The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-01-17
WALKERS VIEW OF THE TAFT
AND HUGHES MOVEMENTS
Taft Trying to Annex the CorteIyou Strength---A
Hard Worker---New Engands Attitude
1.-The New York Man.
(MaiI Special to the Advertiser. }


of the holidays. Ever since he return
ed from his globe girdling tour tn
Secretary has held the public eye. Hi
has been the most talked of loon
He has not been getting any addi
tional delegates but he has been saw
ing wood as though he expected dele
gates.
The Secretary of War and Peac,
means business. There is fire in hi
eye now. Before he went globe grid
ling he did not act as though he cared
| much about the Presidential nomina.
tion anyway. Now he has put ginger
into the force of lieutenants who dc
his bidding and his campaign for the
nomination seems to be moving on.
Failure of other candidates recently
to gain ground has helped the Honora-
BILE Secretary of War. First the Cor
telyou boom went into an eclipse. 1t
is in an eclipse yet. 1t is very doubt
full whether it will come out of eclipse.
AS soon as it received a stunning blow
from President Roosevelt IS reiteration
Secretary Cortelyou fell sick with grip
and went to his residence where he has
been ever since. He has been too sick
with the malady now prevailing in
Washington to give any attention to
presidential politics. He has his hands
full attending troubles in the Treasury
Department The working balance there
has fallen at times recently to as little
as 100000 or $3,00O,00O, an UMPIRE
cedented mite for modern times. The
Secretary does not dare call in much
of the $240,000,000 of government funds
deposited in the banks, lest he pre-
cipitate panic All the business he has
possibly been able to attend to, there
fore, has been Treasury business.
Possibly the political period of boom
consolidation is at hand, One can not
say positively yet. 1t win be better
to wait for few weeks to see whether
the Taft boom really gains ground. The
Brownsville opposition and the labor
opposition may have strong cards to
play. But it nevertheless looks as
though the Taft boom were trying to
annex the Cortelyou strength. Secre-
tary Taft, who is pursuing policy of
pacifcatioh in every direction, virtual
ly offered the olive branch to Secre-
tary Cortelyou by calling on him the
other day at the latter s residence. The
organs, that take their cue from the
White House and that voice the Off
cial output of the boom, bugled its sig
nificance far and wide. Now it is
plain the Taft forces are reaching out
after all that Cortelyou had in the
line of nomination assets. They are
willing to take these over with First
Assistant Postmaster General Frank
H. Hitchcock, the Cortelyou first lieu
tenant, as a special associate manager
with Arthur l. Vorys, the Taft man
ager in Ohio All sorts of conciia-
tory advances have been and are still
being made, but there is nothing but
silence and "glumness on the Cor
telyou side of the fence Mr.. Hitch
cock is not likely to give up his posi-
tion in the Postoffice Department for
any position as manager of presiden-
tial boom. As plain matter of fact
there are probably a lot of politicians
who could bring results quite as numer-
ously as Mr., Hitchcock were he
divorced from his position as dispenser
of small postoffice patronage.
The maneuvering progresses for the
South and also for New England. 1t
is evident that the Taft boom is very
anxious to expand into new territory.
OF course, the two most natural di-
rections for it to expand, If it is go
ing to expand at all. would be South
ward and New Englandward. The
Secretary has just been into New Eng
land, making a speech before the Mer-
chants Association of Boston, and
coquetting with the political powers
that be in Massachusetts. He has been
reaching out after United states Sem
ator w. Murray Crane. who first prof
fered advice last February that would
assure peace between Taft and For
aker, making Ohio solidIy for the Sec
rotary, and, as the Senator believes,
advice that would have given the Sec
rotary the nomination in a walk The
advice was summarily rejected, al
though Senator Crane is looked upon
as one of the shrewdest politicians in
public life, and then, because Presi-
dent Roosevelt started out to beat the
Massachusetts Senator into submission
and to bring him forcibly upon the
reservation, the Senator washed his
hands of the Taft boom and went his
way. Now they want him to come in
on the reservation. They want to take
his advice. They are talking nothing
but honeyed words and asking him to
let bygones be bygones.
The Senator has not indicated
whether he is willing to have it that
way. Last spring he thumped the ia
Die with his fist-a very unusual en-
phasls for such a gentle parsonage as
he-and declared he never would help
the Iaft boom. But he may yield 10
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