The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-13
HUGHES LOOMING UP
HIS FRIENDS THINKS HE OC- CUPIEs COMMANDING POSITION.
All of the Candidates Will Combine Against Secretary Taft-Anfi- Roosevelt Forces struggling
 to Control Convention.

Washington Special to New York
 Evening Post.
 Charles Evan Hughes, Governor of New York. is the most interesting ana the most potential of any of the men figuring in Republican national politics today A great many political person ages in widely separated parts Of the Union seem to have come simultaneous ly in the last few days to a conscious ness of the commanding situation MT. Hughes occupies as possible candl- date for the Republican nomination Tor the Presidency. The present drift of sentiment is indubitably towards Hughes.
 Already there is a rough alignment of the two factions that will contend for victory in the Republican conven- tion. Mir. Taft, as President Hoose- velt's candidate. will have to match his strength against the united oppo- sition of all the opponents of the Roosevelt policies. The correspondent has trustworthy information that there exists now an. understanding between some of the strongest asptrants for the Republican nomination who have found a common meeting ground on their determination to make an end of Rooseveltism and Roosevelt domi- nance in the Republican party. Herein lies a source of strength to Mir. Hughes.
 
 trol of the convention it Is imperative that New Yorks seventy eight votes shall be secured. Plans are now mak- ing to secure them for MT. Hughes. | And, what may seem curious to the uninitiated, the work now doing In New 1 York State to shape things for MT. l Hughes Is being carried forward by politicians who are avowed friends and supporters of some of the candidates | for the nomination.
 | In the Republican nominating con | vention New York will have seventy eight votes, Illinois fifty-four, In- | diana thirty and Pennsylvania sixty eight. It is taken for granted at this 1 juncture that Speaker Cannon will control the Illinois delegation; that | Vice President Fairbanks will have 1 the power to swing the delegates l from Indiana as he wishes, and that Senator Knox will dictate the action | of Pennsylvania delegates. Obvious 1 ly, then, If the New York delegation l goes to the convention pledged un- | reservedly to the fortunes of Mfr. | Hughes, and abiding steadfastly un- l der his leadership these four men, | Cannon, Fairbanks, Knox and Hughes, controlling total of 230 votes in the convention, can come pretty near say ing who. the candidate will be.
 There is good reason for believing that Senator Knox and Speaker Cannon, and to lesser degree Vice President Fairbanks, would be willing to sacri- | flee, if necessary, whatever chances | each may have for the nomination to assure the candidacy of an anti-Roose- welt man, or, at least, man not iden- tided with Roosevelt's policies and I Roosevelt's Administration.
 The first undertaking of the oppon- snts of MT. Roosevelt in the Republican Party Is to secure control of the Con- vention. once that is done the selection of a candidate follows. The salient feature of the present situation is that the candidates who are opposing MT. 1 Taft are to 8 certain degree working | together to get control of the Conven- tion. They understand one another's purposes and aims. Their ultimate object is, of course, to make an end or the Roosevelt candidacy.
 While MT. Hughes is the keystone of the arch which the Roosevelt and Taft opponents are building. not man of
 the opposition knows whether MT.
 Hughes will be candidate. will accept 1 nomination, or what his aims and ambitions gre. Attempts have been kmade to sound the Governor, but with out avail
 Nearly every Republican politician ot consequence believes that MT. Roosevelt could be renominated without the slightest exertion. but few of them De- Iieve that he could be elected
 l Administration Republicans realize that MT. Taft will not be nominated without determined struggle. Govern hor Hughes, they say. has produced the | goods" He has shown himself pro tEressive, as well as conservative, and IS
 Tanidlv becoming the overshadowing factor in the Republican situation.