The Savannah morning news., 1901-08-18
M'LAURIN WORRIES THEM.
SOUTH CARoLINA's JUNIOR SEN
ATOR AND THE OLD LINE RE
PUBLICANS.

PUBLICANs.
The appointment to Federal ofhces
His Endorsement and This Seems
to RanIxIe i'm the Breasts of City
and State Republican Leaders.
Charleston, S. c.. Aug. 17.-Republi-
can party leaders at Washington, as
we'll as in this city, are seeking to give
out the impression that Senator Nc
Laurin will not continue to exercise
the influence, which he unquestionably
has, in future federal appointments In
South Carolina. They evidently want
to make it appear that the junior sena-
tor will have some hesitancy in con-
trolling the appointments of leading
Republican officials in this state for
fear of the bad influence it might have
upon his Democratic standing. They
say that the Democratic Executive
Committee of South Carolina has al
ready avowed its intention of trying to
force Senator McLaurin outside of the
party lines, and that should he con-
tinue to control or give evidence of a
power to control the Federal appoint
ments here and elsewhere in the state,
it would give some semblance of truth
to the accusations which Col. Willie
Jones committee has made against
him and his party fealty. Senator Nc
Laurin's friends in Charleston do not
place any degree of faith, whatever, in
any such talk as this, and they are
- h. I'LL Il. l.. -,llx .f
fort on the part of the old line Repub-
lican leaders, such as Webster and his
former lieutenants, to retain for them
selves credit with the rank and file of
their followers. The Charleston people
are largely convinced of the fact that
Senator McLaurin has now, and will
continue to have, the casting vote in
the selection of pretty much all of the
big ofticeholders in this state for the
next eighteen months. They give him
credit for purpose to see to it that
the Mckinley administration selects
as its representatives here men
of property, influence and public repu-
tation, and they do not think that Sem
ator McLaurin is the kind of man who
will hesitate for an instant to exercise
valuable prerogative of this character
for fear of any adverse influences upon
his own candidacy, such as those sug-
gested by the machine Republican Of
f1cials. In addition to this fact they
are satisfied that the State Democratic
Executive Committee has gone to the
full extent for the time being at least,
of what it proposes to do in the way
of seeking to raise a question as to the
junior senator's entire right to run for
reappointment within party lines next
summer. The general impression pro-
duced by the action of the committee
in calling upon Senator McLaurin was
not exactly what the State Executive
Committee had hoped that it would be,
and members of that organiza ton are
good enough politicians to realize that
further progress upon the road upon
which they thus set out is liable to
prove a dangerous boomerang. 1t is
not believed here that, for the present
at least, there will be any further overt
action taken by the State Committee,
or any other organiza ton, looking to-
wards denying the entire right of Sem
ator McLaurin to hold any views he
may have upon federal affairs so long
as he is willing, as he has professed
himself to be, to submit his course and
political principles to the arbitration of
the duly constituted party tribunal
the Democratic primary.
Specials have been recently sent out
of Washington, evidently at the in
stance of Collector of Internal Revenue
e. A. Webster, or his friends intimat-
ing that Mr.. McLaurin would be
"hands off, in all further dis
tribution' of federal patronage, and
that the power to which the ad-
ministration would look for advice in
such matters henceforth would be the
old time Republican clique here. This,
of course, was headed and ruled by
Webster himself. The statement has
recently been given wide circulation
that Mr.. Wabster would shortly be re-
appointed to his present office, and that
United States Marshal Lawson D. Mel
ton would also succeed himself imme-
diately upon the expiration of his pres
ent term. Melton is the chief of Web
ster's supporters, and both statements
are about of par, so far as credence
is concerned.
The fact of the matter is that there
is little reason, so far as local politi-
clans here can see, for any change in
the conditions which have obtained up
to the present time, and one and all
of them are inclined to the impression
that the work of selecting prominent
gold Democrats and expansionists for
responsible federal recognition will go
forward without any interruption from
this time on. Many persons are in
clined to think that a number of
prominent gentlemen of this character
have already been slated for several of
the leading offices in this city and else
where in the state, and that 1t is only
a question of a comparatively short
time before the announcement of these
appointments will become public.