The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-27
HEARST AID IS COSTLY
DELEGATES IN CONVENTION
 COSTING $lo, 900 EACH.
Target of Daring Graft-Walter Wellman Gives Estimate of
 Aspirant's Followers.

Wellman Gives Estimate of Aspirant's Followers.
 Walter weilmar's washington Special to Chicago Record-Herald.
 Since the first of January w R. Hearst has spent in his pursuit of the
 Presidency an average of about sls,O00 q
 day. This statement was made to me n
 New York last week by a man who is in position to know what he is talking about,
 as he Is well informed as to what is going
 on in Mir. Hearst's newspaper office and
 political shop. Fifteen thousand dollars
 a day for about hundred days amounts to a. round million and half of dnliars.
 not counting the large sums spent be
 fore the first of the year. Th:s Is pret- ty heavy investment in the fad of a young
 man who has been accustomed to buy
 whatever he wanted in this world, and
 there may be some truth in the. rumors flying about New York City that Mf rope, so far as ready money Is concerned. For all this enormous outlay the self
 made candidate has to show. up to date, just thirty-two delegates to the Nationai be able to bag hundred more, though | that would appear to be about the limit | of his possibilities. Give him total of | 150 delegates and reckon his expenditures | at only the million and a half of dollars | which his people say he has spent since | the first of the year. and 1t will be seen | that when he gets to St. Louis and looks | over his array of followers in the con | vention he wGI find that they will have l cost him s10,000 apiece. Considering that l these delegates will number about one. | seventh of the entire voting strength of l the convention, 1t may be doubted If even MT. Hearst will conclude that they are | worth the money. True, he has obtained q | large amount of advertising, such as t | is, but he has made very small progress
 dency u of f~ the sGfn United St States. Another bad | feature of the case Is that after they l have delivered the goods" by voting for | Hearst on the first ballot, most of these | delegates, following the usual bent Of | such. will refuse to stay bought and make | haste to get on some other candidate'g 'g
 band-wagon, leaving Willie suspended ip
 the air.
 One of MT. Hearst's managers, hired as l a salary, and doing as good work as he | can, talked pretty freely with me about | the operations of his chief. I asked him | if 1t were true If MT. Hearst has ever | really thought he could reach the Presi- dency, or was he simply trying to adver- tise himself? The answer was most in
 teresting. MT. Hearst has not for one
 moment doabteS eiat he could attain the | Presidency. and does not doubt 1t now, 1 was the reply. "He may not be able to | make 1t this year, but he has unbounded | faith that he will be successful h the near future. It seems to me the general pub | lie does not understand Mir. Hearst, but we who are near to him do understand | him. and this is the sort of man he is:
 He has always had what he wanted m l this world, from the moment of his first | appearance In 1t. His fond and rich pa-
 rents denied him nothing Every wish oi his was gratified. Whatever Willie set
 was old enough to do things for himself | the habit clung to him, and 1t became his | settled principle of life that whatever he l wanted he could buy-that no plea sure no I L.
 who had the wherewithal to pay for 1t, When he wanted a newspaper, or yacht, | or private car, or a soubrette, or a | place in politics or society he bought il | or race horses. It was In this frame of mind he set out for the Presidency. He | believed It could be procured if only he
 had enough money. To this day do not 1 idea that the Presidency of the United | States is one of those things which can-
 not be bought with money"
 DO the men on his stan believe in | him and have faith in his political starr
 with one or two exceptions the an
 swer is mo- was the reply; T think
 there are two of MT. Hearst's chief po-
 liticai writers who have been in earnest
 and who really think there is a future | for him in that line. But they stand
 ebe wbaa thes
  ashamed of it. On Mir. Hearst's stan are
 many brilliant newspaper men, who work | for him as they would work for anyone
 else who paid them good salaries. They
 are loyal to MT. Hearst as a newspaper l publisher, but they are sick and tired of his presidency seeking. They are weary
 of having the finger of seorn pointed at them as the hired men ot that somewhat
 peculiar candidacy. They are asked | wherever they go with smiles and sneers, | How is your presidential candidate get | ting on. They encounter much ridiculc.
 and in time that sort of thing becomes a | little galling. The natural result is that
 MT. hearsts friends. with the two or | three exceptions 1 have noted, heartily
 wish he would get over his absurd craze
 to be President and settle down again
 to his legitimate business of publishing
 newspapers l am speaking of his jour
 nalisIs, you understand, men of ability
 anu character, not of his hired political trumpeters and scouts. They are mak-
 ing hay while the sun of his ambition shines"
 Do you mean to say asked, that
 MT. Hearst has been worked--that he
 has been playel for a sucker. to use the vernacularF' /
 That is precisely what I do mean to
 say replied MT. Hearst's friend, and
 the rankest sort of a sucker at that He
 has been done to the queens taste. He
 has poured out his money on a raft oI
 grafters and touts who have played up- | on ms Vdnlty ana Ted nm with promises
 and hopes, though they knew perfectly | we'll they could not deliver the goods. | Hungry politicians, ward heelers out of
 jobs, broken-down party hacks, all sorts
 of scum and roth, nave attached them-
 selves to his kite for what they could
 get out of him They have simply swal-
 lowed his money And he is so eredu- ! lous! In the newspaper business he is no | fool; he gets his moneys worth, at least.
 most of the time. But in politics he is a | DaDy, a pigeon, a lamb. | Let me give you an distance which | came under my personal observation, Over in New Jersey Hearst had hired Sd | many hungry politicians and gPafters | that he really thought he had chance to
 get the delegation from that State. When the convention met and the hour for a | showdown came the grafters could not deliver any goods. They had made 8
 miserable failure of it: they had only a paltry handful of delegates. They were alarmed lest the check book should
 thereafter be forever closed to them, and
 what do you suppose they did? They
 MT. Hearst telling him the big trusts and that if they had a certain sum in
 hand, which they named, they could vet
 win out MT. Hearst swallowed the bait.
 hook, line and sinker, and sent on more
 money. The grafters. who meanwhile
 had organized a bolt from the convention as part of their game to work Hearst. laughed in their steeVes over their euc- cess. One of Hearsts journalists, a man of character and judgment, was at the New Jersey convention, and he wired MT Hearst a long telegram telling him