The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-10-16
By Ernest G. Walker.


Mail Special to the Advertiser.)
WASHINGTON, D. c., September q.
The skirmish firing of the campaign
has been attended with great mortality.
There has been unprecedented oppor-
tunity for the political hospital corps.
/ If the next administration be Repub-
| Iican. there will he need of an enlarged
/ department TO handle the applications
of lame ducks for Federal offices.
/ A score of seasoned Congressman
| Senator's and Representatives-have al
ready been shot down at the primaries.
Scores of Congressional districts, to use
a current political term, have been shot
| all 10 pieces. Hence the feeling of
timidity with which Republicans APP
proach the Congressional and State
elections. Even if Taft wins, some
State Legislatures, which will have the
| election of a United States Senator,
and many a Congressional district,
hitherto strongly Republican, may be
lost 10 the dominant party or send
new Republican TO Washington. The
tide seems to have turned in the big
Republican majorities that control
Senate and House. Legislation here
after may be less the work of practiced
hands. Ike opposition will be stronger
and larger.
The Senate before the midday of the
coming administration viii be largely
body of men not known there two
years ago.
The class of thirty-one Senators who
take their oath Of office March next,
comprising the third of the Senate that
comes in every two years, is already
certain to emphasize the change in per-
sonnet at the north end of the Capitol.
Whatever Senator Foraker's chances
were of. winning reelection in Ohio,
and whatever the justice or injustice
of charges against him for being an
attorney of the Standard Oil Company,
it is generally conceded that his re-
election is now out of the question.
That incident alone of the campaign
removes one of the most foreeful and
dashing of the senatorial figures since
the accession OF Mckinley to the White
House in 1897.
The casualties of the preliminary
campaign have been unusually severe
upon Senators in the West. Two from
the Pacific Coast have already gone
down. Charles W. Fulton, good old |
line Republican, who had his troubles |
with the Department of the Interior, |
and exc with President Roosevelt, was
beaten at the primaries in June, and !
in all probability viii be succeeded by |
a Democrat. Levi Ankenny, of Wash |
ington State, whose wealth was sup |
posed to be responsible in considerable |
part for his prominence in public life, |
has also been bOwled out at the Wash |
ington primaries His public career is
apparently ended.
The Grim Reaper has contributed ma |
terialIy to the metamorphosis, especial |
" in taking off the late Senator ALI |
son of Iowa, but he would hardly have |
pulled through the primaries except for |
his long and prominent career. In the /
nearby States of North and South Da |
kota, two old-time Senators, Hans |
brough and Kittredge, have been elm
mated, and new men will take their /
places. In Illinois there was an up |
heaval against the return of Senator
Hopkins, but it is not plain yet |
whether he can be reelected. Kansas |
viii send a new Senator to displace |
Chester L. Long, who went down in
gloriously because he was suspected of |
being too friendly with the railroads. |
In the previous class of thirty SEN |
ators. who took their seats March 4, /
1907, there were also many changes, |
several due to popular upheavals. The |
spirit of Impotence with senatorial in
cumbents has been able to assert itself |
because of the spread of senatorial pri-
maries. A dozen States, or more, have |
passed primary laws within the last |
two or three years. They are Western |
and Southern States The primaries |
have given the voters opportunity TO |
pass upon the qualifications of Sena
tors who owed their election in the |
first instance solely to the Legislature. |
In a striking number of cases these
egislature-elected Senators have failed /
of primary designation for reelection.
With some fifteen or twenty primary
made Senators entering the upper
branch of Congress, there can but be |
a marked change of attitude toward |
legislation for which there is a popular |
elamor. The Senate, although it has
not been so Indifferent to popular SEN
timent as has often been represented,
viii be more responsive than ever. It
viii be more difficult for the leaders to |
put in controverted measures as stop
gaps TO prevent the consideration Of
bills the people want. The West and
the South. rather than the East, where
there is little demand for the popular
election of Senators, viii be infUen-
tial in bringing this change of legisla-
tive attitude about
But similar Influences are at work
upon the House. The casualties of the
diminishing in the Congressional cam
raign indicate the defamation of many
delegations in the West. The leading
humorist OF the House, Representative
!. Adam Bede, of Minnesota, has re-
Gently been swallowed up in the vo-
racious nav of popular opposition and
another designated at the primaries
TO succeed him. Representative Lit
tlield, of Maine, the leading lawyer of
the House, has retired. It was volun-