Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-09-20
POLITICAL
POINTERS.


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Peter Silman, miller and politician,
of Kanawha county is the latest as
pirant for the Republican nomination
for State Auditor Several other
, counties may be heard from before
convention day arrives, and the bit
/ terness of the fight among those who
were earliest in the fray, may permit
an eleventh hour entrant to walk Off
! with the prize. The Authorship is
much coveted plum, last never in the
history Of West Virginia politics was
there such scramble for the place.
The actual salary is small, but it is
understood that it requires five figures
to express the perquisities annually de-
dived from the office. AT the present
rate of entries in the race, it is not i'm
probable that half the counties in the
State will have favorite sons to push
forward for the Authorship. The Sill
man boom is in the embryonic stage.
and there are Republicans who treat 1t
as a joke and assert that it will never
reach maturity.
There is another boom which is be-
ing lost sight of in the fight among
the other aspirants, but which may as
. sumo dangerous proportions before the
convention day arrives. 1t is that OF
Elliott Northcott, of Huntington, as
sistant District Attorney for West Vir-
ginia. Northcott's candidacy has a
geographical tinge, In other words, he
does not expect the nomination if his
section of the State captures the head
of the ticket. Northcott is an exceed
! ingly bright and clever gentleman, and
his friends in the lower part of the
] State are legion. Another candidate
from that section, and one who appears
to have as much strength as any of the
others, is Arnold Scherr. He is
wealthy tanner, and as he is not a tyro
in politics, he is presumed to know the
value of a barrel" in campaign times.
Scherr is a leader of his party in his
own portion of the State, and if a con-
vention were held now he would have
strong following.
The upper portion of the State will,
as a matter of course, demand one or
two places on the Republican ticket,
and if A. p. White secures the guber-
; material nomination, Ohio county may
insist upon the authorship. This is
purely coniectural, however, inasmuch
as a divided delegation from Ohio
county may kill the chances of her two
aspirants, and a divided delegation is
foregone conclusion, unless some
skillful political blacksmith YIELDS to-
gether the broken ends of the Repub-
lican ring There has been no at
tempt to disguise the fact that the
Ohio county bosses have quarreled.
The division of spoils is said to have
caused the split. The creation of bit
terly antagonistic factions is PROOF
of it. The young leaders are at dag
gers points, and one of the most perfect
machine organizations in West Vir-
ginia is hopelessly entangled in the
meshes of personal ambitions. Older
and cooler heads hope to heal the
wounds ere the campaign opens If
they succeed, close observers of Ohio
county politics will miss their guess.
More likely is it, that there will be
closer definition of faetional lines, and
that the Republican majority will
eral hundred wye than naught.
Circuit Clerk Chas Fl. Henning says
he is in the race for keeps. Friends
of James X Hall retort that it is the
prerogatiYe of an American citizen to
aspire to any Office, and affect indiffer-
ence anent Hennings candidacy. In
reality, his activity and persistency
have worried them, and they realize
that Halls chances are jeopardized IN
less Henning can be induced to with
draw, a task which seems hopeless at
present. Both are conducting
Acquaintance" campaigns An ac-
quaintance campaign necessitates trips
to the interior, and mixing" up with
the boys To stand well with the
rank and file, it is necessary TO be "a
good fellow" for the rank and file is
a power al the primaries. Hall and
Henning are not laying aside much
for the proverbial "rainly day" for In
an acquaintance campaign nobody
spends but the candidate. Publicly.
Henning says Hail. never told him he
was 2 candidate, and that he thought
there was a chance for Ohio county
getting the authorship, and that he
might as well capture the plum;
privately, Henning, but that is
quite another matter, although Halls
friends are mean enough to say that
personal pique is the prime factor in
Henning's candidacy. And so the truly
sad spectacle is presented of the two
bosses who welded autocratie powers
in local Republican politics, Who were
hand in glove a few short months ago.
now training their guns against each
other, and permitting a rank outsider
to sneak in and capture the prize for
which they are contending.
There are some Wheeling Republic
cans who charge that Charlie Hem
ming is candidate in the interest at
Warden Hawk, of the penItentiary.
They say that he has no following