The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-20
SELECTION OF MIR. WIGHT
Fat Office Went Hunting New Or
 leans Man.
Influential southern Republicans are Sought to Help Next Political Battle-Joe TAompssn Was
 Once Considered.
BY A. !. sToFER.

The appointment of Pearl Wight of New Orleans. to be Commissioner of Internal Revenue to succeed Hon. John W. Yerkes of Kentucky. has moro political importance than would ap- pear on the surface.
 Mir. Wight is the member of the Ma tional Republican Committee for tha State of Louisiana The understand ing here is Mir. Wight did not seek the office but 1t went hunting for him. MT. Wight is reckoned as being among the most prominent and successful of the business men of the Crescent City. It is also whispered about washing ton that his power in the Republican politics of the Pelican State is greater perhaps. at present. than that es any other man within that faith.
 50 far as white men were concerns ed 1t was not many years ago that ex- Governor Kellogg and Yarmouth were the king bees in the Republican hive of Louisiana, but they have not been very active since MT. Roosevelt be- came President. Mir. Kellogg spends most of his time in Washington. Tfe puts up at one of the leading hotels where he' has elegant apartments. and seldom visits the scenes of hia earlisr activity. when he could do pretty much as he pleased in swinging Louisiana delegations in the national conventions. Although he is gettting along in yeara Governor Kellogg Is we'll preserved. takes life easy. and Is Independently rich. being large property owner here He bought suburban property in the District of Columbia when 1t was dirt cheap" as the saying goes.
 Reaching Out for Delegates.
 From what politicians generally say there can be no doubt that indirectly aAw ixtn ia ing out for delegates to the next Re- publican Convention in the interest of the administration candidate of course, all the world now knows that man to be Secretary Taft. And 1t ia likewise we'll known that his chances greatly depend upon his ability to vanquish Senator Foraker in Ohio. President Roosevelt has the repg sa~ ton of holding 1t to be wicked for Federal once holders to manipulate pn~ litical conventions, but all the same the friends and advocates of Foraker. Fairbanks and Shaw cannot help feel ing that the office holders throughoht the land. and particularly those in the South. will use at least their covert in- fiuenoe to see that delegates are se- leoted who will be certain to support the administration candidate next year.
 Already the followers of the anti-
  the tactics being pursued. and they will tell you privately that 1t is re- ally a scheme to nominate Roosevelt once more if 1t becomes apparent that the rotund and jolly Secretary of War fails to carry his own State in tho roundup with the fiery Foraker.
 The office of Commissioner of Inter- nal Revenue has been held for more than twenty years by men from States classed as Southern. In the first Cleveland administration the popular Col. Joe Miller of West Virginia, filled the position. He is great chum of the former President, and many fish- ing and hunting trip they had together. During the Harrison administration. Nathan Bay Scott of West virgtnias was the Commissioner. He is now United States Senator from West vir- ginia. In the second Cleveland adminis- tration Colonel Miller again held the commissionership. and Mir. Yerkes was appointed shortly after Mckinley be- came President and has been Commis- sioner ever since. The position pays S6.000 a year.
 MT. Yerkes rendered his resignation to go into the practice of law here.. He said he could not live in Washington on that amount of money. and having had a fine offer to form a partnership, decided to resign. Mr. Yerkes, had he so elected, could doubtless again have been the Republican nominee for Gov- ernor of Kentucky. but he is too for he is said to realize that the Re- publican chances in the iue Grass State are poor in the extreme.
 Thompson Was Suggested
 When the resignation of MT. Yerkes was first sprung on the unsuspactingx the friends of Collector Thompson of Alabama, would suggest that inasmuclT as the ofiice seems by right to belong to the Suoth, 1t would he a good idea to appoint him so as to enlarge his field of operations. It was not stated. however,, that Referee Thompson was in any sense an applicant The hint was merely thrown out here But before people could get their breath. the Press ident had his man picked out. and many of the booms started were nipped in the bud.
 The understanding Is the President and his advisers think that Referees Scott and Thompson can do better work for the party by confning their exer- tions to the State of Alabama, and back CTS of candidates for the residency generally, seem to fear that Scott. Thompson and the other shining lights in Alabama among the Republicans win get to work early to shape the deIa- gation next year to the complete iik- ing of the administration.
 The only revolt heard here agains. the administration so far as selecting a delegation favorable to the Roosevelt candidate comes from Georgia. Politl- clans. as A rule. think there will hardly be bakers dozen of negro delegates in the National Republican Convention next year. The disposition is to send lilly whites" from the Southern states. The administration people are said to he discouraging the sending Of Federal office-h holders as delegates, but there is way of having the offce-hoid- CTS get in their work, all of which. &C., cording to the outs" means ''whippina the devil around the stump"