The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-09-13
SENATOR" HAkLy
NOW IN PROSPECT
ASK POLITICIANS
Believed Governor Would Like
To Don Toga and Has
Adopted Peculiar Method to
Gain 1t.
ENLISTED WITH OTHERS IN
CHAUTAUoUA ARGUMENT
No Doubt But Governor Has a
Following in Rural Sections
Democrats in Quandary
About Senatorship.
(By Special Correspondence


Indianapolis, Sept. 12-Those politi
clans who are inclined to attribute
Governor Hanly's call for the special
session of the legislature to purely
personal reasons have finally hit upon
an explanation that sounds more reas-
enable to themselves than any other
they have been able to offer. 1t is
one that is running rapidly the cur
rents of gossip and all who hear it
suggested wonder why they had not
| thought of it before. 1t is this:
Governor J. Frank Hanly wishes to
! be u. S. senator from Indiana.
| The first answer is that his wish is
| preposterous. He has alienated the
affections of men who do things in
| Indiana politics and no man in that
situation is likely to receive the vote
of any legislature bent upon electing
senator. Quite true, say those
spreading the new theory. Governor
Hanly knows his chances with the
other politicians of his party are slim.
but he does not care. He feels. and
probably not without cause, that he
is tremendously popular throughout
the state among the voters, particul-
arly among the farmer voters. He
| feels-and this too. probably not with
| out cause-that if it were a mere
question of getting the suffrage of
the people, he could be elected to any
office Indiana offers.
|
senatorship-the gift of the legisla-
ture, not the people lis the query of
the unconvinced. And the answer is:
Governor Hanly has spent the last
many months on the lecture platform
of middle western chautauquas. He
has been among the western folk in
whom the desire to elect their own
senators has been growing. Some of
them, notably Kansas and Illinois
have already practically effected the
change. by having the endorsement OF
candidates for the senate by the party
primaries. Witness the defeat of the
Senator Long by Bristow in the Kan.
sas primaries. How long will it be
before Indiana has adopted the same
mode of procedure? Not long, thinks
Governor Hanly and who shall doubt
that he is right. Supposing, however
it is as much as five years. Five
years is not long to wait for such an
opportunity.
But the confidence in this answer
to the question of why did Hanly dc
it? is causing it to be extended furth
er. The special session is altogether
unlikely to consider such a change in
the primary laws, but the regular ses
sion could and 1t is not improbable
that it will. And there you are. Gov
Hanly expects to make use of the
large popularity which he believes is
his in the state in Just this manner
say the men who have worked out
this theory. In the light of it's reas
onableness, men who have assumed
to say that the governors strons
stand for local option and all tenn
perance legislation is his means to Z
profitable place on the prohibition lee
ture platform are abandoning the lat
ter suggestion and thinking serious
: ly of the possibilities of direct pri
maries for U. S. senators.
Speaking of the governor, it is in
umated pretty directly that he will bs
on the stump within a short time
That he would be effective in opposi
ton to Thomas Marshall-especiall,
in the light of recent weaknesses dis
, played by the democratic candidate
is admitted. However. it had beer
expected that he would confine hi;
. stumping TO speeches favoring count,
local option, in an effort to make sur,
: the passage of the proposed bill a
the special session. The announce
ment that he is expected to take tn.
stump in answer to Marshall does no
cause any considerable joy in TIL.
household of the democratic leaders.
, No person is better in position t.
give the lie to the ill-consideret
! charges of extravaganza and incom
; petenc in the state house. being hurl
: ed by Marshall than the governor
: He is expected to do So The allega
: tions against the capability of tn,
/ railroad commission, for instance, vii
not hold water after the governor ha
{ turned loose a battery of facts, sa,
= the leaders and he is as eager as an,
: person to defend the work of the com
; mission, created and first operate,
i under his administration
Il Further emphasis upon the mistak
+ of the democratic candidate is exepc
+ ted from no less person than ]. Y
hartman, secretary of the Indian;
Manufacturers and Shippers associs
ton. through whose efforts the rail
road commission law was put int
its present effective form Zartmal
!; led the fight for the shippers agains
ahe railroads at the time the bill wa