The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-20
CMan Special to the Advertiser.l

w ASF1I-N11 o%N, l.. ~ y d4AC Can
eyes are turning Chicagoward. It is
next to impossible to make anybody in
washington think Of ought but what
is going on in the Windy City. The
President is thinking about it. He
wants the political chapter closed as
soon as may be. He will hardly rest
easily till the ballot is taken that nomi-
mates his own favorite for the presi-
dency. Secretary of War Taft, too. is
thinking about it. He is reading all
that the papers have to say every af-
ternoon and every morning. He walks
over to the office of the President sew
eraI times a day to talk about it.
meanwhile smiling pleasantly like
man who has some good sure thing.
Every one of the Secretary's~ col
leagues in the cabinet are thinking
about Chicago. Most of them want
Secretary Taft nominated, but some Of
them do not. They, however, are
keeping very quiet. Two or three OF
them are wondering already what
shake ups there will be in the cabinet
March 4 next if Bit Taft is nomi-
mated and elected. For cabinet officers
are human just like all the rest of the
A fnx Of
may be entirely willing to retire to
private life-Secretary of State Elihu
Root, for instance. But Secretary Root
can make many times his annual
salary of So, 900 practising law in New
York City. It might be otherwise with
that wise old farmer, Secretary of
Agriculture, James Wilson. He has
been holding on now for almost twelve
years and he hangs like grim death.
He does not want to let go and there
are millions of farmers throughout the
country who do not want him to let
go. So one might pass in review the
names of all the cabinet officers. Most
OF IneH Nou1u line " stay AZ " eAN9AA
ington and are nightly interested in
what is going on at Chicago.
The westward attraction is really in
fictitious 1t touches all the depart
ment officials and also the $4,000 clerks
and more in the departments at Wash
ington. For every one who holds a
government job is something of a
politician, somehow or other. There
is a greater demand than ever there
fore for the latest newspapers. The
Rewsboys throng the portals of the de-
partments and the chiefs have greater
difficulty than ever to keep the de-
partmental workers from reading in
office hours.
whats the use of working any
way?" everybody is asking. Summer
has come. The government still has
plenty of money. Did not Congress
vote away billion dollars? 1t might
have voted more. 1t raised salaries
for everybody but the folks in the
departments Why should we care so
much about driving ahead. These con-
ventions come only once in four years
any way. We want time to talk about
what the vanguard is doing
And so it goes. official Washington
is simply drifting, ready to be thrilled
by any kind of political thriller that
comes over the wires from Chicago. 1t
reads all the hot air paragraphs in the
papers about the maneuvers of the al
lies, absorbs all the idle talk that
newspapers are willing to pay tele-
graph tolls on, and awaits the ballot
ing.
Of course the caImer, sober judgment
of Washington is that the hubbut
which the allies have been making
since their managers got on the ground
in Chicago is of slight Importance. I
is Taft. These calm sober men SET
nothing else. Political history like
n other history sometimes repeats itself
One needs only recall the Chicago con
vention of four years ago to remembe
that there was similar preconventiol
hubbub there. Only it was on a some
what smaller scale and the possibiitie
of beating Theodore Roosevelt for tn
nomination were smaller then, per
haps, than are the possibilities of beat
ing BIZ Taft in this year of grace.
Just prior to that convention of 100
the National Committee started OF
with big whoop. They even refuse
to hang a portrait of Roosevelt in tn
convention hall. They talked anti
Roosevelt everywhere, said he woul
have difficulty being elected, that tn
politicians would not work for him-a
though the professional politician
would not work for any presidentis
candidate of their party-and that Re
publicans would do well to pick som
one who could win. Were not tn