Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-02-13
Poeikca i~
Pe~~eqaS@~i@
BY the Ex-Committeeman

! Auditor General Charles A. Sny-
! der'S rather plain statement or the
| position he means to take in regard
to payrolls of various departments
on Capitol Hill in which men have
been politically active in the last six
months and his assertion that within
working hours they must work for
the state and not for any mans
political or personal ends, did not
tend to make him popular in some
branches of the state government
to-day. 1t has rather served to ac-
i centuate the situation which is de-
veloping about the state house.
The opening of the headquarters
/ here to-day for the ]. Denny O'Neil
| Republican committee is expected to
be followed by some strenuous dem
onstrations that the state admins
tration is behind the man from Nc
Keesport, even though the Governor
| has not publicly stated his position,
but only intimated it. Hence admin
| istration men to-day said that Sny-
der's holding up of payrolls and re-
| fusal to pay increases might get him
into court, prospect which the
states controller appeared to re-
gard as entirely pleasant. Mr.. Snyder
said that he had information that in
creases of pay were promised peo-
pie in the state government by in
dividuals not connected Herewith.
There is no occasion for any fuss.
You newspapermen must understand
that all L am doing is to see that the
state gets the worth of the money L
| am called on to pay out" said Mr..
| Snyder II certainly am not going to
pay any man for running around this
state playing politics, and neither am
| going to stand for increases unless
l am shown they are justified"
The Auditor General has given a
! good many people cause for thinking.
There may be wholesale removals"
| but the men who take the places will
certainly have to work the full Of
| fetal hours to get any pay and the
men who have been going without
pay are wondering how long it is 60
| ing to last.
The Prohibition state conven-
ton at Pittsburgh yesterday was the
| first real convention since the days
OF the Bull Moose campaign and
while the selections made are not
legally binding on the voters of the
party, there is no doubt but what
they are considered so by the rank
and file of the party which has never
swerved from its object. Men active
in politics say that the decision to
place a ticket before the party is
notice from the middle of the road
element that it does not propose TO
allow the party to become tail to
any kite in its greatest year. The
men selected are noted cold water
men and some are said to have de-
clared that they are we'll aware that
endorsement of Mccormick by the
Washington party in 1914 meant the
passing of the Bull Moose and that
they do not intend to be caught the
same way after years of effort.
All the same there was consider
able sentiment for O'Neil in the con-
vention and if the dry federation
formally nominateS him at the con-
vention here tomorrow it may shake
the strength of the people who want
to maintain the Prohibition organi-
zation and have its own candidates.
There is little question but what the
dry federation will be called upon, as
was the Prohibition meeting yester-
day, to name O'Neil for governor.
I'm the event that Major E.
Lowry Humes, dry aspirant for the
Democratic nomination for COVER
nor, comes along to attend the fede-
| ration there may be sum embarrass-
| ment. Humes is as insistent that he
| is the man to carry the dry ban
ner in the gubernatorial campaign as
| is O'Neil. And Humes is in just the
same situation in his party as O'Neil
is in the Republican party. There
are men who claim that neither one
has a monopoly of dry leadership.
1t may be added that the silence
| of Acting State Chairman and Pet
roleum Administrator Joseph f.
Guffey, prominent in Pittsburgh's
distressed public utilities, and his
| coterie on Humes' ambitions is as
| interesting as the failure of Nc
| Cormick, Palmer, Blakslee and 9TH
ers to say anything about the majors
ambitions.
To digress a moment from the
| turmoil of state politics. Could any
thing be more interesting than the
| fact that William T. Greasy, repre-
| sentative of the embittered farmers
| and Democratic chieftain in blizzard
! and sunshine, and Fred Brenckman,
| irreconcilable Bull Mooser, who pre-
| fers being off the reservation to be-
ing warm and comfortable, bunk
| ed" together at the Bolton last night =?
| BY the time Z. B. Dorset gets
| through with the two classes of op-
| ponents he has on Capitol Hill, the
men inside the administration who
want to get rid of him and the Com
missioner of Agriculture who do not
like either his bureau or its activities,
he will be able to write some chap
ters of political history almost as
interesting as the Pennypacker men,
oirs.
And in the midst of it all Attor-
ney General Francis Skunk Brown
insists that he loves that farm down
in the Elk River country more than
all the political maneuvering from
the high seats. That certainly must
be a busy farm when the Attorney
General goes down there to look
things over and to toss hay and help
get in the crops.
The Philadelphia Record says
that Mr.. O'Neil had q long talk with
William Draper Lewis yesterday
The commissioner has been anxious
to get Lewis to declare for him now
that he has been given the glad hand
by Clifford Pinchot in his own eau
tious way. The Record says: I'm
political circles the announcement by
Commissioner O'Neil of the appoint
ment cf his campaign manager is
being ; waited with great interest
Reports have been current that At
torney General Brown might be Sc
lected for the task of plotting the
O'Neil boom through the campaign
Brown, however, is not expected to
make any such move without the
sanction of the Wares, and so far
they have persistently refused to
show their hand"
Drop the Partisan Chatter