The herald., 1898-11-21
AS IT Is SIZED UP BY THE POLL
TICIANS UP NORTH
EITHER GRANT OR De YOUNG
Bulla's Chances Not Taken With Any
Great Amount Of Consideration.
Working for the Candidates

senatorial situation was printed. Just at
present 1t is good reading:
'Tve got this thing won if they don't buy
it away from me-"
So declared U. s. Grant, jr., at the Palace
hotel He referred to the United States
senatorship. But M. H. de Young says
nothing, deprecates an discussion Of his can
didacy, and has complacent air which ia
very puzzling to Grant and his admirers.
And Gen. Barnes is active of foot and Wig
orous az to tongue. Senator Bulla gets his
Los Angeles delegation into flying wedge
and with it endeavors TO break through the
situation. George A. Knight and Van r.
Paterson are industriously looking for any
stray delegates; but poor f. F. Preston is
laid up with pair of broken ribs and can
not go swashing around in the melee. Still,
John d. Spreckels is talking hard for him
during his days of distress
The struggle really promises to be the
mightiest one in the recent history of the
state. 1t is already evident that the South
ern Pacific and the federal administration
are to meet in dreadful clash There is
to be more money in the fight than ever
before. Already the talk of the hotel lob
bies is that the market price of votes has
been doomed from $4,000, which was the
ruling rate in the famous Stanford year, to
$sOO0-a very tempting financial plum in
these days of drought.
When Grant said he had the fight won if
"they" did not buy it away from him, ne
meant by "they" the Southern Pacific. OF
course, it is admitted that the railroad has
habit of spending money lavishly in poll
tics, but on this glorious occasion there are
/ 10 he kv~x, Hu- .l..O =: Al L ~ =
Mazumas in the field. For, in addition to
the administration influence, Grants friends
have been furnished with plenty of funds.
1t is freely told that Mark Hanna has
Joined Kerens of Missouri and Steve Elkins
OF West Virginia in contributing to Grants
fund. All this is in addition to the $50, 900
with which the San Diego candidate is sup
posed to have opened the campaign-the con-
tribution from the estate of Senator Chaffee,
his father-in-law. In any event, Grant was
the only one Of the candidates who spent
money in his fight before the election. His
managers went about industriously giving
coin and promises with free hands to the
legislative candidates. In one instance it is
broadly stated as a fact that $500 in cold
cash was offered to candidate to help him
secure an election.
With this prediction money so freely
spent, Grant thinks he has 48 votes ready to
be cast for him. Milton Green, one of his
managers is quoted as saying that that num-
Der of elected members were pledged to his
candidate. Now, 4s votes are a clean ma
jority Of all Republicans in both houses.
Probably there are SO of that political faith
entitled to seat; 80 48 votes would control
the caucus, if the members could be persuad-
ed to caucus at all But 48 votes are not
enough to elect United States senator-6l
being required for that purpose. So, even
if Grants boast were good, and he could
hold all the members he says he owns, he
would still be l3 votes short of an election,
and l3 is an unlucky number.
But when it comes to discussing Grants
assertions, the railroad managers laugh and
wink and then get warm i tn collar. They
say, openly enough, that Grants followers
do not control the caucus by any means,
and that they would not stick to him in any
event for more than one complimentary bal
lot. They intimate, moreover, that they are
pulling Grants men away from him as fast
as they can find them.
So the question naturally arises, Who is
the Southern Pacific going to pit against
Grant when it comes to the final struggle up
at Sacramento? There's the rub. The
Southern Pacific managers give no sign.
They are free enough and hot enough in
their denunciation of Grant to satisfy the de-
sire for entertainment of the most exacting
Democrat. But when it comes to revealing
their man to the public gaze, they are as
shy and coy as maiden with her first love
affair.
OF course General Barnes has some claims
to consideration. In the first place, he
would be an ornamental senator. In the
second place, he did deal of talking in the
recent campaign. And in the third place,
he is on the railroads pay roll, which would
tend to make him good senator for the
railroad to have around. But against all
this, Barnes is not known to have any posi-
tive strength--votes all his own in any event
or issue. An he hasn't enough money to
make Doodle fight. This would leave the
railroad to do all the putting up" with
out any equivalent except the natural tend
ency of legislators to follow "Grand Old
Man"
Then there is George A. Knight--the rail-
rad never has been particularly friendly to
him, though it sent for him at the time of
the Wallace grand jury, when Herrin and
Judge Murphy and the rest were huddled at
the Grand hotel, and asked him to lend his
voice toward getting the associated scoun-
drels out of trouble. Knight has some mon
ey to make fight of his own, might get
the basis Of following in the northern
counties and has heroic loudhess which
passes for declaration of Independence. 1t
may be recalled that in the Markham con-
vention of eight years ago, Knight rose in
the front aisle, showed all his cleaning
teeth, shook menacing finger in the face
of the convention and shouted:
"The railroad doesn't dare defeat Justice
Beatty for the nomination for chief justice
of the supreme court"
As a matter of fact, the railroad didn't
care tuppence to defeat Justice Beatty, and
might have done SO with wink and nod
if it cared to do so; but Knights play was
heroic, and the galleries rung with applause.
So Just how far the railroad might care to
get behind Knight cannot be told except by
those who have the secrets which whisper
behind the veil at the Yellow Jaundice
building
Then, again, knight has feud with De
Young. After being De Young's tenant and
adviser for years, Knight fell away from his
ollegiances-social, commercial and politi-
cal-and he had to pay for the manifesto of
his candidacy at so much per line, when it
was published in the Chronicle So if the
railroad should happen to decide to line up
behind the doughty attorney of Charles L.
Fair it couldn't be certain of the Chronicles