recently Mayor of Chicago--one of the best the city ever had--and
who has long been my personal friend, was pledged to vote for the
Governor, but at heart was strongly for me. With many others,
Busse would not consent to a secret caucus, and this really ended
the contest. Tanner, after trying to induce the other candidates
to unite on him, or on some one else to defeat me (which proposition
Mr. Cannon and Mr. Hitt rejected), announced that he would withdraw.
Friends of the Governor in the Legislature came to me and announced
that Tanner had quit the race, and later Mr. Cannon and Mr. Hitt
came to my room and announced their withdrawal.

This ended the contest; my name was the only one presented to the
caucus, and I was the only Republican voted for in the joint session
of the Legislature. It was an interesting fight, and as it may
well be supposed, the result was very satisfactory to my friends
and to me.

When I returned to Washington after having been re-elected, I was
warmly greeted by my colleagues in the Senate who had been watching
the contest; and I recollect that Senator Hanna was particularly
warm in his congratulations, and remarked that it was the prettiest
political fight he had witnessed in a long time.

I want to say something in reference to the Hon. Joseph G. Cannon,
who was a candidate against me at this time, and who is now, as he
has been for years past, the leading member of the Illinois
delegation.

I regard him as my personal friend, and was very glad indeed to
support his candidacy for the Presidency in 1908, I being chairman
of the Illinois delegation to the Chicago convention that year.

At the time he entered the contest against me, he had long been
one of the leaders of the House of Representatives in Congress.
After refusing to enter the scheme of Governor Tanner to defeat
me, as I have stated, he retired from the contest, was soon re-
elected to Congress, and almost immediately elected as Speaker, in
which position he continued for a larger number of consecutive
terms than any statesman in our history. He is a strong, courageous
man, and a man of splendid ability. He had rather a stormy career
as Speaker, but he controlled the situation all the time. During
his last term as Speaker he might have gotten along with the House
a little more smoothly, and at the same time just as satisfactorily
to himself, if he had yielded a little to his colleagues in his
party who differed from hi