The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-09-08
By Ernest G. walker.

(Mail Special to the Advertiser.1
WASHINGTON, D. c., August "a
The stumpers have broken loose over
the land Their great quadrennial per.
Torrance is on. 1t is the multi;ring
circus Of American politics, which puts
Its best and most numerous attraction:
on the road of presidential year. The
Taftites, Bryanites, Debsites, Hisgen-
ties and Chafnites have their orator.
cal menageries, acrobats, tumblers,
sword-swallowers and attendant train
proceeding industriously from munich
pality to municipality, vying for the
favor of the populace. Things are
doing in the big tent. There are
splenty of side show attractions.
There have been exhaustive prepare
tions. The tinsel and the pomp have
been arranged anew for the procession
around the circuit. Joke books, worn
at the corners, have been thumbed once
again. The aged Preparations have
been toilfully refurbished; threadbare
party arguments put in fresh attire.
The lathes in sentence factories have
been whirring. Abundantly supplied
with equipment and paraphernalia for
fulsome and impassioned utterance, the
stumpers, many of them trained from
very childhood, have gone forth for
action.
And yet it has become an axiom of
politics that the average stump speech
makes few, if any, converts. News
paper-reading voters of these modern
days are swayed but momentarily by
the fervor of oratory on the hustings.
And yet, again, the great quadrennial
speaking show is indispensable. 1t
supplies the personal element of in
terest. The multitudes cheer the anti
quated anecdotes and note whether the
stumper reeites them well or other
wise. They mark his bearing, are en-
thusiastie when he hits his adversaries.
His course of political reasoning is re-
hearsed in the stores and workshops
and on the cracker barrels In the cor
ner groceries The speeches, whether
heard by the voters in person or read
in the local newspapers, bring the cam
paign a little nearer home. They set |
the qualified males of voting age to |
to thinking. They !
make campaign hum, which
is what the managers most desire.
The big American stumpers, those
who represent the survival of the fit
test and especially those who enjoy the
additional attachments of high public
station, probably do make votes. That
is WHY invitations from State and
County committees pour in upon them
the moment a campaign is under way
That is whv special railroad trains are
chartered at the risk of wreeking cam
5aign exehequers to whirl these stars
from town to town and city to city
10 utilize every whit of lung capacity
md vocal chord capacity during two
" three precious months. Such
,tumpers sway the indeclsive. They
ipeak author1tatively. However, their
appeals are often quite as common
,laee as those of the tyro orator, vino
,aeks his belongings into a grip sack n
md travels in the smoker-the carttail 7
md schoolhouse stumpers who voealIze
he issues for the struggling crowds. q
3ut the personality often, quite as !
much as the language, counts. !
Two of the three great divisions Of
he Government at Washington invari-
bly, supply lion S share of the pres
Dental stumpers par excellence. They
re the legislative and the executive
ranches-the President, if he consents
D 60 upon the stump, which is con-
-arv to the best traditions of the of
ce: the Vice President and members
f the Cabinet. who, in modern times,
o participate in the political fray, and
enators and Representatives in Con-
ress. The judiciary, from the mem
ers of the Supreme Court down to the
carers of district ermine, are sup
osed to hold aloof from politics and ?
,uallv do. TIE minority party
,pirants fo1 the two big executive P
aces are, of course, stumping stars n
Tho 6rs+ naonitrSNe. n
President Theodore Roosevelt easily is
lids the place of foremost American II
,ellbinder. 1t has not always been e
JUS with Presidents, which means that y
T. Roosevelt is facile princeps, not Il
lely because he happens to occupy CT
e White House. Many well-inform-