New-York tribune., 1906-10-12
THE OFFICE AND THE MAN

1t would be difficult TO imagine more sug-
gestive commentary than the present campaign
in this state affords on the familiar and COM
mendable principle that the Office should seek
the man. and not the man the Office. SO far as
the Republican candidate is concerned. that
principle has been abundantly maintained No
body with his senses-including bis sense Of
truth and justice-about him would ever dream
OF charging that Mr.. Hughes got the nomination
because he sought IL and worked for it Dur
Ing most Of the time when candidates were be-
ing considered and plans were being made for
the nominating convention he was absent from
the country, and was paying no more attention
TO politics than TO the canals of Mars Down
TO the very day of the convention there was no
general assurance that he would accept the NOM
ination. The one thing morally certain was
that he would not accept IL unless it came to
him from the whole harmonious party, repre-
senting, as he believed. the desire of the people
OF the state 1t did thus come TO him, and he
accepted 1t The nomination sought him, and
found him. and the Office is now seeking him,
and viii find him on November 6.
What a contrast is presented by the Demo-
cratic candidate! We may confidently reverse
what we have Just said Of Mr.. Hughes, and
say that nobody IN his senses, nobody who can
tell a hawk from a handsaw. dreams Of sup
posing that Mr. Hearst would ever have got the
nomination If he had not sought It and worked
for 1t and paid for 1t. For years he has been
a notorious Office seeker. There never was
more eager self-advertiser. There never has
been politician more ready than he has shown
himself this year to eat his own words. to be-
tray his own dupes and TO seek Office through
all sorts of devious ways and through alliance
with "abhorrent and forbidden forces He
purchased the nomination by means of a bar
gain with the very boss who he himself less
than a year ago declared should be sent to
prison "the chief criminal OF them ALL" and
he is now seeking the Office for which he got
that tainted nomination through the aid of the
agencies which he himself has declared "have
beneath the plane on which elections are con-
Quoted in even the most lawless Western or
Southwestern communities"
II is easy 10 believe that If a free vote had
been taken among the Republican electors of
this state for their candidate for the Governor
ship this fall an overwhelming majority of them
would spontaneously have declared for Mr..
Hughes. Unfavorable is our opinion of the
Democratic party as a whole we would not do
Il the monstrous injustice of supposing that in
like circumstances a majority or even any ap-
preciable minority of it would have declared for
Mr. Hearst That is simply unthinkable. Mr..
Hearst secured that nomination only through
his own efforts, supplemented by dishonest and
tyrannical bossism in the convention, which
excluded honestly elected delegates and seated
fraudulent pretenders. He is now seeking the
Office by means Of the fusion which he has made
between the Plunderbund and the Slanderbund.
We shall see few weeks hence what the peo-
pie OF New York think Of such methods of
Office seeking.