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Show I'l The "Easjr Boj-j " -cfs. ' MIIIIIBI I ! 1 Ambftfothf 9HH I (Special Correspondence.) It Is well that those who take their politics seriously se-riously should keep their eyes on New York from now until the time conies again to nominate a Republican candidate for the presidency. Nowhere are there such scientists in the game of politics h as in Now York, and never before not even in I the days when President Garfield met Senator I Conkling in a contest for the mastery of the BJm- I pire state have they matched themselves in such 1 an absorbing struggle for supreme power. The highest rewards that the people can bestow are In the balance and every part of the country will be affected by the result. It is the old struggle of youth against age red j blood against the craft that remains when the limbs are withering. President Roosevelt, the strenuous man who has made himself a president, Governor Qdell, who was the only man whom Senator Hanna would entrust with the conduct of 1 the national campaign in New York in 1900, and I Mayor Low, unifier of all the anti-Tammany forces in New York City, are pitted against Sen- i ator Thomas C. Piatt the "easy boss' who has ; to be assisted in and out of his carriage and MY :l! Sri whose back forms a C as he sits in his chair in m jjljr I the Senate. B j Iw I It would seem simple who could think of choos- M jjJEf? Jj ing anything but the side on which are the three B j.Iji jj successful young men? But they know It is not H Si easy. They know of the men who have defied the B mm I boss before and who are now in private life J. Hsl i I I HI If jj Sloat Fassett, the idol of the state; Frank: u. H ijljl I Black, the conqueror of the Troy ring; Jacob WM Sgii I "Worth, the Brooklyn boss, almost forgotten all H 1 1 If I of them as political quantities. They know how m : !j jj I Roosevelt was slipped out of the Governor's chair B I if m and into the vice presidency, though he protested B mm every step of the way. They know that the old B 1 i M machine that has ground up the ambitions of so K nl many men is still well oiled and well kept, and K VM'm that the hand on the lever, though it may be white B I jl m and wrinkled, is firm as steel. m fMm LIke e fl8t of the old he wolf for its young K lltl I is tlie flght f Sentor Platt to csh this last re- B 111 I hellion. He has little to wish for himself. It was o wfMKQHBnHslSVBSBSaBSSBBBvJ believe that , JIJiWWHsHsWbBbB of the treasury ''NffisHsHHseH ed president 'wiHnHHHH sole remaining Eftft in the Senate. Xtikti ' WWfMj Life 'Itself, aft ;,,HRH only one consolation to 'JWHOiMll son, Frank H. Platt Vt9mK0'"' hoped that he night lay HHWM; on the shoulders of hie 'mwSmm'-ed. 'mwSmm'-ed. But the younger Plait Uf 9piiPPMftVto machine, the lawyer who caWj: t Mmaaigus of its dictator to the legislator and whom the corporations see when they wish to ask for favors from the state. The old senator la ottetmlned that he shall remain In this position at least and so he has set himself to see thai the leadership shall pass into the hands of those who are his friends and who will guard the interests of 111 son. It is for their own fntnres thefr potttfftal existencethat ex-istencethat the others are fighting. Low, wealthy beyond all his needs, has spent almost twenty years in. an endeavor to become a great political quantity. From the mayoralty of Brooklyn Brook-lyn to the mayoralty of New York there was a long gap during which he was a leading citixen, but he cheerfully resigned the presidency of Columbia Col-umbia university to take his present office. Next in the course of time might come the governorship, governor-ship, and then, who knows but that a Republican convention might look to New York for another Presidential candidate and find him. Odell, cold and keen manager of men, might have wanted the presidency had It not happened that fate brought another New xork man into the presidential chair and dashed that hope. For him at the end of his term of Governor two years hence there is only retirement, or the leadership of the Republican party and a senatorship to keep him busy while he holds it Should he go out of office leaving Senator Flatt still the master, he may be sure that he will be broken and discredited discred-ited before two years are gone. Men fully as strong have been broken before. For Roosevelt there is the gratification of the dearest wish of his heart to be an elected President Pres-ident It was this hope that made him refuse WBMIBMBlEJHBJMvri; ,- J; BBBBVsBBBBBBHilwEiBHHt&s ' DHH;i Vice presidential nomi. HHHHHffimll'to take this honor would BhHHhm they know that it ig HHBBHf'.tKMkl" to conquer all three. WtKmSSm Pltt fr the mayoralty HHMNPp 'ft'tas an honor given with little BHffiW 7.p& the Republican leader W W'flUtjkmists would not accept a more Wffjyiiit He sinned in that he would ra' 'ttro ttie Offices of New York City oyer to the ttttlt machine to do with them as its mas. 6e8 was the pet and protege of Platt and was given the governorship the first time as a reward for hit loyalty. But he made an alliance with Banna and afterwards stood in the way of plans that Platt had made for seizing the police force of New York City and for granting' favors that would have meant looting of the city toy great corporations. Thus he fell from grace in the eyes of hla old leader. Roosevelt was never like Platt He has stood for all the things In government that Platt ah. hors civil service reform, independence and free. dom of speech and other such things. Platt made him governor because the Spanish war had made him a hero and there was no way in which his progress could be stayed. Platt slipped him out of the gubernatorial chair as soon as there was a chance, putting him away in a nice quiet place where the chances were that he would be lost forever for-ever as an aggressive quantity. So they are "All for one and one for all," like the men in the story hook. It is not a fight in the open. None dares utter the defliance which would split the Republican party of New York into war-ring war-ring camps with the presidential campaign only two years away. That would be fatal to all of them. But in the dark blows are being struck and knives are being driven to the hilt in the silent, determined struggle for mastery. In New York City Low is filling all the offices he can with men who will be true to himself and Bis friends. He has turned the police force over to General Francis V. Greene and in the changes that have followed Republicans have been put in charge of every important post In Albany the legislature has been organized under the direction of Platt the officers named and the committees chosen as he said they should be at his room in the Fifth Avenue hotel. But there is a revolt in the Senate, and three Senators wjio are needed need-ed to make a Republican majority are holding out from the Piatt forces and consulting with the governor gov-ernor every few days. The governor has posted friends in practically every important office and Is planning to sieze the railroad commission, which holds the lash over all the big transportation transporta-tion companies. In Washington the President is taking every opportunity to appoint men to olflce in New iTork who may be relied upon to stand with him when the time comes. All this will come to a test in the primaries this year and next. There will b& a bitter fight all along the line for control of the organization. It will be particularly bitter in New York and Kings counties. If the "easy boss wins there will be three more political ambitions to be laid aside. B. J. Y. |