SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE
Special Correspondence Root Defied by "Old Guard" New York, March 12, 1910. AT ALBANY during the week was performed a political melodrama, a sort of "thriller," which was given publicity...
...This last "desperate" stand of the little bosses against the combined power of President Taft, Governor Hughes, Senator Root, and the overwhelming majority of the Republican voters is obviously in self defense...
...It will long stimulate reflection and, we hope, excite chagrin that a man intrinsically so small could have been so important a figure in a great American commonwealth...
...The power of bossism and its character was never before so well illustrated to voters...
...He had disappeared so completely from the political stage that many, even members of the machine, did not know he was living...
...During the caucus...
...The death of Senator Thomas C. PJatt was but a passing incident...
...The fact is that the little coterie of bosses can deliver only a very few votes on election day and the "split" in the party is not nearly as serious as it looks to people outside the State...
...Piatt's career possible...
...They took forty-nine ballots...
...The State of New York is escaping— we wish we could say that it had escaped —from the attitude and conditions which made Mr...
...for these men who refused to obey Root are the ones who have slavishly obeyed Piatt, Odell, Roosevelt and Higgins...
...This is especially true because of the woeful condition of the Democratic party in the State, which is split hopelessly just now...
...The men who defied their own boss, Senator Root, are crying out that they are defending the party in New York from "federal interference...
...AT ALBANY during the week was performed a political melodrama, a sort of "thriller," which was given publicity throughout the nation, chiefly because the "Old Guard" of the New York State Republican Machine revoked against its boss, Senator Elihu Root, and defied him by electing Senator Cobb president pro tern of the State senate...
...Speaking of Senator Piatt, the Tribune said: "We have no wish to tell the truth unkindly, but it must be said that he made small impress on large affairs, and that, while he was an unintentional agent for the production of situations which had immense consequences, he did nothing designedly which can be reckoned great...
...b. n...
...Senator Root sent to Albany an open telegram "urging" them to elect Senator Hinman, who has supported Governor Hughes and is the official sponsor of the Hinman-Green direct nominations bill, the chief issue...
...This has amused many, and many others are amazed at the stupidity of the excuse...
...The New York Tribune has been the staunchest rargan of the Republican organization for many years...
...They were without a boss one year ago because Governor Hughes refused to be boss, and when Senator Root accepted the boss-ship they feasted and jubilated...
...The final vote was Cobb 17, Hin-man 13, Davis 3. Cobb voted for himself and thus elected himself...
...The Democratic contingent, led by Senator Tom Grady of Tammany hall, is allied with this Republican group and the bipartisan combine is bent upon stopping the investigation which is demanded by Governor Hughes and pretty nearly the whole mass of the Republican party and a majority of the Democratic voters...
...That is to say they seem to fear a full investigation of the whole subject of bribery in the legislature during the past ten years...
...The total membership of the State senate is fifty...
...Of these, thirty-three are Republicans, and these held a caucus to elect a successor to John Raines, the late deceased leader of the majority...
...The editorial in the Tribune summing up the character and achievements of the dead man strikingly illustrates the great change which has come over the people of New York in a few years...
Vol. 2 • March 1910 • No. 11
