The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1902-02-07
WHEN HOARD ARRIVES
If There Is Any Harmony" II
Will Then Take Shape.
BUT BITTERNESS THREATENS
Both Sides Armed with Ammunition
Annoyance for Senator Spooner
from Unexpected Quarter.

Whitehead petitions are being circu-
lated and many signatures being OBJ
tanned. No doubt when the work is
finished they will be given publicity
with a good deal Of exultation. The
GAINESVILLE man is going about his bust
ness quietly. for he is not easily
moved by events that excite many 9th
ers.
In Rock county Governor LaFol-
lette's friends have put up a counter
fight with considerable success. They
know the way to make Il winning
stroke. Reports from the interior are,
as | have indicated. that the farmers
have no grievance against the govern
they will get out to the caucuses all
right. They think good deal of AS
Semblyman A. r. Hall and when he
gets into the fight, as he will later, he
will likely take a fall out Of corporate
power as manifested in the lobby in
a way that will make a profound i'm
preston. Senator Stout is another
man, more conservative and for that
reason even more influential, who has
thus far kept quiet, being urgently
engaged by reason of business matters
and family Affections. He is, in the
judgment of many Wisconsin men the
most available man for crises and
anything he may say later will have
great" weight.
Governor LaFollette made a little
speech to the national guardsmen the
other day, but has said nothing pub
licly on politics. There is a general
disposition however, in the admins
tration camp to stock up with material
to lay before the electorate bearing OH
the issues. When Ex-Governor Hoard
gets back from Washington it will
definitely appear whether there is any
barmOnizing possible. II not the
storm will soon break and it will be
bitter
Roorbachs to Burn.
Both sides are reported to have re-
serve matter, all of which is said
to be of shaking calibre. 1t will
be sorry muss. Numbers of news
papers have changed front and the
reasons why will be thoroughly aired,
among them receipts for service. Add
ed to the great number of citizens who
see no occasion for a campaign of
recrimination is added not a few who
dread it. The fact is that if some fair
plan of harmony could be launched
under authoritative auspices it. would
prove popular from the start.
Senator Spooner's Attitude.
A curious phase of the shifting plot
is disposition on the part of the Mil
waukee Journal to belittle or rather
annoy Senator Spooner. That gentle
man, as is well known, attends to
large affairs in a public way, and
while he is willing that Mr.. Monaghan
and his other lieutenants should
whack a head whenever they see it, he
does not mix in it himself to any ex-
tent. AS for going out Of his way to
cultivate the relations that would
strengthen himself, it is out of his line.
He evidently has not cultivated Mr.
Ellis Usher, the influential Washing
ton correspondent, to any extent, for
that gentleman keeps up rasping
criticism, which, to those who know
the close friendship between Postmas-
ter General Payne and the editor of
the Milwaukee Journal, is mystifying.
Nevertheless, Senator Spooner is re-
garded as great credit to the state
by men Of all shades of politics; he is
sure to be called out for reelection,
and it would be a silly and most rep
rehensible act for Wisconsin to allow
him to be worried into a refusal. But
he is just the man to refuse to go on if
the disposition to annoy him continues.
He is proud and sensitive His rela-
tons with some of the leading Mil
waukee stalwarts has been so close, a
fact in which they take no little per-
sonal satisfaction, that it seems i'm
possible he could be betrayed there.
If they do, however, a legion of sup
porters all over the state merely await
an opportunity to do valiant and dis
interested work for him. Governor
LaFollette's friends are just now in
sisting ON his reelection, with little
said of the senatOrship-not because
he is out of mind. but because the for
mer is the first bridge to be crossed
Any sign from the governor that he
shares a willingness of a few of his
) lieutenants to crush Spooner would
make untold trouble. He has been
wise and, l believe patriotic in re-
framing from such intimation Some
of his most valued supporters and
most influential newspapers, among
them the Oshkosh NOrthwaStprn are