The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-23

quite capable of accepting the aid or
 Taft in this matter and. looking on lt
 as cold-blooded political proposition,
 1t seems to me that Taft would be quite
 justified in taking advantage or even
 so dubious an ally as Hearst
 All of which Is just the opinion of
 politician not without knowledge
 or the intrfcacies of Ohio politics. l
 offer 1t here just for what 1t may De
 worth.
 The following telegram received by
 J. c. Johnson of the Democratic Ma
 tional Advisory Committee opens up
 Topeka, Kas., Sept. 17.--Cannon
 meeting here tonight failure. Audito- rum scarcely two-thirds full In fif- teen minutes after Cannon began speaking the audience began to leave. and in thirty minutes almost half were gone and still going. Ills att tempt to create applause by mention ing Taft fell fiat only faint applause Governor Hoch Is said to have posi- lively refused to introduce Cannon to the audience. Republicans terribly embarrassed and humiliated. Bryan's already great strength growing rap
 Idly and seems irresistible. These are | facts. Frank s. Thomas, Treasurer Democratic Central State Here Is the story. About year ago committee appointed by the Methodist Church and headed by Gov | ernor Hoch of Kansas, called on Speak CT Cannon at Washington. They want ed a certain bill pressed. The Speaker | opposed 1t. But he did more than that; 1; he treated them with such gross dis 1 courtesy all the newspaper offices at l the capital were ringing with the l story half an hour after this commit | tee had been practically elected from | the Speakers room. 1t was not this | that made the Topeka meeting fall ure, but Kansas people about the na- | tional headquarters believe 1t was the | recollection of this event that led l Governor Hoch to refuse to introduce | Mir. Cannon to a Republican audience It Is worth while. too, to consider | today the position of Governor Hoch. Republican as he is, and Chief Execu- | tive of a State which up to this year | has been strongly Republican. though I there are doubts about what it may | do in November, he has warmly fn- dorsed one, and perhaps the chief, plank | of the Democfatic platform. Over his l own signature, he has repudiated Sec | retary Taft's claim that the plank pro viding for the guaranty Of bank de- | posits in the Kansas platform diners | in letter or in spirit from that in the l Democratic national platform. As the l leader today of Kansas Repubiicanism.
 Governor Hoch is closer in convictions and principles to the Democratic par l ty than he Is to the one of which he | is nominally member.
 1 Picking up certain newspapers the
 other morning found much grief ex- | pressed in headlines and in the letters l of distinguished correspondents be- | cause of the evidence of apathy of
 voters in this campaign. That there | Is apathy nobody actively connected i with political work would deny What
 the meaning of that apathy may be is
 largely a matter of opinion. Many | well-informed observers think the l party fires do not burn as high as | they have in years gone by. Whether | that means content on the part of the
 electorate with existing conditions and l a disinclination to change them, or | whether 1t means that there is quiet 1 determination to overthrow the admin
 istration or the proposed heir to the
 administration. is to be determined. It seems to me 1t is a safe proposi- l ton to say the Republican who Is go- | ing to vote this time against his party
 Is not going to get out and proclaim