Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-06-26
Republican Leaders in Doubt.
All Are Recalling 1892---Roosevelt
Wanted Hughes for Second
Place on Ticket.

w duUGu hughes TOT second
Place on Ticket.
HE SPURNED ALL OvERTURES-IND d.
ANA LIKEWISE DECLINED TO MAKE
ANY ELEVENTH HOUR COMPACT FOR
FAIRBANKS FOR SECOND PLACE.
oUTBURsTs OF ENTHUSIASM OVER
La TOILETTE AND OTHER RADICALS
SET THE CONSERVATIVES THINKING.
Washington Herald
sis it to be 1892 over again ~
Newspaper men and Others returning
from Chicago bring but one story of
the Republican national convention. 1t
was utterly lacking in enthusiasm for
Taft. 1t was apathetic toward him
throughout.
But the convention gathering was
marked by something more than apa-
thy. An undercurrent of positive re-
sentiment characterized it. Delegations
that voted for Taft from choice and not
dictation, no less than those committed
to favorite sons, manifested displeasure
with the cut-and-dried convention pro-
gramme, and openly condemned the
methods employed to promote Taft's
candidacy.
After it was all over, not only the
rank and file as represented at the con-
vention, but party leaders themselves,
took no pains to conceal their misgiv-
ings as to the outcome of the campaign
as it to be 1892 over again ?" was the
question asked on all sides. Doubt
was in the air
| MAN FOR THE EMERGENCY.
The man Roosevelt wanted on the
ticket with Taft and the man Taft
himself wanted for running mate was
not Deliver, or Cummins, or any Mid
die Western man, as so loudly pro-
claimed. Least of all was Jim Sher-
man the man. The man the White
House wanted was never presented to
the cOnvention--one. whose name his
champion forgot to mention in nomi-
mating him for first place-Charles 4.
Hughes, governor of New York. He
was the man both Roosevelt and Taft
wanted for Vice President-the man
they felt they needed for the election
emergency-after first place had safely
been pre-empted for the President s
candidate. Hughes grew in their est
nation nightly at the last hour.
But Hughes spurned every overture
to him to 60 on the ticket with Taft.
He would have none of it. He was
adamant-unyieldin great was
the wrath thereat in highest political
quarters.
1t was not that Roosevelt loved
Hughes that he wanted him, not that
he even approved of him, but that the
ticket needed him to insure its success
in November.
This is no fairy tale of election after
math. 1t is cold, hard fact.
INDIANA'S EMPHATIC s'NO.O
Next to Hughes the White House
turned to Cummins, an available West
ern radical, but State complication
put him out of consideration. Thef
Indiana asked to name Fairbanks. In
dina refused. 1t would vote for him
, if another State presented him, bu1
Fairbanks had emphatically declared
he would be party to no programme
dictated from Washington, Indiana
{ thereupOn was asked to name Beve
ridge. 1t again refused. 1t would sup
, port him if he were put in nomination
but Indiana had no candidate for Vic
President The Hoosier State, line(
up with the "allies" from the start
would make no eleventh-hour compac
with the steam-roller crowd.
And so the administration was up il
the air as to the Vice President.
Meanwhile the Jim" Sherman boon
, had accumulated momentum. Uncl'
Joe Cannon took charge of it, ant
whooped it up all along the line. De
!, legates who had been permitted to d'
, no thinking part for themselves unit
that time took to it enthusiastically
By 10 o'clock Friday morning Hitch
F cocks steam roller was out of commits
, sion. He had dallied unduly at tn
, long-distance telephone. The Sherman
boom could not then be headed off, an(
he was nominated with ease.
But even then party spirit did no
rise The work was done, but was i
well done? The delegates were uncer
tain. A more low-spirited lot Of Doubt
ing Thomases never left convention
city. Some of them went home abso
lutely sullen. as it to be 1892 ovel
again ?" many Of them were asking.
RADICALIsM IN THE WEST.
The homecoming newspaper mer
and others emphasize another phase O.
the Chicago gathering. 1t brought out
the fact clearly and Enthusiastically thai
radicalism is still rampant out West
But two demonstrations occurred il
the convention-one for Roosevelt anC
the other for La Toilette The gallerie;
were packed with radicals. Apparent
ly they did not appraise Taft as bear
ing the simon-pure brand of radical
ism. Next to Roosevelt, the man who
measured up to their idea of what their
leader should be was La Toilette. Con.
servatives were aghast at the La Fol.
lette demonstration. They saw its
meaning. One of them, analyzing il
said: "If this thing grows, none of us
will be at home in the next Republi-
can convention" And all the while,
| as William A Hen White pOintad ont