Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-03-03
OUR NEW YORK LETTER

 were made freely that Charles E Hughes. if elected governor, would loom up very strong as a Republl- can presidential possibility in 1908.
 Since the election of Mir. Hughes by decisive vote this presidential talk has been on the increase, and Governor Hughes has been greeted as probable candidate on frequent occasions. While he is attending strictly to business in the executive nothing to encourage this talk, it is very plain to those around him that the mention of his name in connec- tion with this nomination does not hurt his feelings in the least.
 Mir. Hughes is a strong man and is performing the duties of his Of flee in a manner to justify his cleo ton. Tn addition to being strong man there is no lodging the fact that Governor Hughes is about the chilliest proposition that has been discovered in New York political life in many years. This makes him doubly dangerous to the plans of President Roosevelt and other Washington statesmen who have been going ahead with their own ideas concerning what the Republi- can National Convention of 1908 should do.
 When Governor Hughes was in- vestigating the lighting combine or this city and then was investigat- ing the insurance companies, he demonstrated to the satisfaction of the public that he was man of determined ideas concerning the conduct of public officials. On the strength of this he was elected gov ernor and, in his two months in of flee, certainly has carried political death and desolation into the head quarters of machine politicians.
 \ Terror to Machines.
 The fact that MT. Hughes was elected as Republican has con- tained no grains of comfort for his party associates. Had he been a Democrat he could not have been more ruthless in his pursuit of Re- publican officeholders who did not come up to the standard he had set. The result is that his two months in office have given satisfaction alike to clean Democrats and clean Republicans, but have caused ter TOT among those in the machine ranks.
 Not since the governorship Of Grover Cleveland, now quarter of a century ago, has the State of New York had an executive determined to secure political reform by first cleansing his own party. Hughes, like Cleveland, has stirred up bitter strife in the ranks of those who worked for his election. But it was this action on the part of Grover Cleveland that made him the can didate of his party for the presiden- cy in 1884, and many close students of political affairs believe that his tory now is repeating itself.
 During his two months in office, the Governor has beaten the Leg islature into submission, has named his own man as Superintendent of Public Works to build the s101,- O00,000 barge canal. has instituted searching reforms in the National Guard, and has gone after the State Insurance Department in a manner that promises it's complette over hauling. He is also responsible for legislation to completely remodel the State Railroad Commission, and so far, has only begun.
 NHclHeI UT UOl GONefHOT 1tuSueS is destined to become the partys candidate for the presidency next year, at the present time he cer- tainly is casting a shadow that can be seen from the White House with out the aid of glasses.
 To Travel Under Rivers.
 New Workers will be travelling in steel cars beneath the surfaces of both the Hudson and East rivers in- side of six months, if the promises of the contractors who are now building the tubes from Manhattan Island to New Jersey and from Man hattan to Brooklyn are carried out.
 Officers of the Interborough Ra- pid Transit Company have announc- ed that the cars will be running un- Hor fbo Host r;yar froD, tho potforv