The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1908-02-14
WASHINGTON LETTER.


taut Postmaster General Hitchcock is to
resign from the Postoffice Department to
become the manager of the Taft presi.
dental campaign. This charge has mot
yet been officially announced but it is
well enough understood. There is good
deal of interest in this move because not
only is Mr.. Hitchcock good southern
politician and one who is calculated to
harmonic the warning southern dele
CATION if anyone can, but he is close
personal friend of the Secretary of the
Treasury, and his employment by the
Taft interests would indicate that Mr..
Cortelyou is going to eliminate himself
from the nomination contest altogether.
There has been good deal of talk over
the Taft ortelyou situation and it was
represented at the time the President
made his notable third term declination
that Secretary Cortelyou was much upset,
Saying that he had not been fairly dealt
with by the White House. 1t was said
at the same time that when Assistant
Postmaster General Hitchcock had made
his notable campaign tour over the South
he had been working up Cortelyou senti-
ment instead of working as he was sup
posed to do in the interests of Secretary
Taft. All of these reports were denied
by Secretary Cortelyou at the time they
Cie0,,1okoa h,zA aa,;a1 ea16Asx,
carries the weight of an original story.
Now if Mr.. Hitchcock is going out into
the field for Secretary Taft, it is proof
positive that there will he nothing doing
in the way of Cortelyou candidacy for
the next term. There remains the in
teresting question of how Mr.. Arthur
Vorys of Ohio will look upon anyone
else butting into the campaign manage
ment. He has heretofore been in sole
charge for Secretary Taft and there is
| just question whether there will be room
for both him and Mr.. Hitchcock in the
field.
49,
Speaking of Mr. Cortelyou, he has been
undergoing some grilling at the hands Of
Senator Culberson of Texas. The report
of the Secretary of the Treasury was re-
Gently called for, covering the issue of
Panama bonds n--the time of the money
panic. This report finally was submitted
1t had taken long while to compile as
sc II,
many official reports it contained sur
plus of facts and minimum of infor-
nation. Senator Culberson seems to
have dug out some of the information,
but he made long speech, two of them
| in fact, in which he charged that Secre-
tary Cortelyou had violated the law in a
number of instances. He declares that
the bulk of the financial relief had been
extended to the east, principally to New
York and that the west and south had
been left out almost altogether. Hespro-
duced figures tending to show that while
New York had less than sixth of the
depositors of the country it had received
more than third of the relief in the
shape of government funds. He said also
that New York had locked up its money
from the interior banks by refusing to
honor checks and that the government
money deposited in New York had not
gone to the relief of the financial situa
ton but had been loaned out at usurious
rates of interest to stimulate speculation.
OF course the Democrat clamor against
Secretary Cortelyou will not have any
effect any more than will the opposition
to the Aldrich Currency Bill now pend
/ ing. But there is good deal of truth
dealt out in most of the criticism and it
is good thing for purposes of illumi-
nation if for nothing else.
~.
1t is about settled that there will be
another message from President to Con.
gress at an early date. 1t is intended to
deal still further with the labor situation
experimenting the last message to some
extent. The President will urge the pass.
age OF compulsory arbitration law and
suggests some other things for the aid oil
organized labor. The evident object OIL
these prolabor moves is to aid the Taft
candidacy. Secretary Taft was known il