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Show I J Which Faction infill Win? J A question which is agitating Republicans in B extenso of late is in regard to -wiaich of the m political factions will control affairs in the com-W com-W ing municipal election and in the vastly more I important contest a year from now, which shall B decide the personnel of the delegation to the next w Republican national convention. The followers K of the senior Senator claim that the lubricant B to the Silver King machine has been so adroitly i applied that the Kearns coterie will easily pre-I pre-I dominate; and that band of noble gentlemen under the august leadership of Messrs. Callister and Anderson pretend to be equally sanguine of a triumphant outcome of the impending battle. K But there is a small army of Republicans, un-' un-' affiliated with either wing and repudiators of the K policy governing the two factions, who contend that the leaders of Doth machines will encounter W a collision of cyclonic proportions when the time V for the combat arrives. Just at the present time the situation is very B badly embroiled, but it is easy to surmise from the reverberations already heard that there will be a serious clash when steel meets steel at the I next foregathering of the Republican hosts. The first overt act, showing the intention of the Kearns henchmen to control the next Reft Re-ft publican gathering which will send delegates to the national convention, was displayed a few days ago, when the subversive evening organ of the Kearns cohorts bitterly arraigned Chairman J. H. Anderson for sending the telegraphic dis- patch, announcing that the Republican party H through the unanimous voice of its state con- vention had announced its preference for Theo-H Theo-H dore Roosevelt lor the next Presidential nomi-K nomi-K nation. The Telegram tirade was the first open w signal from the Kearns camp, but it showed con- clusively and palpably that the senior Senator was in favor of Mark Hanna for the Presidential B nomination in 1894, a conclusion doubtless B reached after wily consultation and telegraphic B communication with one Perry Heath. So adroit-B adroit-B ly has the Senator manipulated the political mech-B mech-B anism that few outside of the men in the inward B circles were aware of how the Senatorial engine B would be steered in the Presidential relay. A B very diplomatic and subterannean manipulator is B Hon. T. Kearns. B js ( & B. The fact that rianna has withdrawn his oppo- B sition to the endorsement by the Ohio Repub- H licans of President Roosevelt and his administra- Bj tion does not necessarily relieve the tension of B the local situation. Mr. Hanna stated from the beginning that the cause of his opposition to such B an endorsement was that it would be unfair to B other possible aspirants, which, properly intor-H intor-H preted, means opposition to one Mark Hanna, as there is no other Presidential possibility who H would loom up as an aspirant for a seat in the I magisterial chair one year from now. Further-H Further-H more, there is a widespread impression among H leading Republicans that Mr. Hanna will be an H active and formidable candidate for the Presl-H Presl-H dency when the times are propitious. H & & t H Therein arises the complication which will H cause a very serious clash between the Callister- H Anderson and Kearns machines, and the hope m of the unyoked who are placidly alienated from H both factions is that in the midst of the melee H they will triumphantly control the convention. S It is difficult to imagine how the two factions H can ever come together on the Hanna-Roosevelt hB proposition, since the Callister-Anderson syndi- iH cate is avowedly in favor of the present magis- 1S trate. For all that, it must be recalled that Mr. iB Callister is under political indebtedness to Mr. T. JS Kearns for the appointment to his present posi tion as internal revenue collector. The question is, will Mr. Callister make an effort to expunge the obligation by endeavoring to throw his forces with Kearns to the support of Hanna? If this were done, another complication would ensue. In view of Kearns' open hostility to the election of Senator Smoot, it is probable that the church presidency will have a large javelin in rest for the senior Senator, and it this be true, it would not require any imaginative exertion to predict where Mr. Callister would pitch his tents. But above all this, there is a question in regard to whether the church at this time is willing to come out in open opposition to Mr. Kearns, and, more important, ta the enterprises in which Mr. Kearns is involved. It is still fresh in the minds of local Republicans that an option for a large consideration was taken by Mr. Kearns on the Saltair railroad and Salt-air Salt-air Beach jubc before the convening of the Legislature wnich elected him to the Senate; it is also known that a second payment of a similar amount was to have been made a year or so afterwards, and that this was not forthcoming forth-coming and in consequence the original payment was forfeited. The church is very anxious to rid itself of that financially decrepit institution; and the question is whether the presidency will remain re-main weakly subversive to Kearns, for financial reasons, or will remain on neutral ground for fear of antagonizing the present president. The re-wedding of the church and Kearns would be a spectacular sight. Developments at all. events will be awaited with unusual interest. v tv ? The fact remains that either faction will be weakened whatever Callister's attitude may be. The Kearns ranks nave already survived a pitiful piti-ful falling off, and if Callister attempted to swing some of his followers over to the Senator's camp, there would be a perceptible accretion to the independents inde-pendents from others of the Callister combination, combina-tion, on account of their bitter prejudice against the Silver King crowd. It is apparent from present pres-ent indications that before many months both sides will be lamentaoly weak. The notoriously incompet Tit city administration, under the notable Anderson-Callister sway, has alienated many Republicans from that syndicate, who were theretofore firm adherents, and this feeling is particularly strong among the younger Republicans, Republi-cans, the sinews of the party, Mormon and Gentile Gen-tile alike. & & & So, with one of the wings senile and in its last struggi e and the other paying the penalty of notable incompetency and disgraceful municipal munici-pal retrogression, there appears to be a very promising chance for the middle of the road Republicans Re-publicans to achieve a victory between the disgruntled dis-gruntled flanks, both in the coming city Republican Republi-can convention and in the convention which will select delegates for the Presidential college. It is acknowledged that it will require concerted action for the Republicans under the independent banner to oust the powers that be. One clique appears to absolutely control a contemporary journal, while the Kearns syndicate is bolstered up by the leading dailies. & J? Still the men who have grown weary of the domination of a faction, inspired by a church, and another, instigated by a lust of gold, are going to make a valiant light against these conditions. The sentiment in favor of such an organization is widespread and permeates every precinct in the municipality. 1'hey expect to be victorious. If so, it will be a triumph of Republicans with American Ideals over servile fanaticism and pernicious per-nicious monetary dominion. |