The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19
GROOMING HUGHES AS A DARK HORSE Taft Not to Be Allowed to Win
 Without a Fight THE ARMY CRITICISED Now Officers No Able To Live Within Their lncomes-New York Is Expert
 renting With Police
 Dogs.
THE ARMY CRITICISED NOW
BY SEWELL HAGeARD.

BY SEWELL HAGoARD.
 New York, January 1s.-If plans pou forming in this state can be success fully carried out Secretary Taft will not get the republican nomination for Pres ident without a hard fight. The pur- pose of the men who are laying these plans is to make Governor Charles E. Hughes of New York a factor In the contest. The first step, of course. Is 10 have the delegation of his home state instructed for him, and it is already reasonably certain that at least part or It will go to Chicago instructed to vote for Hughes. If the whole New
 York delegation Is instructed for the
 governor that, in itself, will make him
 something of a factor in the conven- ton. The hope of the men behind the
 boom Is that the republican party will
 have become so hopelessly split over
 Taft, Fairbanks and Cannon that the convention will be glad to turn to
 Hughes as a compromise candidate
 Views as to whether there is any ground for this hope are varying. As
 the most astute politicians see the mat
 ter it is merely a question of whether
 President Roosevelt can control the re-
 publican party for Taft. There is no doubt that he could control it for him self. If the President fails to nomi-
 nate MT. Taft on the first ballot then
 there is chance for a dark horse like Governor Hughes
 The most remarkable thing in con-
 nection with the movement to get MT. Hughes name before the convention is 1 the fact that the governor, himself has absolutely nothing to do with it. The governor takes the position that his | duty is to New York and that he can
 not discharge this duty and run a com paign for the presidential nomination
 at the same time.
 Curious1y enough, though the gov l ernor's aloofness is unquestioned some l of the most disreputable politicians in l the state have come out for him and l their reason is plain. They desire to | recapture the state machine and with l Hughes nominated for the presidency
 and out of the way they think the ta six l would be easier.
 Leaving party affiliations out of the 1 question a great many people believe l that Governor Hughes would make a l better President than any man mem
 tioned on either side. They believe this 1 because the governor has shown him self to be man of the highest ability l and unswerving in integrity. The l governor hews straight to the line He
 demands facts; then dispenses justice. l He never makes deals with politi- clans; he relies on the voters sense of l justice to push his measures through l the legislature. It can be truthfully
 said of Charles Evans Hughes that he has introduced a new type in Ameri- 1 can public life. Much of his success the governor l owes to his boyhood training. He was l the only son of straight-laced Bap- tist minister who desired that his son
 should become a clergyman and so
 directed his education. The elder 1 Hughes had firm ideas on the training 1 of children; he believed in teaching l them first the realities of life and aft
 erward the graces; that a straight line l was the shortest distance between two l points
 With some small assistance from his
 parents, the boy taught himself to read when he was 3 E. One afternoon, soon l afterwards, his father found him en- 1 gagged in a story book which he had l obtained from the Sunday school
 library. The child's flushed cheeks,
 however, betokened high state of eX-
 citement and eagerness. Next day his
 father took him for a walk along a l nearby lake. Picking up a handful of
 pebbles he said:
 Charles, do you know why these
 stones are of different colors?"
 NO, sir, don't"
 DO you know why they are smooth and round?"
 NO, sir
 Would you like to know?" Yes, sir"
 His father then told him that books l like that he had found him reading l the day before were not proper litera- 1 ture for young children. What the 1 growing mind needed, he continued, | was not fiction but fact. It was much
 more important to know why pebbles l were round and smooth than to have 1 the most intimate acquaintance with l Jack the Giant Killer or the Forty | Thieves. He then made his 4-year-old
 son pledge. himself never to read a story l book until his junior year in college.
 but to devote all his time to acquiring 1 facts. As compensation for this promise the elder Hughes presented him with a 1 complete set of Chambers Miscellany,
 light iiterature No the growing boy. l His parents started him to school, but l the boy did not like 1t. He returned 1 home one day with Charles k. Hughes Plans of Study mapped out In one
 column he had the hours and in an- 1 other the studies he desired to take up | in order; he wanted to quit school, the 1 instructors went over the same ground 1 too often and he was wasting time in l allowing himself to be kept back by l the dawdlers.
 l IJro a Dar H. l cational programme proposed and for l five years, until his tenth year, he studied l at home. That mastery of self which MT. Hughes afterwards manifested he also taught himself as a child. He all l ways rected his lessons standing, and,