Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1908-01-24


pfnes is appointed Dy the president.
But when it comes to voting for the
nominee in November they have nc
voice. Finally New England is classed
as unit in the convention for Secre-
tary Taft Senator Crane of Massa.
chusetts is opposing him. Both sena
tors from Connecticut are opposing
him. Senator Gallinger of New Hamp
shire is fighting him. With so strong
a force opposed it is scarcely probable
| that the solid force of the New Eng
land states will be cast for the wal
secretary.
The States That Nominate and Those
That Elect.
Looking over the list of states relied
upon to nominate Secretary Taft, we
find that a great proportion of his
votes in the convention will come from
commemorative that will never give
| him a vote in the electoral college
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia
Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri North
Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and
| Texas furnish in all 205 out of the 521
votes in the convention necessary to q
| choice. The territories, which have nc
vote in the electoral college, furnish
| fourteen more. In other words, the
| most friendly estimate that can be
made of Secretary Taft's strength in
| the convention indicates that it comes
! almost wholly from communities which
| cannot help him in the actual election.
The Vice Presidency.
One thing that the Democratic party
should do at its convention this year
is to select for once Iii its recent his
tory a strong man for second place
on the ticket. 1t is one Of the curious
devr iopments of politics in the last
twenty-five years that the vice presi-
lency has gradually been reduced to a
place of less Importance than a cabi-
net position or even the post of private
secretary to the president. 1t cannot
be said that this is altogether due to
the fact that strong men have not been
nominated for the vice presidency. As
rule, they have not been. But when
Mr.. Hendricks of Indiana was nomi-
mated with Cleveland he possessed
vastly more knowledge of national af-
fairs than did his chief. When Mr..
Thurman of Ohio was nominated on
the unsuccessful Democratic ticket
with Mr.. Cleveland in 1888 he, too,
was man trained in the life of the
capital and was quite as fit to be pres
ident as the man with whom he ap-
peared upon the ticket. General Adlai
Stevenson in 1892 was a man of ma
tiOnal knowledge and national reeogni-
ton. With him the Democratic party
began to let the vice presidential Office
go by default. That it renominated
him eight years later does not shake
the force of this argument He had
been long out of office then and with
the highest qualities of integrity and
with the most lovable disposition imag-
Unable was past the time of life when
he should have been the nominee for
the second place on the ticket.
In 1896 an utterly unknown man
was taken from Maine to be the vice
presidential nominee with Mr. Bryan.
However excellent his qualities may
have been, he was utterly unfit for
such place.
1t was not only the Bryan element
in the Democracy that Numbered, for
i'll 1904 the friends of Judge Parker
nominated for vice president Mr. Hen
ry Gassaway Davis of West Virginia.
Theoretically the vice president takes
his Office in order to be ready to as
sumo the duties of the presidency i'll
the event of the death of his chief.
Mr.. Davis when nominated was easily
twenty years older than Judge Parker.
Theoretically the Democratic party
stood against trusts and monopolies.
Mr.. Davis is the most successful man
ager of combinations of capital, of
mines and Of railroads the state of
West Virginia knows.
This year it seems that the Demo
cratic party should take a leaf from
the book Of the Republican party of
1900. 1t seems, too, that men of force
of character and standing might we'll
look to what Theodore Roosevelt has
won by becoming against his will
vice presidential candidate. Personal
ly'I think that had he remained in that
office and not been promoted by the
bullet of an assassin he would yet
have impressed himself upon the ma
ton as a man of force and power
The same opportunity is open to many
men on the Democratic side of politics.
and it is confession of weakness
rather than an assertion of strength
when capable man fears to take this
post. l look to see, and I have the
agreement of many prominent men in
the Democratic organization, a care
full study made at the next convention
Of the qualifications of aspirants for
the vice presidential nomination and q
hard fight made for the place.
Washington u q