The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-05-05
HUGHES THE DARK HORSE.
Henry Watterson Sees Only Hard
Road for President.
1uisviIle Courier-Journal. J

louisville Courier-Journal)
Mr. Roosevelt has broken all the rec
long ago paled their Intellectual fires be-
fore him. He is a law unto himself.
Nothing seems to feaze him Doing
tha asro 1n,ngs outrighL or good things IN
case requfres-naking issues of veracity
With the proof against hfm-choieric in
method. cynical in action-by turns a
caring temporizer and a rash assailant-a
practical politician among the most prac-
teal politicians. reformer among pur-
ists-incoEsistent as a conservative, IL
logical as radical-there still exists In
the popular mind a fixed belief in his es
sential. virtue; in his good intentions, his
integrity and his courage. His enemies
would agree that If you offered him a
Dr1be, he would knock you down.
Yet, nevertheless and Notwithstanding
the president is going to find Jordan
nard road TO travel. and, in the end, II he
Is able TO keep his party together and
issue from the fray drums beating and
flag flying. he will be fortunate indeed;
because he can no more divert the Re2ub-
hcan party from its nature. kill in 1t the
reason OF its being than he can out-Bryan
Bryan in the estimation of the Democrats.
III the country wants an oyerhauing OF
policies II will not go to the author of
those policies for trained workmen and
chest of tools. The whole people may
not be quite ripe for this oyerhauling. Or
they may consider that the Democrats are
not ripe for it Thus, there may be one
as there was for the Democrats in 1856
But 1t will have to be gained by a change
of riders and a straddle. Tor the talk
about third term" Is the purest non
sense, lacking the president behind 1t and
having defeat before 1t. a Pigment OF hot
partyism which the patronage in esse
cannot afford nor the discipline In posse
Will not brook The best the president
can hope for in the next national con-
vention, in my Judgment, is a dog-fall.
What is the Republican layout? From
distance il seems to be this: Taft. en-
tered by the president. first choice OF
the ladies and gentlemen in the Grand
Stand: Fairbanks and Foraker, from the
senate stables, backed by the knowing
ones, and field of favorite sons. Uncle
Joe Cannon. from Illinois. for all that
may be in sight; Knox TO hold Pennsyl-
vania for contingencies, and the list of
entries not yet closed. In sporting par
lance, such appears at long range to be
about the size of it
Eminent jurists make disappointing
candidates. You may remember that be-
fore the last national Democratic conven-
tion 1 said something of this sort about
Judge Parker. 1t is equally applicable to
Judge Taft Those who still insist that
Mr.. Roosevelt is secretly conspiring for
third term might see deep design in
this. There are others who declare that
he is under pledge to the secretary of
state rather than the secretary of war.
But great as Mr.. Roots abilities and
services must be conceded to be. the line
which events have drawn upon the cor
porations makes the nomination of the
most eminent of the corporation lawyers
unlikely. l take IL that the president
wants the secretary of war, that he
means 1t, and that as surely as Jackson
stood by Van Buren, Roosevelt will stand
by Taft.
Taft. 1t will be Taft against the field,
and the field against Taft But let IL not
be forgotten that Fairbanks Is in the
field, and that whoever Is nominated will
have to beat Fairbanks.
The vice president is an old, cool and
a shifty hand at the bellows. He is the
incarnation Of orthodox and conservative
Republicanism. Indiana is pivotal state.
What Foraker may do to Taft in Ohio re-
mains to be seen Even IL Ohio goes back
on Foraker, may not the country be
trified tired of buckeyes. If 1t rejects
Taft can Taft still pull through a national
convention as Cleveland did?
4 Every delegation in that convention will
have its price, every delegate his tag.
Faetionism will rise high. but it is likely
to run stranght. Taft? Why not Roose-
welt himself? Fairbanks? Why not Har-
riman? Foraker? Why, anybody can
beat Foraker. Uncle Joe Cannon? Good
enough, but too old. Knox. Fiddle-dee-
deei Crane? A little shadowy Root?
Too bad we daSn'tl
Our national conventions are growing
more and more like our race horses,
where to the knowing ones there are few
surprises. Being in France, / am going to
buy "a Paris mutueP' on dark horse
picked nearly year ago-that is in June,
19O6-though I see my long shot is be-
ginning to show in the betting, to wit.
Charles z. Hughes, governor of New
York.
I met Governor, then Mr.. Hughes, IA
'miliarly in Providence during the COM
mencement of Brown university. I said
to him:
1.-THE Republicans will nominate you for
governor of New York, Mr.. Hughes. They
don't want TO. but they. will have to.
They can elect nobody else. Now, when
you get to Albany give your days and
nights to a close study of the career of
Samuel J. Tilden, because you will stand
precisely in the relation to the presiden-
tial nomination of 1908 on the Republican
side which Mr.. Tilden stood to on the
Democratic side in 1876. The issue which
made Tilden the Democratic governor
made him the Democratic presidential
nominee. The issue which is going to
make you a Republican governor of New
York win make you the Republican NOM