The Hawaiian gazette., 1912-04-19
POLITICAL GENERALS OUT ON
FIRING LINE PEGGING AWAY
Roosevelt Believed to Be Losing in the West---
Illinois Results Discounted by the
Taft Managers.

For two or three weeks, the Presi-
dent g managers have been expecting
he would lose the best part of Illinois
and have been fortifying themselves
against such a contingency. That is a
very important Republican State; about
the only large Republican state, except
ing California, which has seemed to be
very much pro Roosevelt. But the Pre-
sident has had lot of good fortune in
the middle West, that promised some
time ago to discount any untoward YER
diet in Illinois. He won Indiana, on the
east, and has as good as won Iowa on
the west, although Iowa was supposed
to have been one of the foremost In
surgent State. It is said to be certain
now that the President win have a
majority of the Michigan delegates, al
though that was one of the states pro-
claimed as certain for Roosevelt.
Senator Knute Nelson has just re-
turned from week s sojourn in Min
nesota The North Star State has been
accounted one of the most hostile to
the President in all the Mississippi Val.
ley. 1t has been figured that if he got
six or eight delegates there he would be
doing well. The cold Viking" Sen
ator tells his colleagues at the Capitol
that the President will get much more
| than that, perhaps all except four or
six of the delegates.
Picking Up.
From all of these conditions it will
be seen that the prospects for the
President have immensely improved.
Even if he loses the four delegates at
large from Illinois, his standing in the
convention at Chicago will not be ma
rerially impaired with the middle west.
The ferment in his home State of Ohio
appears to be ceasing. A situation
there that looked very badly for the
President a month ago is said to be de-
cidedly improved. 1t is still several
weeks before Ohio holds her preference
primary. The President IS renomina.
ton will then be SO apparent, that the
J Ohio opposition is expected to cut but
a sorry figure.
Consequently it remains that Illinois
is the only state of the Middle West
where Colonel Roosevelt can count
many delegates. When he gathers al
he has in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Hi
nois, and Minnesota, it can hardly bt
more than 100 votes, perhaps not more
than rs. He has not single delegat,
in Iowa and not single delegate il
Wisconsin which Senator La Follett
. has just swept by an overwhelming ma
D iority. 1t is not plain what Kansas,
0 supposedly Roosevelt state will do, 70
8 of late Kansas has furnished surprise
D in the President IS favor.
!, North Dakota Results.
e With such poor showing now assur
a ed in the Middle West, Colonel Roose
Y welt is not faring at all well in the ia
: west. He has not single delegat
/. from North Dakota, although it j
o claimed in his behalf that the choic
g of La Toilette delegates in North Dako
4 tn was progressive victory and Tai
c defeat, because Roosevelt ran a stron
{ second with the North Dakota voters
s By the same token the Taft hea6
9 quarters at Washington recently il
n sued bulletin, virtually paraphrasin
'. the Roosevelt bulletin about the vote i
n North Dakota and applying it to tn
@ outcome in Wisconsin.
IS "'The outcome of the Wisconsin pr
q maries,n ran this Taft headquarters
g bulletin, "indicates beyond all dout
J. that Theodore Roosevelt could not POI
n sibly carry the State if he were the R,
d publican nominee for President thi
II year. For the first time in decad
r, the Republicans of Wisconsin al
j. united and the issue which they hay
IS reunited is, to quote a La FFollett
G leader in the state-'to swat Roos
welt.
&c Ia al 4
" Mr. Roosevelt and his campaign ma
,s ayers on the question of presidents
r preference primaries, it is only neee
E. sary to call attention to the Fact th'
a they did not even compete in the Wi
1t consin primaries. To have comrett
he would have been violation OF the
to well established policy in this camPail
is of picking out seeming Short spots,
order that their candidate, rs in t
newspaper straw ballots published
:. newspapers control led by friend
~ agencies, may appear to maintlin
y unbroken line of victories.
:" "The vote cast for President Tia
- in Wisconsin, this Taft bulletin u
=: ceeds, "make him the second choi
:. among the Republicans of that Sta
- for the Republican nomination for Pi
n, sident. This vote was east in the fla
= | of the fact, that, while conceding t
W state to La Toilette in advance a
-, claiming no delegates for Taft from
'sa and conducting no campaign in t
\; State from the National Taft burei
~ ~ President Taft nevertheless, believi
~ fully in the Wisconsin primary la
~, ,ir competed as candidate and polled
-, highly respectable vote in ST.
Ia which is the home of the strong
Nv ~ progressive Republican candidate n
~ in the field"
The In The Far West.
ler Reverting again to the far W
er' with comparatively few votes in
Ut national convention) Colonel Roosev
at best, from all the prospects m
pm divide strength there with the Pr
the dent. He has already lost Colori
ms and all of its ten delegates. The Pr
TER dents friends are counting with c
has fidence upon Nevada, Utah, Monti
me and Wyominp with Washington