Be Secretary
Of State, Because There Is No
Contest.

cided at Indianapolis, and the general agree
ment OF public conjecture upon its main
features open the way to review of tho
converting streams OF circumstances and
event which have led up so nearly to the
final cUlEination. 1t is not prudent to take
anything for granted until Gen. Harrison's
conclusions are announced upon his own
authority. The unanimity of conjecture,
however, furnishes sufficiently substantial
framework for reminiscent comment These
things may be taken for granted: That Ali-
son is Gen. Harrison's choice for the treas
ury; that Sherman is no longer thought Of
for any position; that Blaine is most likely
to be secretary of state, for the reason that
no other Republican leader of equal rank
cares to contest the place with him; that
New York is unlikely to be represented in
any pro 1?inent place; that John Wanamaker
will have some portfolio; that no other SEN
ator than Allison will be called into the cabi
net, and that the smaller places will be given
to men relatively qualified for them, like
Gen. Alger, Estee or Swift of California the
lesser Indiana aspirants or the compare
lively unknown candidates from the South.
1t will not be distinguished cabinet, except
in one or two places. 1t will not drain the
senate of lis talent; it will not be an assem-
blage of the great lights of the party nor a
group of factional leaders.
THE CABINETS COMPLEXION.
1t will be reasonably harmonious in itself
and fairly representative. IL will probably be
a good working body 1t will not be bril-
liant council of statesman of national fame
and commanding ability. How has such a
cabinet grown out of the very different
probabilities which took shape in the public
mind soon after Harrison's election? Mainly
by process of progressive exclusion. One
name after another dropped out of the first
tentative lists as the views of the president
elect and of the gentlemen proposed to him
as his cabinet advisers became known. If
the great suggesting and advising public has
not had its way altogether about The cabinet,
! there is some consolation for it in the reflec-
tion that Gen. Harrison has not wholly had
/ his way about it either. He has had
! to make a cabinet such as he could,
not such as he would. The available
cabinet material presented to him after
/ his election is roughly divisible into two
categories, men who wanted places without
/ being notably unfit for them, and men who
were notably fit for place without wanting
it, That is to say, men who urged their
claims to cabinet appointments upon the
president-eiect and men whose appoint
ment was urged upon him without any effort
on their part. This division does not neces-
sarily stamp one class as selfish office seek
ers and the other as patients. Men are often
as selfish in refusing office as seeking it 1t
happens that most of the cabinet candidates
urged on Gen. Harrison without any effort
on their own part had better places already.
Most of the candidates of the second category
are in the senate. The party leaders to whom
the public mind spontaneously turned as the
tittest men to serve as advisors or the
new president were nearly all senators or ex-
senators-Sherman, Warner Miller, Allison
and John Spooner. The men whose claims
were urged by themselves or by interested
friends, like Blaine, Platt and Wanamaker,
were all out of Office and, with one brilliant
exception, out of the range of spontaneous
public selection.
GEN HARRIsoN's POSITION
1t is undoubtedly true that Gen Harrison
himself, like his great voluntary advisory
council, the officious and interested public,
turned first to the senate in his search fol-
cabinet material. This was the more natural
because nearly all his personal intmateS
among the public men of the day are SEN
ators and ex-senators. Scarcely any cabinet
CanQ1GdIS
ally known to him, or, indeed, prominent
enough to be well known TO him in any
way, except Blaine, and there were reasons
for not turning first of all to the man who
seems to be his final choice for the first place
in the cabinet. 1t is perfectly we'll known in
well informed circles that there was time
when Mr. Blaine himself doubted whe her he
wished to 90 into Gen. Harrison's clbinet.
n yrhoC bn xunnln have
ferred to return to the senate if either OF the
Maine senators would have taken the seer :.
taryshp of the navy or foreign mission
Their willingness to do SO was tested and
both preferred the senate. 1t was not until
after this that Mr.. Blaine was sure he wanted
to 60 into the cabinet. So it happened that
the senate remained the most conspicuous
field of cabinet gossip. There is probably
this solid foundation of fact for all the gossip
connecting the names OF senators with cab
met places that at least two members of thai
body besides Allison could have had places
in the cabinet if they would have taken
! them.
MEN WHO DIDN'T WANT IT.
That Sherman is one goes without saying
Without doubt he could have been secretary
of state if he had given one-fourth as much
evidence of his desire to do so as Mr.. Blaine
has given. Nobody can say the place has
been positively offered to Sherman. but near
ly everybody believes that it has been made
known to him that he could have iC for the
asking The opinion of those nearest to him
is that he would have been willing to round
out his career with one or two terms of serv.
ice in the state department if 1t could have
come to him without contest or solicitation.
But he did not want the place enough to ask
for it or show the least desire to have it Be-
tween two party leaders like Blaine and
Sherman, of equal prominence and follow.
ing, one eager for service and ready to resent
neglect, the other cavalier and Indifferent
and perfectly content to be overlooked, the
choice Of the president-elect was almost in
evitable. He could not well urge the place
upon Sherman, and it is scarcely to be won-
dered at if he has finally decided TO offer il
to Blaine. The case was different with Sen.
ator Allison. He was never a candidate fol
place in the cabinet in any sense, though
his fitness for the TREASURY department. was
universally recognized He was still more
reluctant to leave the senate than Sherman.
If he has consented to do so. as everybody
believes he has he has made considerable
sacrifice Of comfort inclination, and even oi
ambition. Allison Is still a presidential pos.
sibility, and the senate is better training
ground for the presidency than the cabinet
ALLISON A NECESSITY.
But he has been urged as Sherman never
was The New York party feud and the inn
possibility of taking q secretary of the treas
ury from there without embroiling the ad
!, ministration in local politics, made Allison {
necessity to the president-elect. There wal
no such alternative to him as Blaine to Sher
man. He had to be prevailed upon 1t ap
pears that he has been.~ The coniectural cab
met turns upon Allison II, after oil, he viii
not accept, 1t win be chaos again. Heis mori
: fixed point in it than Blaine, upon WHOM
public oplnion has settled only because since
Sherman was out of the question there is nt
other name of adequate Importance In th'
field Of discussion. 1t is not believed, as hi
friends assert. that the state department ha