The Spokane Press

Special Correspondence to The Press

COLUMBUS, Jan. 31.—Once in four years the big and little bosses of Ohio get a new strangle hold on the rank and file of the party. Ohio isn't unique in this, but this year there is a widespread and determined effort on the part of the republicans at least, to break the hold.

Once in four years the bosses take up a favorite son or a nationally popular presidential candidate and proceed to organize the state in his favor. As the state, so far as public opinion is concerned, is already in favor of the candidate, this is entirely unnecessary, but incidentally it gives the big and little bosses a chance to select state, county and national delegates and so capture the party machinery, down to the representation of the smallest school district.

To refuse to vote for their slate is to be "disloyal to the president."

Ohio politics is always full of queer quirks and this year when the bosses and the trolley lawyers lined up behind Taft in order to renew their fast-slipping hold on the machine they met with a shock.

Without hostility to Taft, but determined to escape the rule of some of the men who wear Taft livery, the republicans in half a dozen Ohio cities are searching for men big and nervy enough to become candidates for president of the United States.

there must appear at the head of every list of candidates for delegates to the state convention the name of the candidate favored by the delegates for president.

The party dictators who framed that rule figured that by declaring for Taft in Taft counties and Foraker in Foraker counties, they could easily keep in the saddle. They little dreamed that the very rule could be made an effective weapon in anti-boss fighting.

In Toledo the boss is Walter Brown, public service corporation man and chairman of the state central committee. He has been loud as a Taft shouter and quiet as a setter-up of delegations and committees.

The independent republicans, to force the anti-boss issue, have formally declared Capt. John Craig to be a candidate for president of the United States, so that an anti-Brown delegation may be put up in the primaries. Craig is a wealthy ship builder, a responsible business man, staunch republican, and outspoken opponent of boss methods.

Primarily the effort is to defeat the re-election of Brown to the state central committee. The delegates will all be for Taft if the ticket wins at the primaries.

The same tactics are to be employed in Cleveland, where the ring is in bad odor. Dayton, Youngstown, Canton and several other of the smaller cities are considering the plan.

Under the rule adopted by the republican state central committee not be attempted here or in Cincinnati.