The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-18
CMan special to the Advertiser)

| Mail Special 10 the AuNeTL1SSF.b
WASHINGTON. D. c., May A
Veering Chicagoward, the presidential
campaign is moving on apace. State
convention after state convention, and
| district convention after district con
vention is registering verdicts in rapid
succession. Only about ten days OF
preliminary convention activity re-
mains. The interest therein is tagging
out.
to move its headquarters to the Windy
| City, which is to be the scene of the
great quadrennia1 gathering. A small
subcommittee of that committee will
be the vanguard of the convention
hosts, Chicago becomes soon the Mecca
of politicians who like to be where the
wheels are going round. The Washing
| ton date line politically will fall into
allegiance. The Chicago date line will
assume the first political Importance.
1t is still about five weeks before the
multitude pour into the great coliseum
to make a President-contingen only
upon the ability of the militant Democ-
racy to command a majority of the
votes of the country, but none the less
the talk of Washington is rapidly GEN.
tering upon the great convention, for
there is nothing anywhere else in the
world like a National convention of
either of the two great political parties.
Even a comparatively uninteresting
convention is an affair of tremendous
importance.
1t will be comparatively uninter-
esting convention. So the politicians
say. And yet it will be a convention
of very great, even of transcendent, in
terest. 1t will be cut ana dried. as the
saying goes. The nominee will be
known in advance. apparently. One.
who has been following politics during
the winter, as nearly all Americans
have been doing, could almost write the
platform now. President Roosevelt is
ordering practically everything in con-
neetion with the convention. He has
named the candidate. He will virtual
" write the platform. There will be
a long distance telephone wire between
the White House and the apartments
of the trusted advisers he will have on
the National Committee drives it's
stakes down in the convention city.
But aftere all. even with the Presi-
dent as all powerful over the conven-
ton as he was over the Chicago con-
vention of 1904 that nominated him,
there will be episodes and incidents.
1t will be a harmonious convention,
because the President has fought all
other aspirants than Secretary Taft to
a standstill and has crushed opposition
with a merciless hand by methods that
his great multitude of admirers
throughout the country will not credit
But great body of practically 1000
delegates-S90 delegates to be exact
is alone of peculiar popular interest.
No power on earth can dominate in all
details so many human nnits. There
will be independent influences, seeking
to carry out their ideas by schemes
and by maneuvering that convention
leaders are bound to watch out for.
There will be efforts to break in upon
the prearranged program. And then
there is always a possibility in such a
vast gathering. composed of so many
resourceful men. that the best laid
plans even of a President Of the United
States will be overturned in some par
ticulars.
The struggle for the mastery Of the
National Committee is supposed to be
as good as over. The President has
gained a clear majority of that COM
mittee and for about two weeks in adj
vance of the convention that commit
tee will be in Chicago toiling over the
preliminaries. Presumably it will have
half hundred contests to settle pos
sibly nearer a hundred contests. One
can not say yet how numerous they
will be. Some who aspire to be dele
gates and are now promising to contest
will lose their ardor before the first of
June But there viii be contests
enough to weary the National Commit
tee and to occupy this high political
court for ten days or more.
These hearings. while always more or
less of farce, are ever picturesque
questions of dominating the
state and local organizations are quite
as much at stake as the support of any
presidential candidate. The contests
before a Republican convention are al
ways in the main by negroes from the
South and possess elements of humor
for all beholders The local leaders,
vying with intensity, make a lively
picture
Four years go the National Commit
tee made a demonstration against
Roosevelt in the opening days of the
period. which proved ex-
ceedingly entertaining to say the least
That kind of performance may be re-
peated in the early days of the coming
month For strongly entrenched as the
President may be with the National
Committee, there are 2 number OF
among its fifty odd mem
bers. That is why the President IS
sending his personal friend, Senator
Lodge, of Massachusetts,, on to Chicago
with the proxy of the National Com
from the Philippine Islands,
not only to look after his (the Presi-
dents) personal interests but to help
along toward a frictionless and har-
monious nomination of the Presidents
favorite. Secretary Taft.
For one thing. if present plans carry
there will be a determined and well
organized effort to stampede the con-
ventfon 10 nominate President Roose-
welt. That is in large part the work
of Secretary Taft's opponents. smart
ing from the wounds the Secretary ana