The Salt Lake Herald

ALGER WOULD BE SENATOR

INDICATES DETERMINATION TO
BE A CANDIDATE

Says He Will Not Be Opposed By
McMillan--His Fate, However, In
the Hands of the People.

Detroit, Mich., April 30.-Secretary
Alger was asked today whether he will
be a candidate before the next Michigan
legislature for United States senator to
succeed Senator McMillan. He replied:

"I will say frankly that if the state
should see fit to send me to the senate,
I would appreciate the honor, but
after all my state has done for me, I
shall not enter into any scramble for
it."

Being informed that it had been reported
that Senator McMillan would
seek a third term, the secretary of war
replied:

"I do not think so. Senator McMillan
assured me himself a long time ago,
that he probably should not be a candidate
again, and that if he was not,
he would do all he could for me. I
think if he had changed his mind and
intended to be a candidate, I would
have heard something about it. Indeed,
I think I would be one of the first
persons that he would have spoken to
about it."

"In case Senator McMillan should
however, conclude to be a candidate,
general, would you then withhold your
candidacy?"

"I did not say that," replied the secretary.
"and I do not wish to be so understood.
I would yield to no man if I
had concluded to become a candidate
for such an office. But I am perfectly
certain that Senator McMillan will not
be a candidate. He has told me so repeatedly
and emphatically. I would not
become a candidate in the sense of
making a rough-and-tumble struggle
for the senatorship.

"I do not believe that election to the
senatorship should ever come in that
way. But if it appeared to me to be
the wish of a majority of the people of
Michigan, I would be glad to make a
fair contest for that office. Before Senator
McMillan's last election, he said to
me that he was willing to withdraw,
and that I ought, probably, to become
the candidate in his place.

"I felt, however, that the senator's
record and services entitled him to another
term. Since I have been secretary
of war, I have paid little attention to
the matter, but I have concluded, in
view of the senator's statements to me,
that if my party so wills it, I may be a
candidate for the senatorship."

"Considering Governor Pingree's present
friendly attitude toward you, have
you and the governor ever conferred
upon the subject?"

"I don't remember ever having exchanged
a word with the governor
about myself," said the general, reflectively.
"We are on the best of terms,
but I have no knowledge about what his
attitude may be on the senatorship
matter."