OCR Text |
Show FORAKER'S FIGHT IS TO DISCREDIT ROOSEVELT AND TO RETAIN OHIO friends contend that tHere was never any doubt as to where he would stand. The contest is regarded by Ohio politicians poli-ticians as involving more than mere personal victory for Foraker or Taft. They hold that is a fight for the existence ex-istence of the present Republican, organization or-ganization in the State, of which Foraker Fora-ker and Dick are the head, and the defeat de-feat of Foraker would mean the ascendancy as-cendancy of Representative Burton of Cleveland, who has bitterly opposed the Foraker-Dick combination. When he made his candidacy the issue in Ohio, Foraker and Dick won out and were indorsed by the State convention. With President Roosevelt and the growing Taft faction .joined with Burton, Bur-ton, the danger to the Foraker-Dick organization is1 very great, and as Charles P. Taft has made the issue that the Senatorship as well as the Presidential Presi-dential nomination is involved, the scope of the battle will be broadened and the conflict more intense. was his brother, Charles P. Taft of i Cincinnati, editor of the Times-Star newspaper of that city, who threw down the gauntlet to Senator Foraker. Mr. Foraker took his defiance as official, and responded with an acceptance of the challenge. Secretary Taft's friends here, and they are many, are worried over his ap- Earent indifference to the contest that as been begun with a view to dc-j tormining who shall receive Ohio's indorsement in-dorsement in the Republican convention conven-tion next year. His evident attitude is that it is. no business of his to go running run-ning after the Presidential nomination when he has enough other things to do to keep him busy. From the outset of the agitation in his behalf, he has resisted the endeavor of bis boomers to bring him into the political po-litical limelight. If it had not been that he wanted to carry out certain important im-portant policies as Secretary of War, he would doubtless have accepted the offer of President Roosevelt to appoint his to the Supreme court, and this in the face of the most urgent importunities importuni-ties from close relatives and political suporters who he knew had his best interests at heart and whose sincerity could not be questioned. Taft's known independence, construed con-strued in the light of his recent course, has given some people the impression that he will be "no man's man." but will think and act lor himself. He has a high ideal of political conduct so high, in fact, that his frankness in stating stat-ing any position ho holds has sometimes caused dismay among those who are looking out for his political interests. In that respect he is like Senator Foraker, Fora-ker, and it is predicted that there will be 'an unusually interesting campaign in Ohio if Taft accepts Foraker 's virtual vir-tual challenge to join in the debate. President Roosevelt believes that Taft should get into the Ohio campaign without delay when he returns to the United State's from his present tour of inspection in the tropics. It is realized bv the President and many of his supporters sup-porters that Foraker nt only controls the Republican organization in his State, but has the ability to g:iiu greater strength by his course of appealing ap-pealing directly to the Republican voters who are entitled to participate in the primaries. Taft should get busy, therefore, they believe, and it is already al-ready apparent that when he comes home he will be subjected to much urging urg-ing from influential quarters to go at once to Ohio. Whether Taft will yield to the arguments argu-ments that will be brought to bear upon -1AST PICTUEE OF SENATOR JOSEPH B. FORAXER, WHO J DEFIES THE PRESIDENT. him nobody here is in a position to say. That he will yield somewhat reluctantly, re-luctantly, if at all, is very generally believed, for he is not inclined to place himself in an attitude that would necessarily neces-sarily be construed as a direct bid for the indorsement of his party for the Presidential nomination. His proposed trip to the Philippines this year is regarded re-garded as a matter of duty, and those who know Taft have had several examples ex-amples of the tenacity with which he clings to any purpose that involves what he holds to be the right thing to do. Senator Dick will go from Washington Washing-ton to Akron, and while he does not contemplate assuming charge of the Foraker headquarters there, he will start bis end of the fight Immediately. In some quarters there is a disposition to credit Senator Dick's support of Senator Foraker to a conviction that Foraker is bound to win, but Dick's WASHINGTON, April 2. Senator Charles Dick of Ohio iput an end to tories from hi State that he was inclined in-clined to be neutral in the contest between be-tween Secretary ' Taft and. Senator Foraker for Ohio's indorsement before the next Republican convention. He came out flatfooted for Senator Foraker. It may be overstating it a little to say that Secretary Taft is engaged in any contest with Senator Foraker fjr indorsement. Mr. Taft has never indicated indi-cated publicly that he wanted the Republican Re-publican nomination. In fact, he has said in a statement he issued on the subject that while he would take the nomination if it came to him, he didn't intend to run after it or to be considered con-sidered a candidate in any sense. It |