The National tribune., 1908-01-16
THE TAFT BOOM.
(Continued from mage one.l


tions, and made a hit with his audience
by his sharp retorts and his good ma
ture.
In the meantime Senator Foraker's
activities in Ohio are driving constrena
ton to the Taft camp. He is resisting
the arrangements for a primary just as
fiercely as the Taft boomers in many
States and in Washington are shouting
that the fight is all over but the shout
ing and that Taft is going to be nomi-
mated on the first ballot. The Senator'S
friends in Cuyahoga County, which in
cludes the city of Cleveland, have made
it so hot for the Taftites that Repre-
sentative T. E. Burton has gone streak
ing back to Cleveland to assume COM
mand of the Taft forces. An appeal
has been made to that subcommittee OF
the National Committee which dealt
with the subject of the call for the Con-
vention whether the Ohio primary law
can be properly observed in the elec-
ton of delegates. The subcommittee
has decided against the primary law.
The advance which the Taft boom is
making continues to be quite as much
thru the weakness of his opponents as
because of his own strength. There is
no one to oppose the Secretary of WaT
with, as has been remarked very many
times. The favorite sons seem to be
making no headway outside of their
own States. The Hughes boom halts,
as of yore, because of the air of mys-
terry with which the Governor surrounds
himself and his unwillingness to COM
municate his opinions on public ques-
tions. The public mind in the Western
States has been poisoned against him
by the insinuatiOns from Administra-
ton sources. Many ultra Roosevelt
advocates are very strongly of the Opin-
ion that Gov. Hughes is not the kind
of a man who ought to fill the Presiden-
tial chair. and these views are accen-
tuated by reference to Gov. Hughes
having once been the personal attor
ney of John d. Rockefeller.
The strength of the Cannon boom
seems to have been waning ever since
the committees of the House of Repre-
Sentatives were announced. There are
forceful signs that the Speaker still has
his lightning rod up as high as ever,
but lot of members are sore over the
way he treated them, and his boom
seems to be growing weaker and weak
er in the House, where individuals as
well as the organization of Republican
members were counted upon to do Won
drous things in pushing his boom ahead.
Only the choice of delegates, as the
Conventions meet and declare prefer
ences, will determine just how strong
the rival candidates are. The Taft peo-
pie are trying to hasten Conventions the
country over as much as possible, in
the belief that. with the opposition so
disorsanized, Secretary Tafts oppor-
tunity is to gather in all the delegates
possible at the earliest possible day.
While an early State Convention will
be held in Ohio for the choice of four
delegates at large, it will probably be
well along into the Spring before all
the Congressional Conventions in that
State are held. The Foraker people will
see to that, and will prevent the Secre-
tary from going into other States with
the claim that he is to have a solid
Buckeye delegation.
Very much depends upon what hap
pens in New England and New York.
New England is the stronghold of the
doctrine of uninstructed delegates, and
as that section has 80 delegates likely
to act in unison its capitulation to Sec
retary Taft would be a tremendous vic
tory, likely to go far toward assuring
him the nomination. Before the Con-
ventiOns for the nomination of dele
gates are held the Secretary will have
spoken in nearly all the New England
States. 1t Is more than probable that
the states have been fixed in most of
the States, and the names of the pros
pective delegates are known to the poll :
tical leaders, who have been careful to
pick only those men who can be relied
upon to oppose the Secretary in the
Convention, unless he gets a majority
of the delegates from other States.
There have been some interesting de-
velOpments with reference to the Cor
telyou boom, for the Secretary of the
Treasury does not allow himself to be
entirely counted out. He is no longer
regarded seriously as a candidate, for
the President is credited with having
struck his boom a stunning blow. How
ever Mr.. Cortelyou, altho long i'll with
the grip, mustered strength enough to
follow the Secretary of War over to
New York and to make an address him.
self in New York City the very night
after Secretary Taft had spoken there
This was taken to be significant, and
as indicating that the Secretary of the
Treasury did not propose his colleague
in the Cabinet should go over to his
own bailiwick and prOselyte for sup
port without the Secretary of the Treas"
ury coming on the scene.
The relations between the President
and Secretary Cortelyou are strained
While one is not justified in prophesy-
ing that Mr.. Cortelyou will resign from
the Cabinet, it need cause no surprise
If that happens at any time. President
Cortelyou boom, and Mr.. Cortelyou re-
sents keenly the efforts the President
has made to discredit him as a candi-
date. Whatever his chance of securing
the nomination may have been, Mr..
COrtelyou thinks that he should have
had more considerate treatment from
the man in the White House.
j. Pierpont Morgan has been in
Washington within a few days, visiting
Secretary Cortelyou. Ruraor has been
busy again that the Secretary is about
to take employment with a banking in
stitution in New York City. The presi-
dency of a big institution over there
awaits him the moment he will give
the word. But the moment Mr. Cortel-
you does that, of course, he leaves all
Presidential ambition behind. His can
didacy is crushed out. and the Presi-
dent is strengthened to that extent.
No one realizes that now better than
Mr.. Cortelyou's predecessor, ex-Secre-
tary Shaw. He had the Presidential bee
If he had stayed in the Treasury he
could have had the delegates from
Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri,
a nice big bunch of votes. His pros
poets of those votes have entirely faded
away. He is talked of no more as a
Presidential candidate. Since he went
to New York the way of presidents of
trust companies has not been easy. Ex-
Secretary Shaw's salary is still coming
to him regularly, and it is a generous
salary, but he has reason to regret that
he did not hold on to the $4,000 a wear
as Secretary of the Treasury little
longer and continue in politics for
awhile till after the National Conyen-
tlon had selected a nominee