The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-22
BEGINNING Of
TAFT'S CAMPAIG
The Question of Who Is Going
to Manage the
Battle.
BY Ernest G. Walker.
(MaiI Special to the Advertiser

5 his feet. Putting down his official bur
dens, he has HE'D away to Hot Springs
Virginia, in the. heart of the noun
tains. 1t may be that Washington vii
| see no more of him till after the elec
ton. Or he may come thither on some
!, political business, especially if he
travels at any time to New York.
Before his departure there was great
political hubbub for a number of days
The politicians kept coming and going.
The Secretary tried to divide his time
between politics and cleaning up his
War Department desk The divided eff
fort nearly tuckered him out. He was
glad indeed to get away from the heat
of Washington, and glad indeed to be
able to give his time and his thought
exclusively to his campaign matters.
The ugly row in the party, especially
in Ohio, growing out of the strife To-
| the national craftsmanship, continues. Tt
| is the question that is receiving most
of the Secretary's attention political
ly. At first it was looked upon as
minor matter, but the Ohio quarrel
has grown in intensity and more and
more one hears of the danger that the
State will be split wide open by it.
the breach. A few weeks ago men were
saying that Senator Foraker never
would be reeonciled to Taft's nomina-
ton. But he has become reconciled,
has promised to support the ticket, and
has even stated his willingness to go on
the stump for Taft in Ohio-something
the prophets said the Senator never
could do.
Meanwhile, Arthur L. Vorys, Taft s
Ohio manager, is rending the air with
claims of what he did toward securing
delegates for the nominee, and ex-First
Assistant Postmaster General Hitch
cock s friends are telling how much he
did toward securing Taft IS nomination.
Mr.. Hitchcock is not such very great
talker himself, but he has said enough
to give his friends the cue. And so
they are at it, fighting with might and
main. It has already been announced
that Vorys can not have the chairman
ship of the National Committee, but
Hitchcock IS friends have not yet yield
ed hope. The thing drags along and
till about July 8, when MIR. Taft has
invited the special committee of the |
Republican National Committee to meet |
him at Hot Springs. At that meeting
the name of the chairman will be an
nounced, after which the work of or
ganizing for the big campaign can pro-
coed.
No one knows yet anything as to |
who the chairman viii be. There are /
predictions every day and with SO much |
guessing about so many men, somebody !
is likely to be right. Most of the
guessing is that Mr.. Hitchcock will land
the job, provided only that somehow
the implacable Vorys can
be Gained down. The Ohio office seek
ers are growing hungrier every day for
the places that Taft as President
would have to bestow, but they want
to be sure that Arthur Vorys is going
to be in a position to cut the pie.
Therefore they keep up their cater
wauling over every development toward
the necessary sidetracking of Vorys.
He simply won over much of the state
of Ohio for Taft by promising about
every Federal job President has to
give Unfortunately Mr.. Taft has had
no training as a politician, or he might
be able to handle these quarrels more
He does not want to go
back on Vorys, who was faithful to him,
and at the same time he realizes, as
President Roosevelt early realized, that
politically Vorys is simply impossible.
The wise men of the Republican party
generally regret keenly that the
chairman was not chosen i'm
after the Chicago convention
or at the meeting Secretary Taft had
with the special committee at Cincin-
natl. That was the customary thing
to do. The failure to agree or to find
some suitable man to take the chair,
has caused an impression of
and indecision in the manage
ment of the campaign to go abroad.
Of course the illness of Vice Presiden
tial Nominee Sherman was one of the
causes of the delay. but it might have
been better had the Secretary gone
ahead without Mr. Sherman s advice.
No member of the cabinet has re-
tired in recent times with the good
wishes of as many people as Mr.. Taft
has. He enjoyed great popularity in
Washington, because of his frank and
democratic ways. His office was as ac-
cessible as any other cabinet member IS,
more accessible by far than most of
them Democrats and Republicans gen
orally, who enjoy the Secretary &C
quaintance, have deep regard for him.
If he is elected President he will enter
upon his Office enjoying great popular
ity in the District of Columbia some
thing that is very rare for an incoming /
President.
Nominal1y Mr. Taft has gone to Vir-
ginia Hot Springs to build muscle, train
off embointpoint, and get into fine
shape for his campaign. He will do all |
these things by playing golf, in which |
he finds much enjoyment, but actually |
he viii do a vast amount of work and |