The Saint Paul globe., 1904-12-15
ANTI.(,[APP FORCES
ARE WORKING HARD
Defeat of Senator Their Aim,
No Matter by
Whom

The Gilfillan managers eoncede to
Senator Moses E. Clapp but sixty-three
votes on joint ballot, where eighty-ene
votes will be required to declare a
choice of the Republican joint caucus.
have more than enough votes to nomi-
nate Senator Clapp.
Taking both claims for what they
are worth, the important point before
the anti-Clapp managers is to organize
the opposition against him. The ele-
ments in the Republican party OPP
posed to the reelection of Senator
Clapp are working overtime to perfect
this organization. In the past few days
the labor that has been spent ON MEM
bers to secure declarations of fealty
for .. B. Gilillan, Joel P. Heatwole,
S. RYAN SAINT or any other man who
can be induced to enter the contest
as candidate, has been entirely sec
ondary to the more important problem
OF soiidifying the opposition to Ciapp
and peffecting an organization.
The men who have been buttonIlol
ing senator's and house members at
the Merchants hotel, where both C1app
and GilfIlan have headquarters, have
their candidates, but the real task, the
one that is said to be giving the heads
Of the opposition to Clapp the most
trouble, is the one by which it is hoped
to organize the opposition to Clapp.
: Need of Alliance
BY such an organization the men
who are opposed to Clapp's return
hope to defeat him in the senatorial
nff0 7cir iryQo
sfensive alliance they cannot hope to
prevent Clapp's denomination. 1t is
seonceded that Clapp has at present all
the best of it, and unless, by working
agreement between the heads of the
different factions opposed to him, it
can be shown the legislators that there
lis a probability of preventing his re-
nomination in the caucus, the members
will refuse to tie themselves to a losing
cause.
So far as can be learned by diSin-
terested observation, the avowed ad-
herents of Mr.. Gilfllan are practically
confined to the Hennepin county SEN
atorial and house delegations. There
are not to exceed two or three, at the
most, members who are openly for
Van SAINT. Heatwoles following is es-
sentially anti-Clapp. 1t may be count
ed on to go where he directs it until
Clappfis defeated, when it will be fol
Heatwole. Opponents of Clapp yes
terday did not hesitate to say that un-
less they We're able to secure a joint
agreement on the part of Gilfillan, Van
SAINT and Heatwole, the fight on Clapp
would be futile.
Gilfillan followers yesterday, without
giving the sources of their satisfac-
ton, continued to claim that Clapp
waststwenty votes short of enough to
nominate him In the joint caucus.
'"The truth is that Senator Clapp
has but sixty-three votes pledged to
him and on whom he can depend to
stay with him until it is reasonably
certain that he is defeated" one of the
Gilfillan managers said yesterday.
This talk that Clapp has enough
votes to nominate him is. founded on
the assumption that every member
who has said he is friendly to Clapp
will vote for him in the caucus"
Block Stampede
Senator Clapps managers were not
permitting the Gilfllan workers to
stampede their votes.
sClapp has more than enough votes
to nominate him." one of his closest
friends said. "We have written pledges
from the great majority of them, and
others have declared their purpose to
vote for Senator Clapp in newspaper
statements over their own signatures,
in interviews and on the stump during
the campaign"
II do not look to see the fight against
Clapp materialize into anything seri-
Gus" Senator Samuel Lord, of Kasson,
said last night. THE talk, it looks to
me, is mostly in the newspapers, and
there is but little foundation for the
anti-Clapp sentiment that some of the
newspapers are evidently trying to
create"
Van SAINT was about town during
part of the day and was said to have
his ear close to the ground. Some of
his closest friends said the governor
was likely at any time to give his fol-
lowers a quiet pointer that he is "in
the hands of his friends"