The Washington herald., 1913-11-15
With the Political Procession.
By r. b. G.

william oxley Thompson. president
OF the state university at Columbus,
has been In washington all week. a
busy man in the convention Of college
presidents from every State OF the
Union.
While his whole life has been given
| to college work, DR.. Thompson has
kept in close touch with public affairs.
and he has long been regarded as the
best politician of all the college men
doing business in Ohio, or any other
State
When you consider that President
Thompson has been at the head OF the
big State college for q score OF years or
tmore. in continuous contact with every
Governor and Legislature during that
time, seeking not to get the worst Of II,
and usually by artfull diplomacy, get
ting the best of it.. you can understand
that he has had to be considerable Of
q politician and knows personally
every prominent Republican and Dem
ocrat of the. State.
What wonder, then. that his admirers
who know his splendid executive abil-
ity suggest him as the Republican
candidate for Governor year hence?
II he happened to be q Democrat there
would be similar suggestion after
the Gov. Cox second campaign. as the
Thompson zeal and broad methods are
approved with equal spirit by Demo-
l'crats. He continues good Republic
an, however, without offending the
Democrats when they are In power.
and next year may see a reaching out
for the good doctor as the candidate
for Governor.
He comes from the good old county
of Guernsey. half way across the State
from Columbus. and worked up from
modest beginnings to be preacher
and then a college president. Old
Guernsey County has long been noted
for its old-fashioned Republicans, who
may fight among themselves, but put
up a solid phalanx against the Demo-
Gratis on election day. 1t was the name
OF Representative J. ID. Taylor, con-
siderable figure and a fighting one
few years back. and was a bulwark of
the old John 4. Bingham district dur
ing the war. and later Frank Hatton,
Postmaster General in Arthur's time.
was always proud of telling how his
first political lessons were learned in
Guernsey County. where he was born,
and Justice Anderson, now on the Dis
trict Supreme Court. here in Washing
ton, was an eminent lawyer and Re-
publican leader in Cambridge during
the days of the Taylor supremacy.
Justice Anderson did not see much
lRpe of coming to Congress in those
Gays. so accepted an appointment as
Minister to Bolivia, under Harrison.
later becoming District Attorney and
Judge, without giving up his voting
residence in dear old Cambridge. He
could attest to the splendid dualiica-
tions of his friend, DR.. Thompson. for
the Governorship and for leading the
Republican party of Ohio into green
fields and pastures new. Besides. II
occurs to Justice Anderson and others
that Eastern Ohio has not been given
much in the way of nominations In
recent years. and, while DR.. Thomp-
son now votes in Columbus, his nomi-
nation would be considered a compli
ment to the Guernsey and Counatton
Valley region.
How soon the great and near great are
forgotten. Henry W. Blair walked
through the groups OF political wise men
in the Willard the other night, yet not
two OF the throng recalled him as a for
mer Senator from New Hampshire and
rejected Minister to China during the
Harrison administration. Yet Senator
Blair held political office with splendid
persistency from the time he was chosen
attorney in 1850 until he re-
tired from the lower branch OF Congress
IN 1885. When China objected to him as
Minister because of some speech or utter
ance in or out OF Congress the New
folks handed China their
opinion Of Henry W. by electing him to
Congress year after the persona non
grata objection. Senator Blair is not yet
eighty. but he is old enough TO note that
few of his old Senatorial colleagues are
on earth. Not one Is now a member OF
the Senate who came in with Blair in
March, 1873, and but few are living. Ed
of Vermont; Henry G. Davis. of
West Virginia: Don Cameron. OF Penn
sylvania, and Cockrell, OF Missouri, are
the four other survivors, and all are past
the four-score mark. with Davis nearing
ninety. Don Cameron was eighty last
May and Cockrell seventy-nine on Octo-
Der !. while Edmunds will be eighty-six
February next.
One result of the Justice Hughes men
ton for President will be splendid silence
on the part of the Justice himself. His