The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-06-14

others in the race. Some politicians
around the National Capital are still
very skeptical and say it is far too
early to make any positive predictions.
| They say pessimistically that the Taft
boom has started prematurely and that
! it will peter out long before next spring.
| when the States elect their delegates.
They hint. as ever, at the labor record
of the Secretary OF War, when he was
United States circuit judge, and at
his vigorous espousal of the Presidents
side of the Brownsville controversy.
Conflicting reports are heard of the
Fairbanks boom. Apparently the Vice
President is enjoying himself on his
Western farm, drinking buttermilk and
watching the crops grow. But he is a
very astute politician and, his admir-
ers say, has widely diversified strength
that has not been asserting itself. They
say he has an excellent organization in
many States and that, as soon as the
enthusiasm in the Middle West over Sec
rotary Taft as President RooseveIt's
favorite has run it's course, the country
will see Vice President Fairbanks
looming large as the prospective NOM
inee for the Presidency. Others think
the Vice Presidents boom has reached
high-Water mark, that he has gained
all he possibly can in the South and
that from this time on he will be only
in the "also ran" class
Then there is Speaker Cannon. with
a lightning rod that reaches into the
very clouds in the hope of drawing
every possible spark of Presider tial
lightning. He will probably hold Illi-
nois and there is said to be plenty of
sentiment for him in numerous Con-
gressional districts. However the coun-
try does not take the Speakers boom
very seriously because of his advanced
age and because of the apparent unwil-
lingness of the American people to
make any man of either party Presi-
dent who has passed the mark of three
score years and ten.
OF course Senator Foraker is now
out of the presidential running. With
the agreement in Ohio it is patent he
will be satisfied with an endorsement
for another term as Senator. There
will be lot of talk about Speaker
Cannon as time goes by, but those who
are seriously interested in picking the
next Republican nominee can well ell
inmate him. Fairbanks and Cannon
interests, dominating a few Western
states and having strength both in the
East and the South, must be reckoned
with but it looks very much today as
though the nominee would be either
Taft or Fairbanks.
The eastern situation is important,
with two dominant figures there-Sen-
ator Philander c. Knox, of Pennsyl-
vania, and Gov. Charles Hughes, of
New York. Even if Hughes makes a
great success as governor of. the EN-
pire State it is not believed he will
figure prominently in the race for Pres
ident, as the Western men think the
office belongs to them after Roosevelt,
a New Yorker, has held it for two
terms. Mr.. Knox is likely to be quite
as much of a factor in settling this
most interesting of all political contests
of the American people, because he can
have the backing of his own State of
Pennsylvania and probably of other
Eastern States. Were it not that New
York is a close State politically and
that the Democrats can hardly get a
President without its electoral vote,
Gov Hughes would not be much men
toned as a possibility.
The third term talk has fallen into
allegiance somewhat with the further
rise of the Taft star. After all the Re-
publican struggle to pick a nominee
has only just begun and before the
summer and autumn have passed there
will probably be numerous periods Of
intense striving for advantage.
ERNEST G. WALKER.