Omaha daily bee., 1906-05-22
WATTLES NOT A CANDIDATE
Announces in Personal Letter he Will Not
Bun for Senate.
INFORMS FRIENDS THROUGH PRESS
Deems Il Proper Not to Yield to
Their solicitations TO Allow
Use of His Name
Now.

Gurdon W. wattles. president of the
Omaha Grain exchange and vice president
OF the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Rail-
way company and the United States Ma
tonal bank, will not be a candidate for the
United States senate before the legislature
next winter. He announces this fact in a
personal letter to the editor Of The Bee,
received Monday afternoon. This announce
ment confirms a rumor which arose upon
Mr.. Wattles return from the east satur-
day, at which time, however, he preferred
to make no specific announcement. His
letter says:
OMAHA. May ITO the Editor of Tho
Bee-Dear Sir: In Difference to my many
friends and well wishers in this city and
throughout the state who have solicited
me 70 authorize the use of my name as a
candidate for the United States senate.
deem II proper to say that l will not be a
candidate for this great office at this time.
GURDoN w wATTLEs.
Eject on other Candidates.
Mr.. Wattles decision not to go into the
fight now, leaves those who were depend
ing on him up in the air. Already there is
a noticeable accretion to the following of
Mr.. Rosewster, especially among the busi-
ness element, who have been associated
more or less with both men. The Webster
crowd on the other hand. thinks this
leaves a clear field to get the Fontanele
endorsement for Webster, although these
men know the Fontanelle club is not spe-
cially enamored of Webster Talk of
Charles L. Saunders for governor has
about ebbed out, taking with it the scheme
for a delegation pledged to him and un-
pledged on senator. Some Of the Fontanelle
club members think they might find rally
ing point on Harry c. Bronze. but so far
he has shown no signs Of listening to them.
Followers of Millard are still waiting for
news from Washington. The last report
they had was that the senator would like
to have them keep their engagements open
until he returned to Omaha, though he did
not state when that would be.
One of the officers Of the Fontanelle
club discussing the situation yesterday
said:
i don't know what we will do. l think
we had better take an inventory of our
belongings and find out where we are at
This is the opinion of several Of our mem
bers. l know some of the boys feel friendly
toward Webster but as a whole the club
is no more drawn to him than to Millard
who turned us down so hard when we
wanted Tom Blackburn appointed United
States district attorney. Your reporter at
our banquet last week overlooked one
thing When Nelson c. Pratt said the
FontaneIle club was not dead and its next
task was to send delegation to the state
convention that would not be a Rosewater
delegation he was quite generally ap-
plauded, but when he followed this state
ment by declaring the delegation should be
for John L. Webster for senator, very
embarrassing dead silence ensued. II looks
to me as if Mr.. Rosewater might have
Douglas county now without any very
serious opposition"
Some of the politicians are calling atten-
tion to the sentence in MIR. Wattles' letter
saying he will not be candidate "at this
time" They take it TO mean he reserves
himself for some future occasion and also
will continue to be factor in local politics,
at least to the extent that he has been.