The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-01-06
TAFT'S TIMELY
HOMECOMING
Political Stage Well Set for
His Appearance-The
Great Game.
fMail special to the Advertiser.l

CMail Special to the Advertiser.)
! WASHINGTON. D. c., Dec. pa
. is all Taft for the moment. The Sec
rotary of War has filled a big place il
the eyes of the world for a while. The
world has followed him on his globe
girdling tour, as he visited kings and
queens and opened a Philippine legis-
iIative assembly. That would be graft
! flying to most men, but it must have
been even more gratifying to him tC
come back and find that his return
was filing the eye of Washington and
of the country. since he arrived at the
splendid new union station, opened
during his absence, and smiled the jolly
Taft smile. under the Russian fur cap
he wore, the secretary has been a
much discussed man.
There has been more about him than
there has been about the President.
| But that Is because he is a possible
president, perhaps one should say a
| probable president. People are look
ing at him in that light and that has
been the chief interest in his return to
Washington. Cabinet officers do not
often go globe trotting, neither do they
often go visiting kings and queens.
But that alone would not give Secre-
tary Taft the public attention he is
receiving. 1t is his potentiality as a
political figure in the presidential cam
&af 1fr1cr
CORTELYOU SPEAKS OUT.
Things have been happening to give
the secretary's return an attractive
setting. The meeting of the Repub-
lican National Committee, the victory
of the old guard in getting the con-
vention to Chicago, when the Taft
people wanted it to go to Kansas City,
and President Roosevelt's sudden reit-
Grafton of his election night statement
that he would not again be candidate
under any circumstances whatever,
are now pretty generally understood.
But during the last week other highly
important political events have been
treading heel and toe. Early in the
week Secretary of the Treasury Cor
telyou, when i'll at his home with grip,
suddenly gave out statement. It
was very unlike Secretary Cortelyou,
as most men thought. He said he was
not a candidate for anything, except
the confidence OF the American people
in his ability to discharge the duties
of his office in the cabinet. He had
not been disloyal to the President, he
said in effect, He had been attending
to his business and when he was ready
to become a candidate for the pres
idency, as he might or might not be
in the course of time. he would an
nounce his intentions to the public.
The statement was made without
consulting President Roosevelt and is
known to have been the result of Sec
rotary Cortelyou's resentment at the
stories Taft's lieutenants have been
busy circulating during recent weeks.
Some professed to see in the statement
"a thrust at the Presidents secretary,
Mr.. Loeb, whom Mr.. Cortelyou does
not like. Mr.. Loeb has been active in
promulgating the Taft boom and in
checkmating the efforts of Mr.. Cortel-
you to secure delegates. For, while
Mr.. Cortelyou's statement outlines his
position correctly, he is known. beyond
question. to have been nursing a quiet
boom and to have been telling con-
fidential friends that he saw no reason
why he should not be a candidate If
he wanted to be. AS a matter of fact
it is known that Mr.. Cortelyou told
the President last summer that he
expected to be a candidate.
HITCHCOCK'S DENIAL
The day following Mr.. Cortelyou's
statement First Assistant Postmaster
General Frank H. Hitchcock gave out
political statement, in which he de-
MED having been lisloyal to the Pres
ident. Mr. Hitchcock is Mr.. 3Cortel-
you's man Friday. Mr.. Cortelyou1
brought him into prominent public Of
flee and, when he was Postmaster
General, made Mr.. Hitchcock frs as
sistant. In Mr.. Hitchcock's Journey
ings through the South it had been
charged that he was urging the poll
ticians to instruct the delegates for
Roosevelt with Cortelyou as second
choice. But Mr.. Hitchcock said in his
statement that he had acted entirely
with the Presidents approval and that
the President had told him so.
Some think that the statement by
Secretary Cortelyou rules him out of
the race. The President is understood
to take that view of it and also to
think that it win help the Taft boom
in which he is so vitality interested.
All this happened just before Secretary
Tafts return, as also happened a few
things in New York with reference to
the Hughes presidential boom. The
very night before the secretary landed
in New York, the Republican county
committee of New York met and it
was proposed to endorse the Hughes
boom. The New York county commit
tee is dominated by the Presidents
friends. The endorsement, it was ex-
peeted, would go through, but it was
checked by a quarrel, growing out of
a proposition also to endorse President
Roosevelt's administration. This re-
suited in a postponement of the en-
tire matter till late in January.
And so when Secretary Taft reached
American soil the political stage SEEM
ed to be we'll set for his appearance.
He has been up TO his ears in politics
ever since he came. From Jersey City,
at noon, he telephoned to the President
that he was back home again and the
President asked him to report forth
with at the White House, which he
did. The first of several political con-