East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-06-02
SECRETARY TAFT
AGAINST THE FIELD
ONLY CONTEST BEING
FOUGHT OUT IN CHICAGO.
War Secretary Has Clear Majority Of
Delegates TO National Convention.
But Allies May Succeed in Prevent
Ing Nomination on First Ballot
Question Hinges on Result OF Con-
test Decisions.

Chicago, June 2.-What will prob
ably be the only contest over the
republican nomination for president
will be fought out in Chicago thil
week and next before the nationa
committee. Taft has a clear majority
OF the delegates as elected and 1t will
be q case of the administration candi-
date against the field. The hope oi
the allies Is that sufficient number
of contests may be decided against
Taft. by the national committee, as to
prolong the fight beyond the first
ballot.
From present appearances, there Ia
little, prospect Of victory for the
allies. A little less than 200 contests
are to be decided by the committee,
but Taft is almost certain Of secur-
ing enough Of the contested seats to
assure his nomination without a
struggle.
1t is generally understood that Har-
ry s. New of Indiana, chairman OF
the national committee, is Taft man
although the thirteen congressional
districts Of his state Of Indiana have
declared solldly for Vice President
Fairbanks. Mr.. Fairbanks and Mr..
New, however, have not hitched In
recent years, and for that matter the
tie between Senator Beveridge and
Mr.. Fairbanks is not of the stoutest
kind. Senator Hemenway. Mr.. Bev-
eridge's colleague, is sturdy in his
fidelity to the vice president. While
the Beveridge men say that Fair
banks will get support from Indiana
on the first ballot, they intimate that
il will be of the perfunctory 1--WE ex-
pect to lost anyhowt kind. 1t is
known that Mr.. Fairbanks is to have
a bunch OF delegates from the south
ern states and expects support from
other quarters.
Between now and convention time
the struggle will be to control the ma
tional committee. In times past, no.
tably in 1884, the convention upset
recommendation OF the national
committee, and in 1892 the anti-Har-
rison men at first controlled the ma
tional committee only to lose it, and
as a result scores of federal office
holders were seated as delegates and
President Harrison as a reuslt was
nominated on the first ballot, only
to be overwhelmingly defeated at the
polls. The republican who captured
control of the national committee
from Quay Plat, Clarkson, Foraker
and Wolcott and their friends and
used this control to seat the federal
offceholder contestants was John c.
New. Harrlson's consul general to
London, and father of Harry New.
Harry New went through this fight
with his father and he knows the
ropes.
At. st. Louis in 1896 Marcus A.
Hanna and his friends controlled the
national committee, and in the pre-
liminaries they bundled the Thos. b.
Reed delegates and all delegates OPP
posed to Mckinley out of the window
with scant courtesy and with scarce
" hearing 1t was on that occasion
that the late Sam Fessenden of Con-
necticut had a wordy war with Han
ma and turned upon Joe Manley of
Maine. who had forsaken Reed, with
"God Almighty hates a gutter" For
this fracas Fessenden to his last day
was practically on the shelf in Con-
necticut politics. The scenes at the
sessions of the national committee
and the credentials committees of the
two parties have in years gone by
been riatous and 1t is predicted that
similar scenes will be enacted here
during the next two weeks.