The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-10-13
THE CAMPAIGN
IS PERSONAL
How. Roosevelt DispeIled the
l-ethargy of the Coming
Campaign.
By Ernest G.. Walker.


WASHINGTON, September 28.-The
pace has been swift beyond all preee-
dents. Mr.. President Roosevelt has
broken all records for making politics
lively. He has been back in the White
House only few days. He found a
lethargic campaign. Now he may look
on at the country trying to catch its
breath.
Surprise has followed surprise. Vol
ley has followed volley. 1t has not
been exactly mudslinging, but it has
approximated that, and such words as
4 rascal and - 'falsifer' have been
levelled at the honorable and dignlhed
position of President of the United
States Roosevelt has accused Bryan
in the most vigorous English at his
command; Bryan has struck back with
his usual adroitness. The President
lands again; Mr.. Bryan lands again,
and no one can tell whether, before the
copy gets upon the typesetting ma
chimes. the President will be at it with
Tejoinder.
There has been some destruction.
Democratic National Treasurer G. ~.
Haskell, Governor of Oklahoma, has
had to resign. Bryan forced him out,
after Roosevelt had forced Bryan to
force him out. But William Randolph
Hearst. whom the Democrats are now
branding as the strongest ally the Re
publicans have in this year of grace,
furnished the President the ammunition
for attacking Haskell and for assalllng
BRYAN as having Haskell as one of his
leading associates Haskell S guilt or
innocence of completely in Standard Oil
matters has not been established or
disproved, but there is no time IN the
midst of a presidential campaign to
sift such charges against man. And
Just when Haskell stepped aside Gen
eral Dupont, chairman of the speakers
bureau in New York, was forced to re-
sign. The President forced General
Dupont and Mr.. Bryan forced the Pres
ident. So there you are.
The Duponts are defendants IN an
antitrust suit.
But the Standard Oil Company has
figured large in the weeks exciting ex-
changes. Tremendously as Governor
Haskell has denied any connection with
that octopus, he has been shown up as
Wall street promoter of former years,
through whom some estimable people
lost considerable sums of money. Inc
President attempted to tar Governor
Haskell with Standard Oil stick, be-
cause of his refusal to press SUIT
against the Prairie Oil and Gas Com
pany. The President and his Secretary
of Commerce and Labor were Jealous
in showing that the Prairie Oh ana
Gas Company is q Standard OH con-
cern, and that it received its franchise
from the Federal government, not from
the State of Oklahoma. 1t has been
charged that the President forced the
granting of the franchise over the pro-
test of former Secretary of the Interior
Ethan Allen. Hitchcock. This is dis
counted at the White House. The Pres
ident IS mind is not quite clear about
it. The granting of such a franchise,
he told a caller, was only routine
matter. He would not have remember
ed it probably anyway. There have
been long explanations from the De
partment of the Interior as to how
the franchise was granted, and there
have been assertions how there was
lobby of influential politicians IN wash
ington two years ago, representing
some big men and some Standard On
men before the franchise finally got
through, and especially before certain
leases of oil lands, which the pipeline
was to develop, were extended. ana
when the leases were extended they
promptly got into the hands OF Stand
ard Oil magnates.
Moreover, the stories about how the |
Standard Oil Company, through IL. h |
Rogers, contributed 100000 TO the
Republican campaign of 1904, have
been revived The President, 1t IS
claimed, ordered the money paid back, /
but it was not paid back. Did that |
have any connection with the peculiar
performances in Oklahoma?
ANYHOW. the man who wants to find /
the truth about it all is puzzled just |
what to think But that is not all.
Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, of
Ohio. whom Mr. Hearst as Republican
allv branded as Standard Oil at
torney. has come back fiercely. He has
written what is generally regarded as
a very strong and convincing letter,
that his relations as attorney
of the Standard were entirely proper.
But President Roosevelt wrote letter
denouncing Foraker, along with Hask-
ell and Bryan, and so Mr.. Foraker has
taken a fall out of the President
and also out of the Presidents nomi-
nee, Mr.. Taft He says that Taft ac-
eepted hospitality from Standard OIL
attorneys, and a few years ago urged
the President to appoint as Federal
iudge one of the leading Standard Oil
attorneys in Ohio. To which Mr.. Taft
has replied, defending himself and at
tempting to show that there was moth
ing improper in what he did
SO who can tell what is what about
it all? Who can tell which party is
going to suffer most from the ex-
changes, or whether either party will |
suffer at all Mr. Taft has hardly been
tarred by the stick that Senator For
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