The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-16
HEARsTs QUEER CAMPAIGN.
Spent s5o,ooo That Wasn't Needed
 In Race For Congress.

From a New York Letter Prior to Elec- ton.
 At the opening of the congressional campaign one of the first districts the republican managers struck from their list as surely democratic was the Tenth district in New York city. Tammany owns 1t and no one questions the propri- etorship. Its democracy is of the purest ray serene and the platform and candi- date are of slight importance. Demo- crats there vote the ticket and vote 1t straight without asking questions. Amos J. Cummings used to carry the district by from 5000 to 10000 in bad year for Tammany and in other years the limit was raised to suit conditions. In this campaign the Tenth is seething with po- litieal excitement. It has been in such an uproar for a month that the republicans are rubbing their eyes and wondering what has happened To an outsider the conditions would indicate that the district was the closest in New York and that upon the outcome rested the stability of the republic
 The candidates are William Randolph Hearst, who owns the New York Journal and American and other newspapers, and Henry Birrell. Hearst was nominated by
  rel accepted the republican nomination because the ticket needed candidates. Hearst has been dabbling In New York city politics ever since he bought the New York Journal, and last spring his name was in the list of possibilities men, tioned for the democratic nomination for governor. At the Saratoga convention he did not ask for the nomination, but asked that there be inserted in the platform a
 
 ership of the anthracite coal mines Ar thur Brisbane one of Hearsts editorial writers, had prepared this plank. When it was first submitted to David B. Hill the democratic boss baked. Finally he decided to accept It. The coal strike might continue through the campaign, MT Hill argued, and if so the Hearst plank would make votes for the ticket in certain quarters. Hearst said something about a contribution to the campaign fund which seemed to appeal to MT. Hill. So the government ownership plank went in Hearst's nomination in the Tenth dis trict followed
 New York has seen so many pictur- esque campaigns that 1t is not easily startled. Hearsts campaign. however, has aroused the natives. Old-timers in Tammany say it beats anything in its line they have ever seen. There have been mass meetings that drew crowds no hall in New York would hold; the nights have blazed and roared and the days have resounded with the echoes of cart tail oratory and political hubbub. Hearst has paid for 1t all With his party workers and his thousands he has swept New York. Last Monday night there was at Madison Square Garden the greatest meeting ever held there The next day the man who manages the Garden stated that the crowd was the largest that had ever been packed in the building. The speakers were Adlai E. stevenson, vice. president under MT. Cleveland and candidate for that office on the ticket with MT. Bryan in 1900; Ex-Governor Budd and Mayor Schmidt of San Fran cisco. whom Hearst brought on from Cal ifornia with two brass bands; Bird s. Coler and other democratic lights, includ- ing Hearst. Outside was a display of fireworks that is said to have cost s10000, and overflow meetings that threw the po- lice force into panic It was Hearst's meeting and nobody questioned the right to the glory. The next morning the op- position newspapers who had ignored his candidacy frankly gave him the credit. The Journal and American printed pages about the meeting and Hearsts speech as an editorial.
 Alfred Henry Lewis, well known in Kansas City. met Hearst in Delmonico's just after the convention in the Tenth dis triet. and said: Hearst, I hear you have been buncoed out of $40,000?'
 Flows that?' asked Hearst.
 Well" said Lewis, "I could take $10,- GOO and elect a yellow dog in that dis trict, letting my adversary select the dog. I understand 1t has cost you $50,000'
 In congress Hearst is expected to ad- vocate the government ownership of pub lie utilities and other propositions tinged with socialism. He is not a public speak CT, as he has poor voice, and besides he is as diffident as a girl. The bills he will introduce and endeavor to get through, however, will doubtless keep him before the public.