Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-04-05
ALL WASHINGTON IN coNsPIR-
AcY I'd MAKE lNpIANAN
AN AMBASSADOR,
WAssPoPULAR
IN NATIONAL CAPITAL
Public Desires That Taft Appoint Him
to Court of st. James-champ Clark
Applies Party Lash to Congressman
o'conneII, and Opposes Him as As.
sistant Whip.
Especial Correspondence

| Washington, April Sit is one Of
the wonders of politics that all Wash
ington, without regard to party or any
other consideration is engaged in a
conspiracy to make Charles Warren
Fairbanks ambassador to Great Brit
ain.
Senator and Vice President Fair
banks is now travelling in California,
and is understood to contemplate
trip around the world. He is a man Of
wealth, and unless he returns to some
public position will doubtless ulti-
mately go back to Indianapolis to the
practice of the law. But the people
who knew him as vice president are
anxious that he go to Saint James
court. Not in many years has a man
retired from the public stage in Wash
ington with so great fund of good
will to his credit, as Mr.. Fairbanks
could claim when on March 4, at noon,
| he shook the hand of Vice President
Sherman, bowed and waved his hand
to the seSn. and retired from the dais
of the presiding officer. Everybody was
sorry to Sc him go. He had most dis
tinctly made good both as presiding
officer and as a social factor in the
capital.
Now that President Eliot has defin-
itely declined the British embassy,
consideration has turned unanimously,
apparently, to Mr.. Fairbanks, and ev-
erybody is hoping and predicting that
he will get the post. 1t is urged as
matter of politics that President Taft
could greatly strengthen himself and
improve the general political situation
in Indiana by this appointment, and
this consideration will not be without
weight in influencing the decision.
The first man in the house to smart
under the party dicipline Of Champ
Clark for boiling on the rules fight and
voting with the republicans is Repre-
sentative Joseph F. O'Connell, of Mas
sachusetts. O'Connell went farther than
most of the other boilers and voted
for the previous question. the adop-
ton of the old rules and for the Fitz-
gerald amendment. He had been as
sistent whip of the minority up to the
time Mr. Clark decided that boilers
did not make good whips. The Incl
dent which resulted in O'Connelrs ap-
pointrnent as assistant whip altho
known and laughed at in the cloak
rooms, has never been printed.
! Shortly after the second session of
the Sixtieth congress was convened a
prominent democrat went to John
Sharp Williams, then minority leader,
and suggested that he appoint an as
sistant whip.
| whats the use?" asked Mr.. Will
| liams.
Well" replied his friend, "they have
one on the republican side, and it
would give lots of encouragement to
some young member"
Have you any one in mind?" asked
Williams.
Yes" was the answer There's
young fellow from New Jersey named
Hughes who Is always on the job and
you might give it to him"
| Mr.. Williams promised to do so and
a short time later he stroled on to the
| floor of the house and down to the
seat which he supposed was occupied
| by Mr. Hughes. He talked to the gem
lleHan at lenRtn, explained MS duties,
and then forgot the incident until the
next morning when he read a rather
lengthy statement in the paper to the
eject that Joseph H. O'Connell, of
Boston, had been appointed assistant
whip of the minority. Williams was in
a fix. He could not tell O'Connell that
the appointment was blunder and
he could not tell Hughes that he was
intended for the job but was deprived
Of the honor because his minority
leader could not recognize his young
and energetic members. Consequently
the appointment stood as originally
made until Champ Clark deposed
O'Cornell and gave the job to the man
for whom it was really intended.