The Washington herald., 1912-03-31
Ry JAMES b. MORROW.

There has been trdoluoh bidt hleA
meddIing from Washington never did I
Presidential candidate any good. TIL
people, it was thought, wanted to be lie
alone while making their choice. Al
woodrow Wilson would say, in writing
IA confidential letter to a trusted friend
that tradition has been knocked into {
cooked hat
Anyway, Washington this year has be
come the main show, and energetic man
ayers at the door urge the crowds e
walk right in, study the literature, gaZ'
at the photographs and decide the matte
for themselves. as patriots and intelh
gent men. Il is a strenuous business
William Brown Mckinley, manager fol
President Taft tells me that his physica
trainer calls him every morning at SO
o'clock. puts him through his gymnastics
and then strikes coffee from his break
fast and tobacco from his daily com
forts. II had to hire him." Mr.. Mckinley
said with an apologize tone in his voice
ito train me for the strain"
Also there are managers for Roosevelt
La Toilette, Cummins, Wilson, Harmon
and Underwood. Foss. Gaynor. and Mar
shall are unrepresented at the Nationa
Capital so far. They may be, however
later on. The ancient prejudice against
and the fear of Washington, then. have
Fassed away and the rhetorical and hur'
rying Presidential propagandists are here
perhaps, TO stay.
An old baseball catcher, Fred 7. Du-
bois, of a team once celebrated at Yale,
is directing the campaign of Champ
Clark. Dubois, likewise, formerly punched
COWS from Blackfoot TO Cheyenne and
chased polygamous Mormons while a
marshal of the United States. He is an
erect, full-chested and large-eyed six
footer and has served two terms in the
Senate. Up to the year 1896 he was a
Republican. With Henry NJ. Teller and
Richard F. Petugrew, both Senators;
Frank J. Cannon, son of Mormon
functionary by plural wife, and others,
he marched out OF the St. Louis conven-
ton that nominated William Mckinley for
President because l6 to was voted down
and gold instead was written into the
years has been in Idaho. He has irri-
gated ranches. one of $50 acres. and
grows alfalfa, potatoes, and wheat.
Politician and Potato Specialist.
"A good farmer" he told me, can
harvest 400 bushels OF potatoes to the
acre in the Snake River Valley My
crops last season broke all previous rec
ords. not only as to yield but as to
prices"
Thus he is in Washington. doubtless
with his pockets full of agricultural
money. and from a hotel apartment of
four or five rooms is toiling like a field
hand to nominate Champ Clark for
President. He has been a delegate to
three Republican national conventions
and to the Democratic conventions of 1904
and 1908. He is a seasoned man, ac-
cordingly.
Though he looks as untroubIed and
philosophical as George Washington,
whom he resembles, except as TO nose,
when one comes to think about it. Champ
Clark plays the game of life with his
mind on the realities of human exist
enCe. He may wing himself away in
oratOry now and then, but the flights
are harmless excursions. ordinarily, into
the emptiness of picturesque phrases
and he returns to earth unframed by
the exhibition. Meanwhile he has thrilled
his spectators and has sported in the in
toxication that always comes to the
man who is gifted with an abundant
flow Of words. His choice of Dubois
shows that his mild but foxy eye is on
the West, on the great stretches beyond
the Mississippi. The East will be divid-
ed between Wilson, FOss and GaynOr and
the Middle States between Harmon and
Marshall. Dreamy though he seems, Sc
rene though he appears, Champ Clark is
practical individual. His rhapsodies
and outbursts cost him nothing and they
please the Democrats OF Missouri.
In writing TO the trustees" he in
formed me. while speaking of his applica-
ton for teachers position. 81 told
them l was six feet and one inch tall
and weighed Ia pounds" 1t was more
than A personal description Measuring
himself by inches and ounces. he notl-
fed the district that he was bulky
enough TO maintain order among the pu-
pills. In religion" he wrote the trus-
tees am a Campbellite. and in politics
a Democrat" The school was in a
Democratic and CampbeIlitic neighbor-
hood. Also" he added, II am a Master
Mason. That was a shrewd observa-
ton and was put out. of course, in the
hope, that there were Masons in the COM
munity. He made no boast TO me Of the
sagacity Of the application. He was
merely sketching the deciding events of
his life, ard his first school came natur-
ally into the story. He revealed himself
Just the same. Boy and man he has
been competent to take care Of. his own
Dubois was no haphazard Sc
lection. n cow-puncher, moreover is
pleasing to the Western Imagination.
How Champ Clark Studied Men.
Man. as has been written" said
Thomas Carlyle, lis forever interesting
10 man; nay. properly. there is nothing
else interesting" And absolutely nothing
else that is important. Champ Clark
knows the value of human relations and
the mysteries of human nature. All SEN
sible boys do WAC are homeless, and he
was homeless. There was pathos in the
facts as he related them, but il was not
intended. With his feet on his desk
and his gray eyes half closed, he smoke
without self-pity. of his mother, who
died while he was a child, and of his
father, who learned to be carriage
maker in New Jersey, then became a
-armer in Kentucky, and at the age of
Lhlrty-hVe turned dentist, travelling on
horseback with his forceps and drills in
lne end Of his saddlebags and a lot of
Democratic speeches in the other. "A
arse Part of his time" the son and the
Speaker Of Congress remarked to me.
was spent in arguing politics with whiT
and villagers"
The two children-Champ and his Sis
among farmers during the alb
'enee of their father, which was most
1f the time. 1t was while in the house
II John Call that Champ Clark, aged
.welve, fed thirty mules and a blue
ackass" three times a day, chopped
wood, drew water. and read George
'ayn Quackenbos' Advanced Course in |
Rhetoric and Composition" Thus was |
lighted his lamp of oratory, and thus he /
earned among John Call and others of \
lis sort primary lessons in human char
Icter-