The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-07-20

FUNDS Low FOR G. o. p.
Republicans Find Trouble Filling War
Chest.

thest.
Walter wellman's Washington Special
to Chicago Record Herald.
II is no secret here that President
Roosevelt Chairman Cortelyou ana
other managers of the Republican cam
paign realize that they have a night on
their hands. They are not nervous ana
they expect to win, but they are alive
to the fact that the conditions with
which they are now confronted Will re-
ouire the hardest sort of work on their
part If the election is not to be uncom-
fortably close. To start with, the Re
publican managers are having a good
deal of difficulty about raising cam
paign funds. They have made be-
ginning at this part of the work and
they already have discovered that 1t is
going to be a difficult task to amass
even the modest sum they had set their
hopes upon.
Months ago President Roosevelt and
his friends caused it to be made
through these dispatches that they dld
not wish a large war chest this year.
Elihu Root then Secretary of War,
spoke out frankly. He said there was
a danger that the tendency to use
enormous sums of money in Presiden-
tial election, a tendency which had run
riot in recent years. might result in a
very serious national scandal II IT was
not checked. and that he believed now
was the time to call halt. That the
secretary echoed the sentiments OF
President Roosevelt was a natural in
ference. but I afterward improved an
opportunity to make doubly sure on
this point The election of Mr.. Cor
telyou to be his campaign manager was
in one way an indication of the Presi-
dents wishes in this respect. 1t meant
a clean, businesslike, honorable cam
paign, in which money should not play
a leading part.
whereas Mr.. Hanna disbursed very
nearly S6,000,000 in the first Mckinley
campaign and more than half us much
in 1900. Mr.. Roosevelt's friends said
weeks ago they would be well content
if they had in sight this year half as
much as Mr.. Hanna used four years
ago. or about 100000.
Now they are learning that it is
going to be an exceedingly difficult
matter to raise even that much. OF
course it is as yet too early to get much
of a line on campaign subscriptions or
any of the other probable features of
the struggle. but 1t is not denied that
up to this time the indications are any
thing but encouraging. The few efforts
that have been made to raise money
in New York City have not met with
warm response. Where thousands
were expected hundreds only have been
offered, and these somewhat grudingly.
Two important facts already have made
themselves uncomfortably clear:
One is that this year the leading
men of the business and financial world
are not alarmed as to the result of the
election. They feel tolerably safe, no
matter which side wins. They are feel
Ing so secure that their interest in the
campaign Is somewhat languid and is
more personal than of business
nature.
The other depressing fact, as viewed
from the Republican standpoint, is that
In New York city at least. the city
WIN ba RonIIhIiPanG
per cent of all their campaign contribu-
tions. the indications are that this year
the subscriptions will ron about two
dollars for Parker, to one for Roosevelt.
In truth. looking ahead !rnm this pre-
liminary survey of tho field. the Re-
publican managers believe that in 1904
the Democrats will have the larger
campaign fund, thing which has not
occurred since 1892 when William c,
Whitney had more money than he knew
will remember, Mr. Cleveland was elect
ed the second time. The shrewdcst
observers of our national politics long
since came to the conclusion that larger
as the agencies of success, but indi-
cations of the conditions which make
success possible or probable If this
be true. the early indications favor
Parker as they favored Cleveland i'm
1892. But there are special reasons
sidered as sharply applying to the pre-
sent campaign. 1t is only necessary
to mention one of these reasons, to-
wit: President Roosevelt's courageous
prosecution of the Northern Securities
case deeply offended some of the rich
est men in New York. men who usual
ly contribute generously to Republican
war chests. But that prosecution was
so popular with the masses of the peo-
pie, especially in the West, that 1t was
worth to the Republican cause more in
assured votes on election day than II
his cost in the dollars which Wall
Street will subscribe to the Parker
fund.
The Republican managers were a lit
tie surprised when they found that un-
der the leadership of Judge Parker him
self the battle-ground had been shifted
largely from the West to the East 1t
is now generally understood that the
program of the Democrats as outlined
1t in a dispatch from St Louis the day
after the convention is to be followed.
That is to say, the old alliance between
the South and the West, which obtained
in the days of Organism. is now aban-
doned and instead there is an alliance
between the solid South and New York.
with a plan to carry enough, or nearly