The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-04-15
THE BIC FIGHT
COMES IN OHIO
Battle for Presidency to Open
at Buckeye State
Primaries.
(Mail Special to the Advertiser)

|
the great political battle for the Pres
idency should open in Ohio. For Ohio
| is the most political of States. And
the battle has opened in Ohio in
earnest. 1t opened sooner than the
wise men predicted and in a way none
of them dreamed. Taft and Foraker
is to be a fight to the finish-unless the
olive branch should pass, which now
seems impossible. The test of strength
is to be at a popular primary and ap-
parently is to come next November.
These surprising developments came
with suddennes. Secretary Taft was
sailing complacently away to Panama,
Senator Foraker was graphing with
the Brownsville investigation, he be-
ing a member of the Senate Committee
on Military Affairs. There had been
some sharp work between the leaders
Of their respective factions in Ohio. It
was supposed that the goose honked
high for Secretary Taft. The Presi-
dent was virtually, although not in
fact, out in the open for him, but never
theless pulling as hard as he could to
control the next National Convention
and to nominate his Secretary of War
as his successor.
Then there came one Of those bril-
liant Foraker moves 1t startled
friends and opponents alike. Wednes>
day evening the Senator sent around
to the newspaper offices a few sheets
of typewriting. It was a very infor-
NAL statement. 1t made no mention
of Secretary Taft by name. The meat
of it was all in one paragraph, which
said: I'm order that there may be
no doubt as to their preferences, 1 shall
at the proper time request the Re-
issue a call for a Republican State
Convention to be composed of delegates
elected by the Republicans of the State
at duly authorized primary elections,
for the purpose not only of nominating
candidates for State offices, to be voted
for at our next State election, but also
to determine the preferences of Repub-
licans of Ohio as to candidates for
United States Senator and President"
Only those familiar with the COM
plications of the presidential situation
as pertaining to the next campaign and
familiar with the Ohio situation can
fully appreciate the significance of
this very important statement. Sec
rotary Taft, now acquieseing in the
efforts to make him president, is not
strong on the stump. He would have
been more likely to secure the major
ity of Ohio's 46 delegates by some other
method than Senator Foraker proposes.
Senator Foraker, on the other hand, is
one of the strongest men in the coun-
try on the stump. He has Won many
a fight in Ohio against Overwhelming
odds, simply by his brilliant oratory
and his shrewd generalship. With a
dash and daring, that can but COM
mend admiration, the Senator has
stakeds everything on the issue, for il
he loses, he knows he will not he re-
elected as United States Senator and
that his public career must end.
Friends were arranging a peace pact
between the two factions. President
however, interviewed and
said there should be no peace. He is
insistent on crushing Senator Foraker,
is determined that he shall be driven
from public life deprived of his seat
in the Senate and utterly stripped of
power. Much as the Presidents friends
like to talk about his brooking criti-
cism, it is none the less a fact that he
is very intolerant OF men who op-
pose his plans and his policies. He will
fight any such men to the bitter end |
and will fight for their extinction. He |
wishes to punish Senator Foraker. for |
disagreeing with him on the rate bill |
and for opposing his action in discharg-
ing the entire battalion of the TWEEN |
ty-fifth Infantry, concerned in the |
ARRAY at Brownsville
With the announcement from Senator |
Foraker both sides began to prepare |
for the struggle and the preparations |
have been going on quite as much in |
Washington as in Ohio. Secretary
Taft is absent but his friends have
rushed to his support. Every Roose-
welt organ has begun to pound Senator
Foraker. The Taft organization in
Ohio was in working order before the
declaration of Senator
Foraker appeared. Since then it has
been working as never before to hold
every possible advantage.
Just what Secretary Taft will do is
not known. He has planned a long tour
to the Philippines this summer Some
think he will have to cancel that trim
md devote himself to the preliminary
He had planned a speech
Or two in Ohio this summer at his
eisure, perhaps as he was going back
and forth between washington and the
Orient. 1t was intended that he should |
voice some of the Presidents opinions
and policies. 1t has been suggested
that the Secretary can well go on his
mission undisturbed, announcing that
t is on business the President wanted
him to look after and that he is willing
to leave his fate in the hands of the
Republicans of Ohio
1t is matter of the control. of the
Ohio state convention. 1t is unlikely
that all of the forty-six delegates in
the state will be for any one candidate.
The state convention elects only the
four at large. Each of the twenty-one
congressional districts elects two dele