The National tribune., 1908-01-09
POLITICAL TACTICS.
Continued from page one. j

Continued from page one.)
York City any time that he is ready to
2 resign. That offer has been standing
t for some time, and undoubtedly affords
the Secretary of the Treasury consid-
cradle comfort. He is a poor man, the
: only member of the Cabinet, unless it be
Secretary Wilson, who has not some
: thing of a personal fortuHei He has
said to friends more than 9once that
Hitchcock should not be crowded too
; hard, and that he did not propose to be
5 crowded too hard. If he should go to
, New York and become President of a
financial institution, he woald be ready
: to take Mr.. Hitchcock with him. The
two have long worked together, and Mr.
Cortelyou has implicit faith in Mr.
Hitchcock. He first took him from a
| position as Chief of Bureau in the
/ Department of Agriculture and made
him Chief Clerk of the Department of
Commerce and Labor. Then Mr.. Cor
telyou resigned as Secretary of Com
merce and Labor and became Chairman
of the Republican National Committee.
: He took Mr.. Hitchcock over to an i'm
portant place in his office. When Mr..
ICortelyou was made PostmaSter-General
Mr.. Hitchcock was made First Assistant,
and would have gone over to tho Treas
ury Department as an Assistant Secre-
tary but for the fact that both the Sem
ators from Massachusetts,, to which
State he is accredited, altho a native of
l Ohio, wanted him to remain in the
Post Office Department to assist Mr..
! Meyer in getting the hang of that big
establishment.
/ The situation I'm Ohio.
The situation in Ohio is another ele-
ment in the big and interesting game of
| politics that just now entrances official
Washington. Senator Foraker, as can
didate for the Presidency, continues
| fighting with his back to the wall, but
the Taft forces in the State seem to
have things their way as far as the ar
| rungementS for a primary to choose
delegates to the State Convention are
concerned. The primaries are to be
held in February, and the State COnven-
ton, for the choice of four delegates at
large in March. But the arrangements
for holding the primary are regarded by
the Foraker people as unfair and also
as Illegal, and they are making ready to
interpose every possible obstacle. Sem
ator Foraker has announced that he
will not observe some of the provisions
for the primaries, especially about Sc
curing signatures for petitions to place
the names of candidates upon the ballot,
and some of his followers thruout
Buckeyedom are joining in loud pro-
|
Foraker by any means available, and
to handicap him in his race as much as
may be.
| All of political Washington is wonder
| ing what the outcome of the Ohio bal
loting will be and how much strength
Senator Foraker will show. Very diff
ferent estimates reach Washington on
that score. Some men believe he will
win six, eight, 10, perhaps as many as
IL delegates out of the 46, and some of
the more optimistic believe he will con-
| troll the State Convention and have the
four delegates at large. If that should
be it would sound the knell of the Taft
boom. Others say that Taft will sweep
| the State, and that he will come close
to having solid delegation. There is
even greater concern among the we'll
wishers of the Republican Party lest the
State be so torn by FACTIONS assto en-
able the Democrats to Garry off the
electoral vote next November, and to
choose the majority of the Legislature
which will have the choice of a United
States Senator to succeed Mr.. Foraker.
Such dire prophesies, probably, should
be taken with a grain of salt Ohio has
come near to going Democratic in a
Presidential election, but Mr. Cleveland
got but an electoral vote or two and
the others went for the reelection of
President Harrison. ~
| In the Far West.
With all the good news for the Taft
boom there is also some disquieting
news. Little State tho it is, Wyoming
is said to be wavering, with prospects
against Taft, altho the Administration
and the Secretary Of War were supposed
to be exceedingly strong there. Nebras-
ka, whose State Committee indorsed
him, may be snatched away for another
candidate. The Taft enthusiasm is wan
ing somewhat In Kansas, one of the first
States to declare for him. Opponents of
Taft are described as trying with some
success to break into Kansas, where it
was thought solid Taft delegation was
assured. 1t has been announced by
nearly every member of the California
delegation in Congress that that State
was "sewed up for the Secretary of
| War, but some very contradictory reports
are being brought East, indicating that
the friends of some other candidates
have been getting in some very clever
work.
| AS soon as Secretary Taft gets some
of his organization work here disposed
of he proposes to go out on a stumping
tour, which is calculated to improve his
chances. He has been asked to speak
in several States-in New Hampshire,
Massachusetts,, Vermont, Connecticut
and New York, and has accepted all the
invitations. In the course of those
speeches he will have opportunity to de-
fine his policies very clearly. The ex-
pectation of his friends is that in the
course of those speeches he will make 1t
plain that he is running for President
on his own hook, and that he will try
to dispel the impression that he is
candidate because President Roosevelt
wants him to be, and is merely an echo
of the present occupant of the White
House.
The Secretary had planned to visit
the Canal Zone again during the month
of January. He wanted chance to see
what was being done there, for he is the
Cabinet officer charged with the respon-
sibility for operations in constructing
the big ditch. Numerous matters have
been coming up on the Canal and In the
Zone which call for his immediate at
tention. His political compaign, how
lever. will prevent his going to the 18TH
mus for the present. He will hardly get
TO the Isthmus before the Spring and
: perhaps not then, for if his boom wakes
he will have all he can attend to with
his duties at the War Department and
with looking after his political cam
paign.
CONGRESS GETTING
CT0WTV tn W0DV