The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1906. AMERICAN POLITICS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 261, 8 November 1906, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1906. AMERICAN POLITICS.

For the cause that lack* assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance. And the good that we cut do.

The Governor of a State in the American Union enjoys very little independent executive power, and the amount of patronage that is attached to his office is by no means a serious inducement to undertake the responsibilities of such a post. But the Governor of a large and populous State stands in a very exceptional position by virtue of the social and political influence that he exercises j and the election of the Governor of New York is always regarded as a safe indication of the line that political feeling is taking in the Eastern States. These facts may account for the intense interest roused throughout America this year by the struggle for this position. But the strong personal element that has entered into the contest this year has made it even more exciting than usual. Neither of the original Republican candidates, Governor Higgins and ex-Governor Odell, seems to have been taken very seriously; and their Democratic rivals, Mr. Jerome and Mr. W. X Hearst were very formidable opponents. Happily for the Republicans, Jerome and Hearst were irreconcilable, and though New York has always been a Democratic stronghold, the Republicans hoped that by choosing a candidate of ability and good reputation they might keep out either Hearst or Jerome. Their choice fell upon Mr. Chas. Hughes, a respectable lawyer, who last year refused the Republican nomination to the New York Mayoralty; and as the sequel showed their efforts were successful. The great fear of the Republicans and indeed of most decent-minded people was that Hearst might be elected. By means that yet can only be conjeelured the contest was narrowed down practically to a fight between Hughes and Hearst, and in spite of the support of Tammany Hall, Hearst has been beat en. The ascendancy of the Republicans in New York State is thus assured for at least two years more, and the returns of other State elections so far available show that the Republicans, though with a diminished majority, -will still be able to hold their own in Congress up to the next Presidential election.

The outstanding feature of this campaign has been the candidature of Mr. William Randolph Hearst; and he is so striking a figure in American public life that we may devote a little space to his antecedents, and the reputation that he bears among his fellow countrymen. The few points absolutely certain about Mr. Hearst are that he is very wealthy and that he owns several papers of a more or less sensational type, which all profess strong sympathy for the political views and ideals of the industrialists and "the masses." Apart from these facts, it is almost impossible to reconcile the statements made about him by Democratic and Republican newspapers and politicians. Mr. Jerome has described his Democratic fellowcandidate as "intellectually sterile, socially vulgar, and morally obtuse." But the New. York "Sun," while vio lently opposing Mr. Hearst, thinks that he is "extraordinarily able." and classes him as "the cleverest politician in this State to-day"—always excepting President Roosevelt. As to his personal reputation, there is not much doubt about its character in the past. Two yearß ago, when Hearst was trying to secure the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, the New York "Evening Post" declared that his personal and social record made him utterly impossible. But since 'then Mr. Hearst has married and "settled down," and his journalistic henchmen have endeavoured to repair the injuries that he has inflicted upon his reputation in the past by drawing touching pictures of his domestic felicity and expatiating on his affection for his baby. Even the "Post," which is still his sworn enemy, has desisted from references to his social record, and has devoted itself to the task of imputing public corruption to him in the most deliberate and circumstantial fashion. The "Post" sees in him "a weak, unscrupulous, vain and ambitious •man, a petted child of great wealth, bred to the notion that his money could buy him anything, and innocently wondering why there was any objection to his buying the Governorship of the greatest State in the Union"; and it is from this standpoint that the Republicans have fought the campaign against him.

It is not probable that the inner workings of the Hearst campaign will ever be made public in their entirety. But the few cables that have reached us during the progress of the struggle at least convey a very sinister impression of American electioneering tactics. In the first place we find Mr Hearst posing as an Independent Democrat, and haughily refusing to accept assistance from Tammany, the great Democratic organisation that has so long controlled the political destinies of New York City. Mr Jerome, the other Democratic candidate, equally refused to have anything to say to Mr Hearst. "Tell him," he is reported to have said in reply to a suggestion for a compromise, "that there is not money enough in the world to induce mc to make an alliance with him." But in spite of the imputations

levelled at Hearst by bis enemies, bis supporters appear to have believed his assurances of integrity, and to have taken seriously his frequent denunciations of the "machine politicians," Murphy and Sullivan. It is difficult to conceive the sensation that must have been produced in the Democratic ranks when, just before the polling began, the New York "Evening Post" published in full detail the text of a compact between Mr Hearst and Mr Murphy, the "boss" of Tammany, in which Mr Hearst promised to secure ten judgeships for Tammany nominees if he were elected Governor of New York. It was apparently the publication of these charges that induced President Roosevelt to take the unprecedented step of interfering in the election campaign. He sent Mr Root, one of his ablest Ministers and most trusted friends, to Utica to denounce Hearst as "an insincere, selfseeking demagogue"; and Mr Root appears to have improved upon his instructions by charging Hearst with fomenting social revolution, and encouraging the Anarchism that brought President MeKinley to his doom. This intervention seems to have had the desired effect, and Hearst has been beaten for the governorship by a substantial majority. It is to be observed that he is now complaining of the inadequate support that he received from "Tammany." The references to prosecutions for illegal voting and "repeating" are significant items in our cables to-day; and the whole history of the contest proves with painful conclusiveness that Democracy in America has a great deal to learn before it can hope to secure that "government by the people for the people" which is the ideal of its constitution.