Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1911-05-12

nv SOSI mOTe Cndu the ABUSES they
are intended TO correct, will be
adopted.
Watching Carter Harrison.
The announcement from Illinois OF
son as mayor Of Chicago, and the Gre
alton of the local branch of the Pro
gressive Republican league pledged to
La Toilette, has national significance.
illinois is always a storm center. In
Altgeld's days it was more of a bat
ueground than now, but the younger
harrison is likely to revive the tactics
ton, especially those from Illinois and
bordering states, are watching closely
MS early acts in Office.
Among the Illinois delegation here
ID Washington there are men who have
begun already talking about him for
either the first or the second place on
the national ticket. / have heard him
uncounted times say that the position
OF mayor of Chicago is one of vastly
more power and of quite equal pres
tlge to the vice-presidency, in which
ne IS right. 1t does not seem prob
able that he can get the first place
on the national ticket, even if the
story that the Illinois delegation is to
De turned over to some one named by
Hearst Is untrue, as I think it is. For
these reasons 1 do not believe, and
rev of the congressman from the mid
Gle west believe, that the Harrison
ambitions will extend for the present
beyond the boundaries of the city Of
Chicago.
Still there is going to be free for
all convention of the Democratic par
ty with more candidates than have
been presented in the last sixteen
years. His name may be one of those
which six months ago we would not
have thought would have even a hear
ing. The opinion is hazarded by pO-
llt1cal observers here that Harrison
will stand we'll in the running, with
Folk Of Missouri who has already the
Endorsement of his own state, and
with Governor Marshall of Indiana,
but that none of the three will get
farther than a complimentary vote.
The outbreak of the La Toilette
movement in Illinois is regarded here
as the beginning OF a savage fight
which will probably not prevent the
denomination Of President Taft, but
which may result in a second Repub!
lican ticket.
Harmon Boom Launched.
The Judson Harmon presidential
boom was formally launched in
Washington recently at a meeting
OF the entire congressional dele
CATION from Ohio, headed by Sen
ator Atlee Pomerene. Senator Pom
creme is of course somewhat of bene-
ficiary Of Gov. Harmon, who first
secured his nomination and election
as acknowledgement and then
switched him to the United States
senatorship. While the latter action
created some hostility to the governor
in Ohio, it has probably proved good
politics as it gives Harmon a personal
representative in Washington, hold
ing the distinguished position of a
United States senator and under de-
date for the presidency.
When I refer to the boom being
launched I do not overlook the fact
that Gov. Harmon's candidacy has
been matter of common knowledge
ever since his reelection as governor.
But less than any other man holding
the entirely justifiable ambition to be-
- T,,:%
he has pressed his cause. He has sat
back with the proposition that his
business was to be governor first and
presidential candidate afterwards.
This position was magnificent but it
was not war, and his friends at the
capital have been a little bit dis
quieted by the lack of any systematic
effort authorized by him to urge his
candidacy. He has to meet the scarce
ly yelled antagonism of Mr.. Bryan. He
has to encounter the very powerful
strategical position Of Champ Clark,
who not merely has the ear Of the
press, the Washington representatives
er's Office, but is in a position to dis
cuss his hopes and ambitions daily,
almost hourly, with men Of political
influence in various states who come
to seek favors from the speaker. Fur
thermore Gov. Wilson of New Jersey
has been making strides to the front
in the last few weeks. He has a press
bureau and a lecture bureau. He is
radical enough to keep himself in the
public eye very successfully, and suffl-
GENTLY conservative not to estrange
the financial forces which originally
put him into politics.
With this active work in progress
by his chief rivals, Gov. Harmon has
neither in person nor by authorize
ton to his friends, permitted any &C
tive campaign to be made for him. The
result is that there has been a some
what nervous feeling on the part Of
Harmon men in Washington of late
But although he was slow to enter
the field with a systematic propagan-
da, it is fair to say that his entrance