The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-24
Proctor,s Possible Greatness.
~ EFORE this country's politics is
l many months older, Mr.. Han

many months older, Mr.. Han
mas regency may have Senator
Proctor, of Vermont, to reckon with.
OF course, that event seems not prob
able; we are to remember, however,
that, eight months before the republic
can convention of 1896, to the high
lights in the republican galaxy Mr.
Hanna himself seemed not at all prob
able-such men as Platt and Quay
sneered at Hanna; indeed, they laugh
ed him to scorn.
Hanna is reality in 1899: Proctor
is easily possibility for 1900. You
never can tell. The political whirligig
is always whirling. In his predatory
movements about four years ago, MI.
Hanna's actions led very large public
to look upon him as a staggering
novice. To-day current Judgment is
that Mr.. Proctor, withal, is a rustic.
That happens, perhaps, because Mr..
Proctor halls from Vermont. The couu-
try felt that from George f. Edmunds
to Redfleld Proctor of Proctorsville, in
the federal senate, was a long fall. But
the republican managers recognize Mr..
Proctor as a man of excellent mana
gerial ability. He had much to do with
bringing about the nomination of Cen
| eral Harrison in 1850 much, in fact,
| that his reward was a cabinet portfolio.
And the success of that year was as
nothing compared with that which Mr.
Proctor did when, in 1896, he took the
bulk of New England right out from
under Thomas B. Reed; and this he die
with such tact that Mr.. Reed himself
had no suspicion of what was going on
until the thing was done and Proctor
had made the delivery to Mckinley.
The fact is that Mr.. Proctor has per-
| mitted several newspapers to intimate
that his purpose is to see to it that
Dewey becomes president. There are
contingencies, of course. These are
Fastening to their climax. For In
stance, there is the Ohio election; the
Proctor theory is that it is all UP with
Mr.. Mckinley If he fails to carry Ohio
| and that the president becomes a
| doubtful second-term quantity If Mr.
Hanna's money results in a republican
success that Is ItuuCSu IL d CiOSc illoA
| gin. Then there's President McKin
ley's Luzon war-if it is still in active
operation next summer, the present
regime will be hopelessly unpopular
There will be demand then for a re-
publican candidate who will be cred.
tied with ability to wind up the war
The Proctor theory is that Dewey will
be the man for the place and that al
the polls the people will say SO.
OF course, Proctor will be strictly II
it if his programme prevails. The mod
ern republican theory is that the presi
dent Of the United States must have {
confidential premier who comes il
ahead of the cabinet and to whom tn
/ president is a sort of hired man. Fo
the succession to this office Mr.. Procto
states himself. Not that he is aggres
sive; he is too clever for that. He Il
what our modern politics styles
auiescent candidate for the place be
hind the throne. But if things go tn
way this vermonter knows to be posi-
BILE, he'll make Hanna the politica
dowager of a one-term Mckinley rec
ord. and because Dewey is from Yer
mont he reckons that he has DeWe,
to begin with This Proctor programm
is possible: not probable, perhaps, bu
just possible.