Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1908 — BATTLE ROYAL IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BATTLE ROYAL IN THE CHICAGO CONVENTION

Republican National (lathering Alone Will Determine Who Candidate Is to 80. GREAT 1908 CAMPAIGN NOW ON. W ¥ V. —— p—“ In the Democratic Field, Washington Political Observers Think Bryan la a Certainty. Washington correspondence:

rarQHIS city will be ir the center of the great political campaign which will rage from •* California to A Maine until the §L ballots wf_ next ■ November determine the people’s ■set choice for President. From now on until tjbe suecessor of Mr. » Roosevelt is chosen there will not 1 * be an instant’s intermission in the

din of political battle. Secretary Taft stands sharply in the limelight and his friends are redoubling their efforts in bis behalf. The fact that he is the candidate of the administration is sure to have the effect of keeping Washington on the jump to watch every move. Senators Foraker and Knox and Secretary Cortelyou, also located in Washington, will help.to keep the political pot furiously boiling In the capital. New York will get the height es its excitement from the fact that Qov. Hughes seems destined to be a factor of no small moment in the lineup of the contestants In Chicago. Vice President Fairbanks and Speaker Cannon, presiding officers respectively of the Senate aid House, must Inevitably keep these bodies embroiled In the stress growing out of their candidacy, and their home States of Indiana and Illinois are likely to feel the heat. Between these men, Taft, Knox, Hughes, Foraker, Fairbanks and Candon, the convention at Chicago is -regarded an open ehanee. All are powerfully backed, all will push their campaigns with that energy for which the American politician la famous. For them will be expended limitless eloquence, and in their interest the quiet

work, which appears little on the surface, but which means so much in tbe final result, will keep forces of trained mem busy from now on until tbe nomination is made. For tho first time in twenty years tbs Republican convention will see a real battle. The gathering that nominated Benjamin Harrison In 1868 vai an open fight much similar to tbe one that promises for this year. In 1892 the renominatlon of Harrison was a foregone conclusion; in 1896 the movement against free silver had fixed on McKinley In advance of the convention as tbe man to lead the fight; aud in 1000 not a shadow of opposition developed against bis renominatlon. Similarly -Roosevelt outranked In popularity every name suggested for the Republican nomination. But this year tbe qnadrounlal upheaval will be made still mor chaotic • by the shsrpnees of the Republican battle. Democrat lo Fight Dlltrtal, , The Democratic fight U a little different There is no mixed field with tbe fitfpes even. It is everybody against Bryan. In oppoattion to tbe Nebraskan will be welded all the forces that contend that bis two defeats for tbs place eliminate hlib, but though Judge Gray, Gov. Johnson of Minnesota, Chanlar of New York, and Hoke Smith have bean tentatively mentioned, there Is no evidence of any boots powerful enough to prevail against tha

magnetic Nebraskan’s undoubted strength In his party. Six months of contention must take place before the two parties place their standard bearers in the field, the Republicans at Chicago, the Democrats at Denver. the nation’s business will be swayed and moved by every new boom, by every straw, by every Indication. Capital, sensitive above all things of which man has knowledge, will rejoice or tremble as this man or that seems to gain the ascendancy, and gigantic projects will hang fire pending the nominations.

And when the men are in tbe field, far from helping the situation, a new and even worse upheaval will take place. Frenzied stump speakers will tramp up aud down tbe country, painting in Jjorrlble phrase tbe terrific experiences that confront the nation la tbe doleful event of the success of the opposition party. Platforms will be torn io pieces in this delirium of exhortation ; men’s lives, alms and characters riddled; the constitution of the country will be both Invoked and condemned ; tbe giants of business will on the one baud be extolled, on tbe other savagely condemned. And every speech, every mass meeting, each attack, will further send new tremors up and down tbe spinal cord of business. The’campaign will last four months, and In that time both parties will call on tbe biggest guns they bare; tbe star speakers will be drafted to present the opposing arguments. As a forensic struggle tbe fight ip bound to be more than ordinarily interesting. Each side has orators of tbe first rank, veterans who understand tbe art of stirring audiences. ' s -