The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-09-04
A PULLING OUTLOOK FOR
THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN

been notified this week and, of course
had speech, as Vice Presidential Can.
didate Kern will have next week.
Taft Is Going Fishing.
These late August efforts should do
much toward launching the campaign
and toward overcoming the reserve that
both of the candidates have shown to
date. Mr.. Bryan is understood to have
consented reluctantly to going on
stamping tours, but his managers in
sisted upon it. The result will be watch
ed closely. His course in that particu-
lar is in strong contrast to the program
] Nominee Taft has decided upon, for. he
is going to keep on playing golf, even
though it be rich mans game, as some
of the plain Republican voters have
been complaining, and by September
will take up his residence at Cincinnati
and make all his speeches from there.
In the meantime he is going on fish
ing trip to Middle Bass Island, Putin
Bay, Ohio, and, reinforced by exercise
at golf and by an outing in quest of
the gamey denizens of Lake Erie ex-
poets to be in fine fettle for two months
of hard political fray.
Although it is month since the
Denver convention adjourned, there has
been little in the general trend of the
thoughts Of voters to show any decisive
changes pro-Taft or proBryan. The
campaign letter writers are having a
big inning. Those of pro.Taft incli
nation have been flooding him with
communications. These pro-Taft letters
tell him things are surely coming his
way. Horoscopes have been cast to
show that Taft is going to BE President
Straw votes have been taken to the
same purpose. Factories have been
canvassed. Out at Fairview the daily
mail is likewise heavy. Hundreds of
Republicans are writing that they will
cast their first Democratic votes this
year. There are multitudes of callers
at Fairview, who assure Mr.. Bryan
that he is going to have walkaway.
II is the same at Hot Springs, where
the visitors hasten to tell Mr.. Taft
how many States are on fire for him.
| Not a Sure Test of Sentiment.
| But after all the letter writer's can
not be trusted to voice public seIti-
ment correctly. In every community
| there is class of professional letter
writers. They hasten into print on the
slightest excuse. They address the local
newspapers and they write to public
men of prominence. The White House
IS always besieged by thousands of mis-
sives from these professional letter
writers, whenever any new issue arises.
The letters, of course, are interesting
as showing the attitude of one more or
less restricted class of people. SINH
larry, the people, who flock to Presi
dental candidate to tell him that he
surely will be elected, are not infallible.
They, too, like to get into association
with the great and the near great. and
are not apt always at telling the can
didate exactly what they think or feel,
but more what they think is likely to
please him.
Careful men who study the conditions
reason that Bryan is stronger this year
than he was in either of his previous
campaigns. That seems to be pretty
well established by the developments
IN the campaign to date. He is moro
experienced and more conservative and
thus far has handled his campaign very
well-on the whole with less friction
than the Taft campaign has been han.
died. Then Taft, with all his good
qualities, probably is not as strong
candidate as Mckinley was either in
1876 or in 1900. That, in summing up
the comparative strength of the eandi-
dates with the voters, is not to be over
looked. For while the East is gener-
ally accepting Taft as the safer and
more conservative of the two candi.
dates, that very reasoning is matter
of weakness to Taft in the West where
Bryan is making his most aggressive
, campaign.
Newspaper Accession For Taft.
Taft has made some pronounced gains
in recent days among the newspapers,
but it remains to be seen how much
these gains will benefit him in the long
run. The Baltimore Sun, strong and
influential paper, that bolted Bryan in
1876 and supported him perfunctorily
in 1900, has declared for Taft. 1t prob.
ably assures a Republican majority in
Maryland for Taft, but there has been
almost no Lope from the very start that
Maryland would vote for Bryan. Re.
cent events indicate that the Cincinnati
Enquirer, owned by John r. Mclean,
and very much of power IN the Mid.
die West, as far as its news columns
are concerned, is gradually sliding over
to Taft. Mr.. Mclean and the Republi.
can nominee are not only fellow towns
men but intimate friends. Mr.. Me,
Lean, for sufficient reasons, would like
to be in the good graces of the next
administration, if it is to be Republi.
can. He has been entirely out of sym.
pathy with modern progressive Dem.
ocracy.
1t looks as though the Republicans
had done something to check the trend
of the organized labor vote to Bryan
because of the labor plank of the Den.
Yer platform. Most strenuous, although
quiet, work has been done and in some
particulars it has been successful The
cry has been raised by the Republicans
all along the line that the labor vote
can not be delivered and Samuel Com.
pers, president of the American Fedora.
ton of Labor, has been tremendously
denounced for lending himself to any
such effort. 1t remains to be seen,
however, whether the Democrats will
not get very good share of the labor
vote this autumn.
similar struggle has been in prog.
ress with reference to the negro vote.
The Republicans have been fighting
~ l,,t