The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-03-27
WIRE PULLING
FOR SECY. TAFT
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WASHINGTON. D. C., March IL
High up in a new granite building
the greatest wire pulling contest seen
in Washington for many a day is on.
On the eighth floor of this structure,
which is Just around the corner from
a full view of the White House, only
block away, are the Taft presidential
headquarters. A political candidate
never was working harder for the nomi-
nation. Everybody around him is work
ing about twenty hours a day. His
manager, ex-First Assistant Postmaster
General Frank H. Hitchcock, is up a
little while after the sun peeps over
the horizon and keeps awake till long
into the evening. A corps of type
writers are banging out eommunica-
lions by the hundreds. A corps of
clerks and assistants are working as
though their very lives depended up
on Secretary Taft s nomination.
The Secretary rarely visits the place
himself, but from his office in the War
Department, he is in frequent COM
munication and every little while some
thing of Importance is discussed by
telephone. The big people generally
go over to the Secretary's office first
and wind up by visiting his campaign
manager Sometimes the campaign
manager runs across worker or ad-
mirer whom he thinks the Secretary
ought to see. An appointment is made
forthwith and the visitor takes his
turn in the Secretary's crowded ante
room.
Never before since the campaign for
the nomination began has there been
so much throbbing, feverish effort. All
the candidates in Washington are
wrought up to high pitch. Every lit
tie advantage that any one of them
scores is looked upon as notable and
is put into circulation in the hope of
dislodging some of the voters in numer-
Gus states who are hanging on the top
rails of the fences.
As an example, the other evening
there was suddenly great eommotion in
the Taft headquarters high up on the
eighth floor. Every newspaper Office
in Washington was notified that tele-
gram of moment had been received
from Guilford, N. C. A county down
there had instructed its delegates for
Taft after a hard fight and by a
very close shave. 1t might have SEEM
ed as though bag of twenty delegates
had been secured for the Secretary
of War in the June convention at Chi
cago. Great stress was laid upon the
birthplace of Speaker Cannon, who, as
is not generally remembered, is a |
by birth. 1t also includes
the scene of the famous revolutionary |
battle of Guilford courthouse and the |
ferceness of the strife for delegates |
among the few Republicans who live |
IN the county had apparently been like
unto that between the Red Coats and |
the Patriots a century and quarter
ago.
However interesting the Guilford vic
,ory might be from sentimental point
IF view. the cold facts are that Gull
ford is only one of ten counties that
will send delegates to the Fifth Con-
gressional district convention and said
fifth Congressional district convention
will elect two delegates to the Chicago
The Taft workers and managers are
" no means the only ones who are
aking developments in the campaign
% seriously. Up at the Capitol full
,rown Congressman are working with
IL the zeal of two-year-olds trying
o get delegates for this or that presi-
entail candidate. Speaker Cannon
as coterie of Congressional experts
n Southern states, where he hopes to
ct a few delegates. Senators and
have been on the go
or Vice President Fairbanks, hasten
ng into Kentucky, into Colorado, into
'tah, into many other states trying to ,
old the local politicians in line for
i'm. Senator Knox, although he is {
eeping quiet as mouse, is doing a {
It of work to keep his boom in thrifty
ondition. He has some Senators and
embers looking after his interests in
ew Jersey and Delaware and West !
irginia and even in New York.
Recently Senator Crane, of Massa- =
lusetts, went to New England, which =
as become a great battle-ground, one
de contesting fof delegates pledged
Taft and another side c9ntending
"a I'll iAONSCh 'ClJ-fhtCo IHC CtHdlOl
ent several days in Boston and other }
massachusetts, cities battling for the J,
lvancement of the cause of the IN {,
edged ones. He put in as strenuous u
week as he has had in a twelfth |,
Onth and came back to Washington v
oking as worn as though he had been =
jagged through seven cities. But all n
2 captains and lieutenants take these u
rdships eheerfully. They would not
,rk as vigorously or spend as much q
ergy at anything else without grum- II
ng fearfully. When it comes to the u
eat game of politics, however, they u
: ready to sacrifice time and energy al
to the limit
Senator Foraker, of Ohio seems to eN
about the only candidate who is al
wing down. Since the Ohio conven- "a
ms, which the Taft people captured DC
tn only one exception, the Senator co
) been saying little. He has not pl
t, however. The negroes are clam
ng all over the South for eonven- n
q delegates who will supuort him in II