The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-30

that the country should have informa- ton concerning his character ana apilty as a fp1lblit man. His pfiysse ana,.s nay, for the present at least pc wnoiiy
 ignored. The South once hao an oppor- down ;s efel under the escort oL ms lrieno' lRerre-enk ative t,riggs of Georgia As 1 the {. ain moved along through Georgia. I 4 abaD.a and Mississippi many .peopie assembled at the stations ana ,caheo TOT ! Hs~ikt to make an address to them. All | they wanted was a few words. IT notn- | ing more than a "glad to see you, ana thank you for coming out 70 slVe ms thiS little welcome" would nave saus- l lied them. But Hearst was toneue-uso. He. could not, at least did not. open ms mouth. He waA as inane as he looked. The men of the South. or at least the | few who were assembled at these raii- l way stationa, looked him overland laugh ed. Mir. Grfggs was mortified; other | friends of Hearst were mortihed. But there was no help for it. The man was unable to say A word and nothing could bc done. One cannot make speeches, even little ones. by proxy. as he may puolsn editorials and articles with nis name signed to them, though they were writ ] ten by others
 
 could avoid making speeches, or attempts
 at speeches. but he could not avoid meet ing prominent men. He had to talk with them. They met him at the hotels on the trains. One of the men Who rode with Hearst nearly the whole of one day
 and tried to talk with him thus relates hIs experiehce:
 T could> not carry on conversation
 with the man. He did not seem to know QnNthinR. a views. did not express any: He was not only shy, he seemed to be deficient in his thinking department I did my best to encourage him, to warm him up, and get something out of him. But I was forced to give. 1t up as bad job. And I was. too. forced to the conclusion that nothing came out because there was, nothing in- side. and that he has brains, only when Arthur Brisbane and the other brilliant men on his staff are at hand to make and express ideas for him"
 These stoFies-this impression of the man himself--have travelled throughout the South. Every public man from that section, every important and well-in- formed. politician has heard them. The chief reason why the South could not stand fops Hearst thus appears. There may be plenty of other reasons. but this one is sufficient More than one public man has sald: of we could elect the whole editorial staff of the Hearst papers to the Presidency we might then get some brains, but the proposition is not to elect the whole staff, only the chief who hires them by virtue of the money his father left him and his indulgent mother gives him." tes5' t Hearst must have some sort of sense and knowledge, because he knows enough to hire able men and to pay them big salaries. If he were to conffne his ambi- tions wholly to the newspaper business that would be a most commendable trait. Nor would anyone have the right to in- quire whether the big editorials which carry MT. Hearst's. name were written by him or by his hired men. He stands re- sponsible for them, and that is enough so far as the newspaper business Is concern cd. but when he branches out as d candi- date for President of the United States
 1t Is a pertinent sinquiry whether1the man has brains or merely hires them. There is a sort of tradition of long standing in this country that man who aspires to the Presidency should really have pret- ty good quality of gray ftratter' in his craniuIn. There is much else he should have, but this Is the first essential. In newspaper circles the gossip is that Hearst cannot write or speak or do much of a job of thinking all by himself, but that he is clever in getting good work out of. other men, and in. accepting the
 best advice his stan of assistants Is able to give him..
 An example. of Hearst's method--his penchant for buying, good brain and at- taching them to his saffron chariot to his owh 'glorffeatto ton-came to light to- day. A tSQuthern Senator reveals fact which hek ksays he has known ai long time. Hearst offered Henry ,,WattersoR C the brilliant editor of The sCourier@1 Journal, S25 900 to spend this winter in Washing Ain and write occasional letters to Hearst's papers. MT. watterson declined, as po- litely as he could. Mistakipg the polite ness for wavering, Hearst came back with a renewal of the offer; This time MT. Watterson declined, stilf- politely, but
 with a little more positiveness of express sion. He said he could see no more, req son why be should %flte fof@MC HI earstts papers than why MT Bennett or ,Mrs Laffan or Whitelaw Reid sof ahy other editor should ,do theFsams 4hingn and. iad- vised Mir. Hearst to try some Nof' thos9 gentlemen. Still unable to updqrstand, Hearst for the third Stinse reae%eds his eel fer, and this time Colonel Watterson reply was to the effects |, A,>a72
 "Dear Sir: You haven't 0enOagl' money in your family, and. neYeRt will have. to induce me to write one line Tor your -------~--H----- s4 ----7t. -%''