Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-31
H0KE SMITH MAY BE
BRYAN'S RUNNING MATE
Former Member of CIeveIand's
Cabinet Just Nominated for
Governor of Georgia
From the New York Evening Post

w no Is f1Oke SIIlllH! dSkeu LUe
newspapers In humorous frame
of mind thirteen years ago,
when Grover Cleveland announced
that he had added Georgian to his
cabinet as secretary of the interior
1t took some weeks of correspondence
and explanation on the part of Mr..
Smiths friends to explain that he was
real flesh and blood person; that mis-
name was not an assumed one, and
that he was pretty nearly as well
known in his own state as David B.
Hill in New York. They were not in
clined to take him seriously even then.
For long time he was known as "Mr.
Clevelands southern friend"
Hoke Smith is now to succeed Gov
ernor Terrell at the head of the ''em-
pire state of the south" In the pri-
mary elections on Wednesday he
gained an overwhelming victory over
the four other candidates-a victory
that came after a campaign which
lasted whole year and was marked
with extraordinary oratorIcal and epis-
tolary violence, and threats of personal
encounters that never came about. The
success was so complete that there is
no doubt as to the result of the final
elections, and the same Hoke Smith
who added something to the gayety of
the nation when he came to New
York to see the president in 1893 will
have long harbored ambition graft
fed. The election means more than
that, for Hoke Smith succeeds to the
control of an deliberately planned move
ment of succession which was meant
to land Clark Howell in the United
States senate.
Neither Dude Nor Hayseed
IT is not a very different Hoke Smith
today from the big fellow who received
the fervent congratulations of the
southern men who came to New York
with him to see what was going to be
done for Georgia. He was, as one of
of his intimate friends then said,
neither a dude nor a hayseed." He
is more than six feet in height, built
on a massive plan, with smooth, full
face which lends itself readily to carl
cature, fact of which his newspaper
opposition was not slow in taking ad-
vantage. even to the limits of the gro
tesque. 1t was said of him once that
Though he cannot part his name in the
middle, yet he has an unsullied repu-
tation, pays his debts and is welcomed
in the best society in the SOUTH" The
fact is however, that his name was
once parted in the middle; for he has
abbreviated 1t from the less euphonious
Michael Hoke Smith to its present
state. AS for regulations, there are
none left in Georgia among the can
didates who went to the primaries, and
it will be long before the remnants
can be gathered.
Certainly Hoke Smith was no hay
seed, in spite of the efforts of the press
humorigts to so convert him. Before
the north heard much of him he was
the most successful lawyer in Georgia,
owned a prosperous newspaper and had
established himself warmly in the
hearts of many Georgians by his stand
"agin' the railroads. His reputation as
master of the gentle science of phle-
botomy in dealing with the transpor-
tation companies was wide in the
state. II would be far from the truth
to say that he came into politics dur
ing the Cleveland campaign imme-
diately preceding his cabinet expert
ence. In state affairs he had achieved
some fame as a powerful speaker, u
hard worker and ready pupil at the
school kept by Captain Evan Howell
Patrick Walsh and other leaders. In
fact, he learned so readily that when
his masters attempted to carry the
Georgia delegation to David b. HILL
Hoke Smith took off his coat and took
delegate after delegate away. finally
Transforming the whole delega tion into
solid body for Cleveland.
Out of Politics
Hoke Smith faded from national poll
tics before the end of Mr.. Cleveland's
term by resigning his cabinet posi-
tion giving as a reason that he felt
obliged to support Bryan and Sewall
as he was and always had been a silver
man. 1t is recorded that his work In
the interior department had been ex-
cellent. He had announced his inten-
tion upon receiving an invitation to
become a cabinet officer of cleaning up
the pension rolls, and he did 1t so far
Indian bureau, though no great effect
was made, was painstaldng and left
good odor behind. He left the cabinet,
too. on good terms with Mr.. Cleveland
and applied himself energetically to
the Bryan campaign. The issue of free
silver cost him many political alliances,
as we'll as financial losses In connection
with his newspaper, and after the