The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-01-27
HILLS STRENGTH
1t AStOniShes Politicians Lately
From Washington.
HE SEEMS TO STAND AT THE TOP
A Friend Of the exPresident's on Returning
Home Said: Il Won't be Surprised fit
is Hill on the First Ballot"

is Hill on the First Ballot.
New YORK, Jan. ga World special
from Albany, n. Y, says: Politicians
coming home from Washington are aston
ished at the strength of David B. Hill as
presidential candidate. They believed
they would find his name well up
on the list, but few thought it would be at
the head. 1t is not quite year ago since
Edward Murphy, ir., chairman of the Dem
ocratc state committee, said to friend
cleveland won't be mentioned as candi-
date at the national convention" Yester-
Gay one of the ex-President's best known
friends in this state, arriving home from
Washington, said: "a won't be surprised
II 1t is Hill on the first ballot"
THIS NATIONAL STRENGTH OF HILL
which has come as startling revelation to
most people. does not surprise those who
knew him best in the state capitol. They
know that for three years past he and his
closest friends have spared no toll, no eff
fort to put him in this position. While
none could tell surely how far forward be
was forging they felt certain that he pushed
ahead every day. Now, when he suddenly
comes out into sight, those who had know
ledge OF his running see how well the three
years work was done His plan of action
has been the same as when he first made
up his mino to go before the people of his
state. He wished to be a candidate for
lieutenant governor. Alone, without
pow erful friends, not standing for any SEN
tment or policy, he went into the race,
h.
the support of his own county. Local
pride settled that. Then he wrote or
visited every man who would be of
INFLUENCE IN THE CONVENTION.
If they would not make him first choice,
would they make him second choice? II
not that, third or fourth, but at all events
some choice. When the convention met,
he came before the delegates much as he
came before the politicians at Washington
last Thursday
'Who is Hill?" they asked first. and
next "How did he get such a lead! Who
are the chiefs backing him!' Everybody
knows who Hill is now. He has got his
lead day just as he did then, by constant
effort, by interviews, personal or by proxy,
by correspondence direct or indirect, with
all the leaders Of national fame, with the
men who control state conventions, with
the men whom people follow. He has re-
corded every variation in public sentiment
All the widest read papers of the land
were taken the capitol here, their political
views clipped out and pasted in books ar
ranged by states so that he could tell at
glance where the political weather was
threatening, where it was cold and stormy
and where 1t was warm and pleasant. He
has the greatest respect for the press. At
times it has been said that he cared little
Tor newspaper criticism because ne is the
best abused man in the country, but
he HAS CoURTED THIS ABUSE.
Samuel ]. Tilden taught him the value of
making himself and his acts a topic of
daily debate. When there was nothing to
DO he coniured up some deed for his enemies
to damn. Talk about the editors ana cor
respondents" he said one day to a friend,
put I'D rather have on my side the fell
lows who write the headlines. They in
huence public opinion more than any other
class OF newspaper writer's" Unlike Til
den he has never tried to build up a news
paper following. In the two years before
1876, when the man of Greystone was lay
ing his foundations. newspaper after news
paper IN the west and northwest, declared
in his favor Some people called it spon-
taneous, shrewd Jester once called it
'sponsn taneous. Tilden was a millionaire
and if Hill had the wish to initiate him he
had not the ''spons." He has always been
poor, though there has been talk that
he received a very large fee as
counsel in famous suit against Cornell
university, but that is not So What he
has done has been altogether by force of
his own personality. Those who knew
both men in Albany say that Hill has done
very much more than Tilden with less
means. To obtain and hold the leadership
of his party in this state has
NEVER TAXED HILLS ABILITY OR RESOURCES.
''Inside our own party it has been easv
for me to win" he said frequently to those
about him. 'What has kept me up nights
working and thinking is defeat of the
common enemy, the Republican party"
Seven years of thought and action have
at last resulted in the complete rout of the
Republicans in New York. Those who
know HIM best understand what he meant
to advise, but did not make clear in his
speeches at Elmira in bidding farewell to
his state officers in the last hours of 1891.
First put your enemy in the most disad-
vantageous position possible, then charge
all along the line.
To every leader, big and little. he has
said, "OreaniZe. organize When he went
into Ohio in 1890 and helped to rout Nc
kinley, his first conference with Congress-
man Warwick was as to his plan of or
year, in Indiana, he discussed with ex-
Governor Grey the plans of the party to
carry that state. The same is true of
West Virginia, of Connecticut, of New
Jersey. Couriers have gone into distant
states with documents, with words of adj
vice for local campaigning; the views of
leaders have been sought on public cues
tons; tacit agreements have been reached
1t is not full year since Edward Murphy.
jr., and Roswell p. Flower went on a trip
to the Pacific coast for pleasure. Yes,
PERHAPS ALSO FOR POLITICS.
They also went out through the south,
they came back through the north. State
officers, warm friends of the Senator. have
made many trips, political pilgrimages here
and there in the south and west Repub
lican and Mugwump newspapers called at
tention to them at the time and forgot
about them, thinking they had been efail-
ures, that nothing had been accomplished.
In New York city men may meet again
and again and the world would never
know who were Governor Hl's guests
what men of national fame did he meet in
his frequent stays at the Hoffman house2
These things never go into thenewspapers.
Slowly and surely in the past two or three
years he was building up this other orpani
cation which WIS first revealed to the public
when Crisp and not Mills, was made
speaker of the House of Representatives
That was one skirmish line. 1t was to be
the victory of a combination, an "anti-
Cleveland combination"
Thus far Hill had remained away from
Washington. Then he went down to the
capital himself. In the next contest Qast
Thursday the same combination, stronger.
nm i'm, 81