The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-01-02

headquarters IN the treasury Depart
ment has been doing quite as Wen as
the campaign headquarters in the
White House for Taft has been doing.
The President has also said that he
wanted every candidate TO come out
into the open. Every tub must stand
on its own bottom. He has likewise
said that rs felt an interest to see
how the third term shouters would
align themselves. He knows very well
that many. many politicians have been
shouting for his denomination and try
ling to get delegates instructed for hun,
with the idea that, when he reiterated
and made it plain that he. would not
accept, these delegates could be
handled in favor of some man other
than the Presidents favorite.
There is a third cause of the reiter-
alton at this time, although it is hard
ly an acute cause" The Presidents
close personal friends, men like SEN
been urging him to end the third term
chatter once for all and that the soon
err he did it the better. 1t may or may
not have significance in this connection
that the night before he issued his
reiteration the President dined inform
ally at Senator Lodges residence, as
| he does occasionally during the vim
ter. He stayed till after 10 o'clock in
| the evening and it is almost certain
that the subject must have been dis
cussed.
Every Washington politician has
been peering into the future to see
what the effect of the reiteration will
be. 1t is plain that there must be
realignment of booms forthwith. A
few weeks may be necessary for things
to settle down so that the aspirants
can say just ''where they. are at One
effect has been to emphasize the ex-
istence of the Cortelyou boom and to
lay bare the fact that it has been
growing tremendously, although little
observed. The prophets are divided
about the prospects of that boom.
Some of them say it is bound to grow,
because of the secretary's popularity
with organized labor, with fnanciers,
with the old Hanna crowd of the Re-
publican organization, and, as a, young
man who has risen through his own
efforts in the Civil Service, with the
country generally. There are other
prophets who insist that the Cortelyou
boom will collapse, now that it has
been exposed, because he will be char
acterized as the bankers candidate, on
account of his operations in Wall
street during the recent panic.
Possibly the most serious phase OF
the situation, is that it discloses two
candidates in the Presidents cabinet.
This has given rise to wide spread ru-
mors that both Secretary Cortelyou
and Secretary Taft would resign.
There is no foundation for a BELIEF that
either will resign Immediately but
there is foundation for the belief that,
if both remain as active, aggressive
candidates, one of them, at least, must
resign. The usefulness of the two Sec
retaries in the cabinet would be i'm
paired, if their thoughts were centered
chiefly on winning the nomination and
it would become intolerable to the
President, who would inevitably be
drawn into the struggle. He could hard
ly avoid showing favor for either the
campaign from the War Department
or for the campaign from the Treasury
Department. Then as Secretary Taft
was plainly the Presidents first choice,
he would be annoyed by the progress
of the Cortelyou boom, which, up to
date, has done better than the Taft
boom has done under Presidential
management.
Secretary Taft's side of the story,
of course, has not been heard yet and
little is known as to what he will do
when he returns. 1t is not be-
lieved that he will resign. Some
months ago he was very much averse
to any such a program. Secretary
Taft, ike Secretary Cortelyou, is a
poor man, and he needs the cabinet
sa'ary He does not need it as badly
as Secretary Cortelyou does for MS.
Taft has wealthy relatives and Mr..
Cortelyou has not.
Some of the big and influential men
of the country are very highly pleas
ed at Secretary Cortelyou's admins
tration of the Treasury Department
and the President could not dispense
with Mr.. Cortelyou's services without
arousing a tremendous storm of pro-
test. Financial matters are not any
too settled at present and the Pres
ident would not think of making any
change in the Treasury portfolio at
the present time. It would be very
like swapping a good horse in mid
stream for some other, whose qualities
had not been proven. And yet, certain
as the things already mentioned are,
the President is distrustful, or claims
to be, of Secretary Cortelyou's polit-
zeal activities and is not quite will
/ ing to forgive his Secretary of the
+! Treasury for having done better in
! booming himself than the President
was able to do in person for the Sec
rotary of War.
All the Republican booms will now
/ be reorganized on a new basis but the
| Organizations of Taft and Cortelyou
will probably be most watched just
| for the present. Secretary Cortelyou
has recently said that he does not
know yet just what he viii do in the
way of organization. He has made
no formal announcement of his can
didacy, but he has told his friends
that ne feels he has a right To a
/ Presidential ambition and that, as long
as the President does not want the