Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1908 — CONSTERNATION IN THE G. O. P. CAMP. [ARTICLE]

CONSTERNATION IN THE G. O. P. CAMP.

Next in interest to the speculation among Indiana Republicans generally on how much strength John W. Kern, as vice-presidential nominee, will add to the Democratic campaign in Indiana, is another speculation on how much damage the appealtence of William Nelson Cromwell, iff New York, on the scene as one us the directors of the Taft campaign, will do the Republican ticket.

Cromwell is the New York corporation lawyer and representative of the Harriman interests, the Standard Oil and the sugar trust, who on Monday teelgraphed to William H. Taft at Hot Springs, Va., to delay the selection of a treasurer of the Republican national committee until he could arrive at the resort on Wednesday, went into conference with Mr. Taft and the Republican managers and dictated the Selection of George R. Sheldon, the New York banker, who stands well with the ‘‘interests.”

Representative McKinley, of Illinois, had been slated by Mr. Taft, Mr. Hitchcock and members of the committee, and his election to succeed Cornelius Bliss was a foregone conclusion until Cromwell arrived. McKinley was then sidetracked to the position of assistant treasurer. Cromwell, who has been making himself conspicuous around the Republican candidate since then, has an effect on at least the Republican politicians of Indiana similar to the bewildering effect that the passing of an elephant produces on a horse and that often causes the horse to fall dead in his tracks from fear. They realize that the Federal officeholders, which nominated Mr. Taft at Chicago, almost tested the endurance of the Republicans at least of Indiana, and they are very much afraid that the appearance of Cromwell and the evident dictation by the

representative of the worst side of Wall street in the organization and plans for the Republican campaign will make It more difficult than ever to meet the Democrats who seem to have emerged from the fire of the first really enthusiastic convention in several years, as a harmonious and united body with a considerable show of strength. A number of prominent Republican politicians were talking to-day at one of the rendezvouses of Indiana Republicans. The conversation soon switched from Kern as a factor to Cromwell as a threatening danger. Several of them had come ipto personal touch with Cromwell and described him as an man, one of the most successful lawyers and corporation manipulal tors in the country, but ail believe* that he was either lacking in polltrf icaLjMtgadty or that he and thk

trust and railroad crowd In Wall street do not appreciate the state of mind of the country. If neither he nor the trusts crowd Sid, said the Indiana* politicians, he would never have appeared so prominently op the scene and assumed openly the role of a dictator. Cromwell, they Mid, has a remarkably good reputation as E corporation lawyer and as a high-class "fixer,’” bat they all expresaed the fear that this good reputation among Wall street and tru\t and railroad interests made him one of the greatest dangers of this campaign. They recalled that* this same Cromwell who held up the selection of a treasurer of the Republican national committee this week and then dictated the sidetracking of one man and the selection of one moye acceptable to certain Wall street Interests, was also the great 'factor In the drowning of the Alton and that he was a prominent factor in the program whereby Harrlman got hold of the Illinois Central..

"What,” said one Indiana politician who has figured prominently in several Indiana campaigns and State conventions; "think of Cromwell appearing on the scene at this time! With the people still sore over she fact that the Chicago convention was dominated by Federal officeholders seated as delegates, this man, a representative of some of the corporations that are now being knocked the hardest by the people, appears on the scene as a dictator of organization and a conferee and visitor of the Republican nominee. And this especially when one of the most really enthusiastic national conventions that the opposite party has held in years is in session arraigning the whole party for just such friendships! You can depend on it that farmer Bryan will not lose the point, and that it will be used against us‘effectively. “They will also dig up the fact that it was this same. Cromwell who became so malodorous in connection with the selection of our canal route across the isthmus. You will recall that the Government sent seven engineers to the isthmus to select a route, and that after they had spent several months there and had fully inspected both routes, that the seven came back and unanimously advised the Nicaragua route, and that a

commission by the House, sent to thej Isthmus also, after a thorough investigation came back and reported in favor of the Nicaragua route. Both commissions said that it was the better and more advisable of the two. And on this advise, if I do not mistake, the House voted In favor of the Nicaragua canal almost unanimously, and it looked as If the Senate would do the same. ‘‘But things changed in one night and the Senate changed, and then the House was brought into line and the Panama canal route was selected . and we paid France, I believe, 120,000,000. It is a good bet that the body of old Senator Morgan, of Alabama, who, in his six days’ gridironing, brought out the fact that this same Cromwell bad gone t to France and had entered into a contract to unload the property of the old French canal company onto this country, in consideration of a sl,000, 000 fee, rolled over in its grave this week when Cromwell appeared openly as one of the dictators of the Republican campaign, especially in the selection of a man who has so large a part in getting money from the sources of campaign funds. “It seems to me that one or two

more visits of Cromwell will about fix things this year. His appearance shows that though Mr. Taft may be one of the ablest men in the country, and, as I think, the man best equipped of any in this country to be President, that he and Mr. Hitchcock and the other Republican managers who have gathered at Hot Springs do not know all the ins and outs of practical politics or realize the state of the public mind at this time. The sooner Mr. Cromwell is lost and forgotten the better for the party.” * One of the party recalled that Mr. Cromwell was at the Republican convention in Chicago, and that he

waß on very familiar terms there with different members of the Taft family, and that during the session at which Mr. Taft was nominated he sat near one of the members of the Taft family and Joined with her in the demonstration. The general opinion was that Mr. Cromwell has from the first to last been making himself too conspicuous.—Indianapolis News (Rep.).