Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-06-23

dCCoTueu 10 the losing ldcllOn as
bride for good feeling and coopera-
ton. That was not the case this
time. The Taft management simply
accepted Sherman, and accepted him
lunwillingly, because, under the pecul
lar circumstances which existed, it
could not well do anything else. No
one in the Taft councils, either here
or at Washington, was satisfied with
fisherman, but they We're not in position
10 oppose him because the Allison
PERKINS ogin-the-manger faction from
iowa had tasenc away from the ad-
nlnistratlon 1orees the practicability
lof utilizing the one HAN those forces
cared to make fight wftfE against the
the Cannon-oligarchy-se nat6r,eIstand.
pat scheme to land one of their5e.rn
kind in the chair at the north end Of
the capitol, and in the White House
Itself in case of accident.
When the conference of Taft adyis-
ers met in Mr.. Hitchcock's room
Thursday night to consider the vice
presidency. they found themselves fac
ing regular fifteen puzzle The Taft
| plan had been to wait till the nominal
| ton for president was cleared out of
the way, and then turn to and nomi-
nate for vice president the man who
had been chosen for that post by the
president and Mr.. Taft. But the i'm
placable attitude of the Iowa republi-
cans had made it impracticable further
to push Dolliver. The Iowa delegation
had decided to withdraw Delivers
name if it should be presented to the
convention. There had been hope that
when the name of Cummins was in
jected into the situation by the sugges-
ton, first made at Washington, that
the Iowa governor might do for vice
president, the effect would be to force
the Iowans to withdraw, or at least
modify their attitude as to Dolliver
Instead of doing this the clever Iowans
called the bluff" for bluff in large
part it was. There never had been
any serious intention of trying to NOM
mate Cummins. President Roosevelt
would have been content with Cum
minis, but Mr.. Taft was not enthusiast
tic about him. Efforts were made to
fascertain if the convention would take
kindly to Cummins, but in almost
levery quarter the reply was received:
mo; too radical to suit u.s." con-
servative convention representing the
party of conservatism led by a pro-
gressive president, was willing to nom-
mate the man chosen by the president
himself, partly because it couldn't help
! itself and partly because if it tried
to it would get the radical Roosevelt
Instead of the more moderate Taft
for its pains, but it was not willing to
Iput a radical on the ticket with him
The Cummins business, started as a
bluff to whip the Iowa men into line,
but called by them with the decision
to present Cummins as their candi-
Idate "a nervy bit of politics, by the
way, simply could not be made to go.
j With both Dolliver and Cummins un-
available on account of these peculiar
circumstances, the Taft people were in
a quandary, indeed. At this juncture
President Roosevelt took himself out
of it. washed his hands of the whole
business, and left the solution of the
puzzle to Taft. There was telephon-
ing for several hours. The nominee
shouted over the wire that he did not
want Fairbanks, and that he did not
want Shenandoah he did want a
western man, and a man who could
take the stump against Bryan. He was
told that neither of the Iowa men
was no one else in sight. Then some
one suggested Beveridge. This was
his last word before going to bed His
managers here told him they were
afraid they might have to take Sher
man, notwithstanding his objections
and there the matter rested. Another
effort to induce the Iowa people to pull
off proving futile, there was nothing
for it but reluctant acceptance of Sher
man. The Taft managers had purpose
ly put off the vice presidency till after
the nomination for first place wa:
made, and then, on account of the dog
fiii-the-manger attitude of Iowa, they
were left without suitable and avail
able man. They did not dare try t
stop the Sherman business, because
they had no one to stop it with. 1
they had started earlier they nigh
have arranged TO put Beveridge agains
the standpatter. But a thing like tina
could not be arranged at 3 O'Clock il
the morning. and possibly it could no
have been arranged at any time on &C
count of the rivalry between the Fair
banks and Beveridge wings in thu
Hoosier state. F
While the Taft people were thu
wandering around in the labyrinth. un
able to find way out after they los
their original candidate, -Dolliver, TIN
congressional coterie were hard a
work. Jim" Sherman IS a membe
of the little. squad that assists Uncl
Joe in bossing the house at Washing
: ton. He is chairman of their congress
sional committee. He.is pretty goo,
fellow; every one likes him. He i
: lstraight and true. Not a word can b
4 said against his character. But hi