Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1906-05-04
Especial Washington letter.


factions are carrying on such
Kilkenny cat fights as are likely
to put the G. o. P. out of com
mission, temporarily at least. In West
Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania.
Massachusetts,, Delaware, Ohio, Illi-
nois, Missouri and Iowa the battle of
the factions is flercely waged. Some
times, as in Massachusetts and Iowa,
it is a question of principle on which
they divide. In others, as in Ohio, New
York, Missouri and Delaware, it is the
bald and unsavory question of spoils.
Some Of these contests, notably those
In Ohio and Iowa, are likely to attract
national attention because In both
cases the presidential aspirations of
certain more or less eminent Republic
an statesmen figure. In the Hawkeye
State Il is Cummins versus Shaw, each
In his minds eye a presidential nomi-
nee in posse. The same is true in Ohio,
with the cast of characters changed
from Cummins versus Shaw to Fora
ker versus Taft. But, when all has been
said about the contests In the states
aforesaid, the Republican factional
fight which Is destined to be of most
intense and widespread interest is that
now on the tapis In Wisconsin. In that
state spoils, principle and presidential
ambitions all are ingredients in the
oaldron now seething and bubbling.
To this must be added the personal an
tmosity toward each other Of the two
chief figures in the state, Robert NJ. La
Toilette and John G. Spooner.
A fact which adds fuel to the Wis
consin fire is that Messrs. Spooner and
la Toilette face each other daily in the
senate chamber, rivals there, as they
are at home In the Ohio and Iowa
cases the oombatants are not cooped
up In the same chamber day after day,
week in and week out. Sometimes
Foraker In the senate can think Of
something else or of somebody else be-
sides Taft at the other end OF the ave-
nHe. Ditto as to Taft rejecting upon
Foraker. Ditto Shaw as to Cummins.
Ditto Cummins as to Shaw. But, as DR..
Edward Everett Hale is praying for
the universe in general and the senate
! In particular every morning, La Fol-
lette is wondering what Spooner is up
to and Spooner Is wondering In the
same manner as to La Toilette. Talk
about the Kentucky mountain feuds!
They are not marker to the Spooner-
La Toilette feud in Wisconsin and in
the senate. Both are able men-bril-
liant and belligeFent. Intellectually,
they do honor not to Wisconsin only,
but to the whole country, and uncon-
sciously and unintentionally they are
rendering the country good service by
their feud, because they are producing
q situation In WISCONSIN which must
inevitably place that state In the Demo
cratic column once more, oonsumma-
ton deyoutly to be wished. Truth to
tell, they would have done that already
had the Democrats Of Wisconsin been
united for the last decade, but the
Democrats are getting together, while
the Republicans get farther and farther
apart. Both spooner and La Toilette
are exceptionally strong speakers. A
Joint debate betwixt them all through
Wisconsin would attract nearly as
much attention as the Douglas-L Lincoln
debates, but In all human probability
we will be deprived Of that rare treat,
because they dislike each other so
cordially that perhaps both would de-
cline the stunt.