The antecedents and record of Mr. Thomai L. Hisgen, the
Presidential candidate of the Independence Party, whose noutinatiOn was brought about by Mr. Hearst in July, are set forth in an interesting article in Wednesday's Times. Mr. Hisgen, the son of a Darmstadt political refugee and an Irish mother, set up in business with his three brothers to manu- facture a special axle-grease invented by his father. In 1898 their factory was already the largest of the sort in the world, and the Standard Oil Company, competitors in this product, after vainly endeavouring to buy them out, started an under- cutting campaign, which the Hisgens, backed• by their customers and the local Labour Unions, successfully resisted. Mr. Hisgen's political supporters naturally make great play with his business record,—tbatof a man "who, probably alone of all the business men in the United States, has fought the Standard Oil Trust and has not been worsted in the struggle." Mr. Hearst's action in waiving his own claim in favour of Mr. Hisgen is therefore regarded as the first move in a deliberate and successful scheme to force the record of the Standard Oil Trust into the centre of the Presidential campaign.
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