The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1912-08-29
Candidates For
vlce-PresIdent

Two of the five candidates for
vice president are now governors
Of states, one is already vice pres
ident, one is q former mayor of
Milwaukee, and the other is a
lecturer and college professor.
People usually regard the vice
presidency in a joucular way, as
a sort Of nth wheel to the ad-
ministration band wagon. Yet in
q social sense the vice president
outranks everybody but the presi-
dent. He presides over our high
est legislative body and OCCASION
ally is permitted to vote. He is
entitled to be called "Mr. Presi-
dent" and to have his pictures in
the newspapers and the campaign
lithogrophs and posters.
Since the foundation of this
government eight of our vice
presidents have afterwards be-
come presidents-John Adams,
T homas Jefferson, Martin
Van Buren, John Tyler, Millard
Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chest
er A. Arthur and Theodore Roose-
welt. In other words, the vice
president stands nearly one
chance in three of reaching the
higher Office. Among other dis
tinguished holders Of the job were
such men as George Clinton, Ell
bridge Gerry, John C. Calhoun,
George NJ. Dallas, John C. Breck-
enridge, Hannibal Hamlin, schuy-
ler Colfax, Thomas A. Hendricks,
Adlai e. Stevenson, Levi p. Nor
ton and Charles Warren Fair
banks. By all Of which tokens It
doth appear that the vice presi-
dsncy is place neither to be
laughed at nor sneezed at. There
fore please be serious in reading
about the several tails to our ma
tional tickets.
First there is our old friend
Sunny Observation-Disclosures
Schoolcraft Sherman, he of the
clarion voice and the bland smile.
To hear Sherman preside over the
United States senate is a perpet-
ual delight. Those silvery tones
have the average bell sounding
as if it had a bad cold. The vice
president is a very democratic
citizen and something of a politi-
clan withal. When he is not pre-
siding over the senate he is US
ually at ball game.
Twenty Years In Congress.
Before Sherman became Tafs
running mate he was congress-
man from the Utica IN. W dis
trict. I remember when I was up
in Herkimer county trying to elect
w. r. Hearst governor that the
Democrats used to tell me what
an all fred smart politician Jim
Sherman was. Said they could
n beat him nohow; he was too
foxy for 'em." And, believe me,
there is some politics in Herkimer
county. What they don't know
about the game is not worth the
use of a microscope to discover.
They are just as we'll versed in
political arts and artifies in
Oneida county, which at that time
constituted the rest of the dis
trict. Yet term after term Sher-
man took the nomination and
election away from all the other
able citizens and political post
graduates who thought they
would be an ornament to the job.
l don't know how often he was
elected to congress, but it go to
be a habit with him. His official
biography says he was in from
1886 to 1908 except for one term,
1902, when the Democratic
landslide ran away with him.
That is a matter of twenty years.
No wonder the other aspirants
grew discouraged.
Mr.. Sherman was born in Utica
in 1855 and has lived there ever
since, except for some twenty
four years in Washington. He
was graduated from Hamilton COL
lege and has the degree of LII. D.
from two or three other institu-
tions. He is a lawyer, director in
many local corporations and
member of a long array of clubs
in Utica, New York City and
Washington. He presided over
Republican state conventions in
1895, 1900 and 1908 and would
have presided over one in 1910,
but Roosevelt wouldn't let him.
Sherman's voice in political cam
paigns has been heard from
Maine to California, but not at
one and the same time. Wonder