The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-12-23
a Announcement Made That
Treasury Chief Has
Joined With Taft.
DUE TO ROOSEVELT INFLUENCE
Eight Favorite Sons VIII Go Into the
National Convenion-Wiu Be
Hottest Battle in Years.

Washington. u. c.. Dec 23-SeveraI
important political conferences were
/ held here today between Secretary
2st ana Norys. his political manager.
and President Roosevelt. Secretary
Corteiyou and Secretary Garfield. As
/ slStant Postmaster General Hitchcock,
who controls large number OF south
ern delegates. also had a long confer
enee with Norys. which will result the
Tart men claim. in some OF the South
ern delegates being delivered to TAFT.
Secretary TAFT lett Tor Cincinnati
this afternoon to look after his boom,
visit his mothers grave, ana attend
TO some business i'm connection with
the administration OF his mothers
viii.
The most important conference Of
the day was between Tart and Cor
telyou, ANA as a result the Taft man
ayers assert Cortelyou will retire from
the race and assist the war chief in
/ securing the presidential nomination.
This they say was accomplished
through President Roosevelt
Secretary Taft had a talk with Sec
rotary Garfield regarding the political
situation in Ohio. and il is agreed that
the Secretary of War. will control the
majority of the Ohio delegates. the rest
going to Foraker.
Ohio Outlook Rad For Taft
Mr.. Norys stated his visit was for
the purpose OF advising the Secretary
| of the situation; that he had not seen
| Taft for four months. He was exceed
ingly reticent but in private converse
tion admitted that the outlook for Taft
/ is not as good as he hoped it would
be at this stage Of the contest
1t was denied by Secretary Taft that
Vorys would be supplanted as his po-
litieal manager. and he said he is sat-
isfied with the work OF his manager.
Politicians do not agree with Score
tary Taft in this respect and state the
weakest feature of the Taft boom is
its poor management. Vorys has been
unable to create any enthusiasm and
is unpopular.
Fight Battle For Nomination.
One of the fercest battles in Amer
lean political history waged - q -.ty
years viii be fought over II .@'IL1 =
! Iican national nomination, .
/ convention meets next June. il
| be the first real contest wit Nilat
period and experienced pontiesans are
| looking with keen interest RI the be-
ginning of the fray.
Contestlng for the high honor Will
be eight candidates. each the favorite
son Of his state. Not since 1883 has
there been q real able bodied contest
for the Republican presidential nomI-
nation.
1t is conceded by every one whose
opinion carries any weight that no
one will be nominated on the first ball
lot at Chicago, and that many of the
votes cast merely viii be compliment
tary to the favorite sons.
Cannon Leads All.
After ballot or two, half OF the
contestants will b. eliminated from The
race, and then the battle Will begin
in earnest. Politicians who are wei
posted on the Developments declare
that the strongest candidates viii be
Speaker Cannon Secretary Taft, Vice.
President Fairbanks. Governor Hughes.
Senator Knox, Senator Foraker Sena-
tor La Toilette and Governor Cum
Minis, in the order given.
La Toilette and Cummins are not
looked upon as formidable candidates.
| but La FoUette's friends say he prom
| ises TO be a strong factor in the race,
and that he will be a dark horse with
some chance OF presidential lightning
striking him. in the event of a dead
lock in the convention.
Practical politicians are convinced
that there will be a bitter race between
the west and East with tho chances
strongly favoring the West-the weak
est candidates. Hughes and Knox, be-
ing from the East and the strongest,
Cannon. Taft and Fairbanks, being
from the West.