The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-10-03
PROGRESS OF THE CAMPAIGN.

With than five weeks to CO. the campaign
has warmed up like none that ever went before.
The candidates of both parties have taken the
stump in their own interest, and all four of the
men are making "whrlwind" campaigns throughout
different sections of the country Last Sunday Mr.
Bryan and Mr.. Taft were in Minneapolis. and
though they did not meet, owing to the pressure of
their engagements, the two exchanged courte-
sies each regretng that he could not see the other
The retirement of Senator Foraker as an active
worker for the Republican ticket came into the
camp of the Republican party as a thunderbolt
Then Governor Haskell of Oklahoma, treasurer of
the Democratic national committee, resigned while
under fire. Mr.. T. Coleman Dupont of the powder
trust and member of the Republican speakers bu-
reau, found it convenient to retire from his cam
paign job.
There has been an interesting exchange of cour-
tesies between President Roosevelt and Mr. Bryan
in regard to the issues before the people, and
the characters of different both sides of the
political fence have been exposed to the view of the
public 1t was Mr.. Hearsts new independence
league that stirred up all this, and if the Indepen-
dence league never does anything else it should
have the thanks of the people of the country ire
spective of party for it has shown some of the dark
places in both the Democratic and the Republican
parties, and both will be improved by the house
cleaning that is taking place.
Although it would take wide stretching of the
meaning of words to call the present campaign
"clean" campaign, that the political parties will be
cleaner at its end seems likely. Certainly the can
didates and politicians who come out of the battle
with clean skirts to be congratulated
The American party put a full state, legislative
and county ticket in the field this week. and the
state campaign may be said to be on in full swing
The refusal of "Uncle" Jesse Knight of Provo to
accept the nomination for governor rendered him
by the Democrats was great disappointment to the
leaders of that party. The reasons given bv Mr..
Knight that his business interests require all
his attention. and that his friends who have invest
ed their money IN his mining enterprises have the
first call on him-a greater call than the people of
the state have for him as their head officer. The
state campaign has nothing startling in it to attract
attention. Both the Democratic and Republican
parties neglected to put local option plank in the
platform, and neither is pledged to enact law
giving cities of the first second class the priv
lege of forming new system of government pat
termed after the Galveston or the Des Moines laws
The daily press has presented many letters
from business men of the Iowa town commenting
the new city government in that city, and all heard
from hearty in their approval of the new sys-
tenn It's advantages are pointed out and they cover
about the same ground as we have in the series of
articles on this subject during the past year Its
advantages manifest and the experience of 9TH
err cities point invariably to improved conditions
following the adoption of the commission form of