The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-06-05
Kitchener. Of Indiana, Has Been
Virtually Settled Upon for
the Place.
Emerg encies of Indiana Politics-Attor-
ney-General A1ilIer's Blunder-His
Recent Walt to Indianapolis.

all probable that tho rule OF promotion In
Office, which President Cleveland followed
in two or three similar cases with excellent
effect upon the civil service. will be pursued
in this case. The Office has come to be re-
garded as one Of the most strictly political
in all the list Of seoretaryships, and upon
its administration great results for the
party in power are supposed to hang. Mr..
Clarkson has been an officer after the par
tisan's own heart. He has done all possi-
BILE, without coming in direct conflict with
the letter of the civil service law, to make
the postofaces part of the political ma
chine; but his tenure will have been only
fifteen months. and much yet remains to
be done.
That President Harrison is a candidate
for second term no one questions. The
first assistant postmaster general can do a
great deal, if he will in the next two years
to make him once more the party nominee.
knowing this, General Harrison is consid-
ering. If indeed he has not already deter
mined upon, the appointment of Mr..
Michener, of Indiana, to the position about
to be vacated by Mr.. Clarkson. Several
conditions suggest the advisability of this.
First of all, Mr.. Michener has been staunch
adherent, even when others have felt dis
posed to kick over the party traces. As
chairman of the state central committee of
Indiana he has fought down (but
without conciliating) the opposition of
the ultra soldier element under the
leadership of Gov. Hovey and tho NAL
Treasurer Huston their point of contact.
The federal patronage placed ut his
disposal by the president has made this
an easier task than it would otherwise have
been, but at the same time the way in
which the power of Mr.. Kitchener has been
used has provoked the most bitter enmities.
Out of this has grown a condition that
makes Michener's removal from his present
place in Indiana politics almost Imperative
He has tasted power, and thirsts for more
of it. Latterly he has appeared as candi-
date for the republican nomination for gov
ernor. Hovey wants second term "as
vindication" of his criticism upon Harri-
son for failing to fulfill his and his party's
pledges to the veterans, while Huston would
accept the nomination as a personal COM
pliment and az means of escape from pc
sition he has found uncongenial. The
antagonize the factions the other two
represent and make defeat at the Novem-
ber elections inevitable. Therefore the
president would be paving the way for har-
mony in the party in Indiana by taking
Kitchener out of the way and placing him
where he can be quite as useful to the party
in Indiana and to himself. With Michener
out of the field the placating of Hovey
would not be 80 difficult matter, and Hus-
ton can be easily side-tracked for the sake
of harmony. It is therefore in the cards
that the arbitrary Michener having been
taken to Washington and duly installed as
headsman of the postoffice department. the
republican state convention shall tender
the gubernatorial nomination to ex-Gov.
Porter, at present minister to Italy. The
rest will be easy enough, the president
thinks, and possibly it will be. It is abso-
lutely necessary for the realization of Har-
rison's second-term ambition that the re-
publicans should carry Indiana at the No
vember election this year. The in
discretion of his attorney general and
personal representative in the cabinet,
who went out of his way to express con-
tempt of certain railway magnates who had
been effective aids in the campaign of 1888
has weakened Harrison materially in his
own state. Mr.. Miller's visit to Indianapo-
lis the other day probably had something to
do with this; but he must have found it
difficult task to explain away his written
phrases of contempt, the more particularly
as, while acknowledging the services rem
dered, he had claimed that the adninistra-
tion paid the debt in full.