Omaha daily bee., 1906-07-29
GOSSIP ABOUT CONVENTION
Lincoln Politicians Busy Figuring Out
Where the Land Lays
RAILROADS FORCED TO CHANGE TACTICS
Too Many Counties Taking stand on
senatorship 90 sidetrack the
Question In the state
Convention.
CFrom a stan Correspondeut)

ONrom a Stan Correspondeut)
! LINCOLN. July 8.-(SpeciaL THE gossip
! Of the politicians who live or congregate
in Lincoln continues to turn chiefly upon
the coming republican state convention
and especially upon the various phases Of
| the senatorial contest, although the fight
here for congress in this district which
has been precipitated by the announcement
that Judge lessen Of Nebraska City will
| go up against Congressman Pollard for
| the nomination, is only second in interest.
! Retrospect of the Lancaster county con-
| vention emphasizes the fact that the orig
/ inal scheme OF the Burlington machine
! crowd was to get an uninstructed delega-
| ton, not for the purpose Of opposing
| Brown or helping Rosewater, but to be used
| to prevent any nomination of senator what
| ever in the state convention. This is adj
! mitted to have been the original railroad
scheme, the idea being to get as many
| uninstructed delegates elected as possible
and through them to relegate the senatorial
election back to the legislature without any
expression Of party preference. The to
them unexpected increase in the number OF
instructed delegates. and particularly the
| adoption of resolutions already in many
| counties instructing the delegates to see
that the convention dominates a candidate
for senator even where they are left free
| as to the particular candidate, has almost
convinced the convention manipulators that
they will be unable to prevent nomination
and in fact will have all they can do to
take care Of their interests at other places
on the ticket.
Il know that the railroads would like
nothing better" said old wheel horse the
7 afh ,fsrHt II.
against another until they tire the delegates
out to the point where they would table
the whole senatorial business. But they
now doubt their ability to do even this.
They might try to reverse the order Of the
call, which puts the senatorship first with
a view to postponing It till the close of
the convention in the hope that enough
delegates would rush to get trains home to
leave them free to knock the whole thing
in the head. They must wake up to the
fact, however, that the fellows who are
managing for the candidates for senator
are just as smart as they are and will not
stand for such trickery. 1 look now for
a nomination, although 1 was willing ten
days ago to bet that no nomination would
be made"
What About BurkettR
Just where Senator Burkett and his
test is also a theme of speculation. Mr..
Burkett himself has been out of the state
for some time. Some of his friends who
have been boosting Brown are trying to
4 make outthat he is also for Brown. If this
is true, 1t has so far been skillfully COW
cred up. Senator Burkett's private secre-
tary It is true. the Brown side
,of the skrmish in Lancaster, but his orig
inal political manager, Ed Sizer who holds
down the Lincoln postoffice, was on the
other side. A close friend of Burkett's
talking last night. said:
II know the Brown Fellows are claim
ing Burkett's influence is with them, but
don't believe word of 1t. Burkett is
too shrewd a politician to sacrifice him
self when there is no call for It, Burkett
wants to stay in the senate and make a
reputation there and Is anxious to con-
duct himself so as to be reelected with
out opposition. He can plainly as
anyone that it is not to his interest to
send the senatorship out to Kearney and
leave Omaha unreDresented. If Norris
Brown were chosen senator this year
Omaha would unite on a man for senator
four years from now and pit him against
Burkett North and South Platte lines
would be wiped out and an east and west
division established, in which Omaha
cially If Burkett helped to take the SEN
atorship away from Omaha, Omaha would
have no conjunction about demanding the
Burkett succession and he would have
the fight OF his life on his hands, whether
he won out not"
IA. who Ia Stalking Brownf
Politicians are still guessing as to
where the money comes from to pay the
expenses of the campaign which Norris
Brown is making.
Il would like to know where Brown
raised the wind" exclaimed a weIl-known
member of a street corner caucus He
told me three months ago he didn't have
dollar to put in. but IT must be costing
him some to travel all over the state as
he is doing II he does not pay anything
more than his railroad fare. and 1 take
it he is not going to get caught travelling
on passes And then all this clerical
work, and postage, and literature he is
sending out costs good money"
81 don't know about him being hard
up" said Bud Lindsay, but I do know
he never paid his assessment which we
put on him for the state committee. either
when he was running himself for attor-
ney general two years ago or last year
when he was asked to help along for
Judge Letton. think he ought to pay
| blowing
his money chasing senatorial bees"
81. suppose it's everybody's guess as to
where the money comes FROM" retorted
the first spokesman. "Of course, he has
got the backing OF the Journal and News
and OF Ross Hammond's paper up at Ere
mont. but no one ever heard OF them nut
ting money into a campaign. They usually
draw money out There is r. b. Schnei-
der who is really rich. Wonder IL he
is furnishing the dough. Brown must
have struck a good lead somewhere and
the people who are stalking him must
expect TO get their moneys worth some
way"
In the First District.
In the impending struggle for congress
sional honors between Pollard and lessen.
general sentiment here fsvors lessen, al
though the Lancaster delegation is in
structed for Pollard Pollard has few
friends here and this instruction was got
ten for him only by a deal with the
Journal News Brown combination, in which
sheldons candidacy for governor was
given a black eye. The Brown men used
Pollard and then Pollard hitched onto the
Brown machine and the Pollard interests