The National tribune., 1908-05-28
Mr.. PRESIDENT TAFT.
Continued from page one.

PreSlQentlal dSplrantS, Is DeiIS stiiPpcu
of all such eminent personages save
the one who is the real thing. in the
language of the street. He will have
the stage all to himself, and Is likely to
have for quite time to come. For
while he will continue coming and go
ing several weeks, will be travelling and
speaking and answering a tremendous
volume of correspondence and writing
addresses and all that sort of thing, the
Secretary plans to stay in Washington
till well along toward the 1st of July.
BY that time President Roosevelt will
have gone to Oyster Bay, transferring
the seat of Government thither. Per-
haps then the Secretary of War and
Presidential nominee will go away, too.
The Washington Summer is very hot.
indeed, even for a Presidential candi-
date, who has to get used to hot sur
roundings.
Novelties In the Campaign.
The campaign will undoubtedly have
many novelties for Secretary Taft, for
he has never been thru a political cam
paign Every office he has held hither-
to has been an appointive office for
which he made no contest in particular.
He is by no means unfamiliar with poll
tics, however, for he has been much on
the stump since he returned from the
Philippines, has associated much with
politicians in many States during active
campaign times and knows what is!
what He rather enjoys politics, and
is not looking forward to the Summer
and Autumn either with dread or trep-
idation.
The men who will be close to Secre-
tary Taft during the campaign are also
due to loom up now that legislation
and efforts at legislation have ceased,
and the country is free to give its un-
divided attention to politics Beyond
question the Secretary's half-brotner,
ex-Representative Charles p. Tart, Will
be one of these conspicuous figures.
There will be much about him as the
campaign progresses. He will be much
with the Secretary, more even than he
has been in the last six months. PROB
ably there is no one whose advice the
Secretary takes more unreservedly. Ex-
Representative Taft is familiar with the
game of politics. In his home town of
Cincinnati he keeps in touch with what
is doing in the political world. Every
little while in the last six months he
has been running on to Washington,
where he is always very much at home.
He is by no means the cnly Ohioan
who will have a big part in the cam
paign Representative Theodore r.
Burton, of Cleveland, who has been a
persistent Taft man, even when the
is very able. He may not be as astute
in political craft as some others, but
his judgment of political affairs is very
sound Ex-Assistant Postmaster-Gen-
eial Frank H. Hitchcock, who has been
manager of the Taft headquarters in
Washington, while having residence
nominally in Massachusetts,. is native
of Ohio, and is also one of the men who
will play star part in the Taft cam
1 ;0o ic aynacfn1 that ha will have
some important position with the Ma
tional Committee, that he may even be
its Chairman.
The Candidates. Next Friends.
The Secretary has numerous warm
personal friends in officialrlife, whom
he will gradually bring into campaign
prominence to some degree probably.
One of his warmest friends in the
Cabinet is Postmaster-Generaf George
Won l.. Meyer, who halls from Massa-
chusetts. Mr.. Meyer has been mention
ed as possible Chairman of the Repub-
lican National Committee, and. if Taft
is elected President, as a possible Sec
retary of State. He has made good as
Postmaster just as he made
good as ambassador at two or three
European courts, and Secretary Taft
thinks highly of him Mr.. Meyer and
Senator Lodge are likely to be the most
prominent Taft campaign men in New
England, altho that section is SO safely
Republican that they will have but
very little rugged work to do at home.
President Roosevelt will look out for
his own State of New York. and prob
ably the big campaign men in that
section will be quite as much of the
Presidents selection as of the Secre-
tary's selection. The Secretary has one
very stanch Pennsylvania friend in the
Il -Av,,<. <.f
Justice. Henry NJ. Hoyt. who was
classmate at Yale. But Mr. Hoyt will
have very little to do in "a campaign
way, unless it be to go Upon the stump
for his friend, as Pennsylvania is SO
solid;y Republican. 1t Is altogether
likely that If Mr.. Taft becomes Presi-
dent Mr.. Hoyt Will land big judicial
position, perhaps be chosen for the
Supreme Bench OF the United States.
Who the Secretary's next friends will
be in the big Middle West and far
Western States, as far as the campaign
is concerned, is uncertain. Several of
those States are fayorite son bailiwicks,
and no big politicians from those States
| have flocl1ed under the Sccretary's ban
ner. But he has been on intimate tcrms
of personal and political friendship with
| a lot of Senators and members of those
sections, and viii not want for lieuten-
ants, once the campaign is lanched
There are Senators and members galore
| in whom he can safely trust, and who
will be glad to serve him politically to
the utmost Probably he will hold aloof
| from the Ohio Senators and many of
the Ohio Representatives.. because of
their past factional differences, but
there are number of men in Ohio on
whom the Secretary can rely.
A large number of the Roosevelt
| favoritcs will pass out of the eye of
| Washington naturally with the Taft as
cendancy. The Rough Riders, for ex-
ample, who have had big seven years
of favor at the White House, will take
| a back seat. There is no longer reason
why they should be preferred for high
Office or intrusted with important mis-
sions Many of the literary favorites
and many of the so-caIled "fair-haired
ones" will find themselves just average
citizens-if Taft comes into the White
House.
The Wee Presidential Nomination.
A spry campaign for the Vice Presi-
ldency seems to be approaching, If, in
deed, ii is not already in Washington.
Fairbanks sure" a lot of wise heads
have been saying. They are wise heads
Of the Taft forces, as well as wise heads
| among the allies. And so lot OF folks
jumped to the conclusion that probably
] ii will be Fairbanks"
Probably? Surely is the word" re-
NJ Bounty Laws.