The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-01-24


still have plenty of political and de-
partmental work to do.
GOVERNMENT PRESSURE.
The opinion grows that all the forces
of the government are to be placed at
his disposal by President Roosevelt.
| Nominally, of course, the oficeholders
and the governmental chieftains are
not in the business of President-making.
But Mr.. Roosevelt wants Mr., Taft as
being thwarted. When he is opposed
in his wishes, he simply drives his way
| through to the goal. He rides over
people and institutions who stand in
his path. Senators are beginning to
realize what the program is when they
go to ask for the appointment of some
man as an official who is known as an
anti-Taft Republican. Pleasant words
are said. One excuse or another is
made. The appointment is not forth
coming. The men who are appointed
to big offices generally blossom out as
ardent Taft workers. It is heralded far
and wide that they believe the Secre-
| tary should be nominated. This is true
especially of the South, where the moral
effect of such things is marked, but it
also holds true to a lesser extent in
other sections.
.Tba Gapa+a oo11l S4rilxa hoax ra
fusing combinations. But the Senate
is slow to embark upon any such policy,
although most of the Republican Sem
ators are anti-Taft to the core. Be-
| fore Congress is in session long there
may be some feints to indicate that
the Senate is thinking of such a policy.
Nominations of these friends of the
administration might drag in the COM
mittees to which they are referred.
| Objections to consideration might be
raised in executive session when the
But the session has not developed far
enough to determine whether there will
be recourse to such things.
Of course oficeholders have been
mustered for such presidential cam
paigning before. Perhaps it has been
done just as extensively and perhaps it
has not. President Harrison secured a
denomination by such methods. He did
not relish being outdone by Mr.. Blaine,
his Secretary of State. The oficehold-
ing delegates at Minneapolis voted him
went away swearing vengeance. They
had it, but whether by their own sulk-
ing or from other causes no one will
| ever be able to determine.
TREMENDOUS ORGANIZATION.
| However. men do not win a Repub-
| liean nomination for the Presidency
1, without forceful, overpowering politics.
Watchful, aggressive campaigns must
be waged ceaselessly. There must be a
riding over lot of people who, in
the course of such events, are fond
of putting themselves in the way. There
must be an organization of terrific
potentiality. Secretary Taft seems to
have such an organization. 1t is proper
ly fabricated in all its parts. The right
men have not always been posted at
+, strategic places, but the Secretary is
correcting that rapidly. Some, one is
furnishing plenty of the wherewithal.
Much of it, perhaps all of it, is COM
| ing from Cincinnati, where the Secre-
| tary's multi-millionaire half brother,
| Charles p. Taft, resides. Within the
last week or two this organization,
working in conjunction with the Fed
eral organization seems to have been
doing wonders. At least that is the
! impression borne in upon Washington
| from divers quarters.
| It may be that the newness of the
Secretary's activities, following his
long absence on a globe girdHng tour,
has had something to do with the pop
ular interest. The wise ones were pre-
dieting that the Taft boom would have
a squirt as soon as the Secretary re-
| turned. But 1t looks as though the
squirt were developing into great
progress The other candidates have
been resting on their oars during the
! holidays. None of them has anything
! like as good an organization as Sec
rotary Taft has.a They have been rea-
| soning that it would be better to re-
serve their energies till later in the
race. Speaker Cannon has had steam
! UP for several weeks. He has a splen-
! did organization among members OF
| the House. The Republican Congress
/ sional Committees politicians, than
whom there is no sIicker manipulators
the country over, have charge of his
| interests. A big meet in the Speakers
! honor, for the purpose of promoting his
! boom, has been arranged at Cham
! paign, Illinois, but it has attracted
about as much attention from the
country as a news paragraph that
some western community was going to
organize a very tall mems club in the
| interest of Vice President Fairbanks
boom. Little is heard of the Knox
boom. which does not seem to be TAX
| ing root outside of Penn sylvia mia