New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-06-10
PRESIDENTIAL BOOlIS.
SITUATTON REYIEWED.
Only TAFT, Knor, Hughes and
RoOsereH Visible to Politicians.
IFrom The Tribune Bureau-l


| Washington June 9-WIth the President
away practically for the summer-he Will spend
| only one more day in Washington before going
| to Oyster Bay-some of the members of the
Cabinet gone and others soon 10 GO the poll
/ ticians in Washington are now trying TO cast
up accounts with a view 10 arriving at cor
rect estimate of the Presidential situation. Two
candidates have formally announced themselves
Secretary Taft and Senator Knox. Speaker
Cannon is conducting campaign which, while
it has not found expression in any formal an,
| nOunCement is so well developed as to he unmi5-
taxable More or less is heard of the campaign
| of the ViCe-President and occasionally there are
intimations of a double soled gum shoe cam
paign being surreptitiously carried on by the
Secretary of the Treasury Occasionally a voice
from New York announces that Governor
Hughes will be a candidate although nothing
formal or authoritative has come from Albany.
where the Governor appears TO he completely
occupied with state matters There is one other
| factor in tn Presidential situation and that is
the popularity Of the President himself No
of his intimate friends believes that he Will
| accept the nomination. and in private conversa-
tion he is as emphatic in his declarations that
he will not be a candidate or accept the nominal
ton he on the night of November \.
1901 Nevertheless. many politicians are in
sistent that he is a quantity which must be
reckOned with. and not a few from the West
declare that he will be again, whether or no.
While any process of elimination is always
an ungracious task, 1t may be said that there
really only four whom the politicians
now regard possible candidates. They are
William H Taft. PhiIander c. Knox. Charles
E Hughes and Theodore Roosevelt. The condi-
tions which may make for the renomination OF
the President probably too well known TO
need much enumeration That his popularity
throughout the country is as great ever Is
the report Of political observers from all parts.
except a few of the great financial centres
Nevertheless. the President is determined not
to become a candidate. and he, at least. regards
it as folly to give further consideration TO his
name
Were the politicians in Washington TO ex-
press their views in betting terms they would
unquestionabIy declare that Secretary Taft was
. TO 1 shot: that Senator Knox was a
safe bet for place. and that Governor Hughes,
although not good at even money, might make
an interesting bet at long odds No real sport
| ing political sharp would risk any money on
any other candidate except, possibly, as a 100
to 1 shot Whether Washington is a good place
| from which TO gauge the political sentiment OF
| the country is always a mooted question, one
| that. probably. will never be settled. But. be
| that as it may, all the reports received here,
| and these are many because OF the large num-
| ber of politicians who 10 see the President
seem to indicate strong lead on the part OF
| the Secretary of War. The one wea kness OF Mr..
| Taft is undoubtedly. that his boom has been
| sprung so early. In his own state the senti-
ment In his favor is practically unanimous az
this time-hut VIII it Iasto That is the ques-
! tion which several anxious candidates are ask
| ing. Moreover. occupying an administrative
office will not Mr.. Taft be compelled in the per-
formance Of his duties TO make decisions and
determine disputes which will detract from his
popularity? There are undoubtedly men who
hope he will His strength lies in the fact that
he Is So closely associated with the Roosevelt
administration. and has been in such thorough
sympathy with the President all important
policies. that he is regarded BY many as the
best exponent of those policies. the one man
who would most faithfully carry out the policies
of his predecessor. His weakness rests in GER
tain judicial decisions which were disIiked by
la Dor organizations, in his bold stand for tarifs
revision. which has gained him the ennlity OF
all the stand patters," and in his uncOnprornis-
ing attitude toward all forms of jobbery. not
only the absolutely dishonest sort but certain
kinds from which the practical politicians are
not yet weaned. 1t was this uncomproInising
attitude which led the Secretary TO make in
Ohio speech which overthrow George b Cox
AT the polls and while Ohio has forgiven her IA
vorite son. many of the politicians fear a man
who would be guilty of thus breaking over party
lines
Senator Knox enters the field with enviabls
record to his credit. As Attorney General he
found and executed the method which dissolved
the Northern Securities merger He Instituted
the suit which led the Supreme Court to uphole
the employers liability bill. and he stood with
the administration on all important policies.
His weaknesses consist of the fact that he
from an absolutely safe Republican state, that
it is believed in some quarters that he was sent
10 the Senate by Mr.. Frick. OF the Steel Trust,
and that he stood in the Senate with the opposi-
ton against the President the court review
clause of the railway rate bill.
There Is unquestionably a good deal OF sentt-
ment for Speaker Cannon abroad in the land,
and were the Speaker ten years younger he
would undoubtedly constitute a most formidable
candidate. As IT is he is the idol OF the stand
patters.' of many members of the House and.
doubtless, of many of the people. Needless to
saw the advocates of tariff revision do not favor
him Moreover, on March t. 1909. the next in
auguration day. Speaker Cannon viii be sew
enty-three years old. or young, as he prefers to
express it, The Speakers elements OF weakness
may not seem especially serious but the politi-
clans refuse. apparently. TO regard him as In the
running.
As for Governor Hughes. he IS stiu a somewhat
unknown quantity, a by no means undesirable
position for a man who would be President. In
his favor it may be said that by no possible
combination of circumstances can a Democratic
President be elected unless he carry New
York. and that therefore. If the next Republican
convention Is convinced that Governor Hughes
can carry his own state he must be the choice