The Washington times., 1911-09-01
THE MORAL OF THE MARY
LAND CAMPAIGN.

LAND CAMPAIGN.
When the people get their eye fairly
fixed on reactionary public servant
nowadays, the people get busy, quite
without regard to partisanship.
That is what the people of Maryland
did in the case of Senator John Walter
Smith. The multi-millionaire lumber
man and Democratic auxiliary of the
old Aidrich high-tariff organization has
been told how Maryland people regard
him.
Senator Smiths case parallels those
of Aldrich III Rhode Island, Hale in
Maine, Burrows in Michigan, Burkett
in Nebraska, Paynter in Kentucky,
Thornton in Louisiana, Terrell in
Georgia. Some of them are Republi-
cans, some Democrats. No difference.
The people watched their voting records
and decided that they would not do.
Some of them were defeated; some
were wise enough to sidestep the in.
evitable.
John Walter Smith knows today that
he was one of the chief issues in the
Maryland primary of Tuesday. His
record has been under inspection. He
was head of the machine that under
took to force German upon the State.
Germans victory was necessary pre-
liminary to the continuance of Smith
in his Senatorial seat.
The wonder of 1t all Is that under
the circumstances Lee made such q
run. Today's returns indicate that the
State convention will be composed of
sixty-five German and sixty-four Lee
delegates. More than that, several
counties are SO close that it is now
plain that Lee would have won with
ease if his fight had been concentrated
in the right places, He would have
carried Anne Arundel county if he had
even suspected his own strength there.
His people made only a nominal fight
for it. Had they made half the effort
for that county that was given to the
hopeless struggle in a Baltimore legis-
lative district the delegate record to-
day would show sixty-nine for Lee and
sixty for German, and Lee would have
been the easy winner.
This error of judgment on the part
of the Lee managers illustrates a con-
dition that has been presented many
times, in widely separated communi-
ties, in the last two years. Lee him
self did not realize the power Of the
protest which was prepared to raise
its voice wherever the people had q
chance to make themselves heard, and
on the other hand he did not appre-
ciate the capacity of the city machine
for sitting that voice in the city
wards.
The answer to 1t all is that the Lee
Talbot Crothers organization, which
was scraped together in such haste
that its opposition regarded it as a
joke, has unhorsed the State organ
ization. The old machine has been
driven back into its entertainments in
Baltimore city. In another fight these
entertainments will be stormed.
1t is the testimony of the progressive
leaders that they might have carried
one and possibly two districts in Bal
timore city if the people had realized
the chance. For exactly the same
reason that the Lee forces erred in
Anne Arundel, by Understanding
their own power and prospects, the in
dependent voters In Baltimore city
failed to lift with all their strength
because they supposed 1t useless
exertion.
Blair Lee has made a fight which
puts him in the class of big national
figures. He has done in one fight more
than La Toilette or Cummins did in
two. The California progressives fought
for decades without coming as near
to success as Lee has come in one
fight. Coe Crawford, when he set
out to redeem South Dakota from its
machine, was hopelessly crushed In his
first contest for the governorship nomi-
nation. Next time he won with ease,
Just as Lee will in all human proba-
bility do.
Maryland has proved It's readiness
and willingness to take position with
the most progressive States in the
Union. That is the big, pregnant,
acknowledgement fact which Is writ
ten in the results of this weeks prim-
ary.
The next fight for the Maryland
progressives to make is one that needs
be started at once. They must contest
every inch in the fight for the State
convention. If their defeat has been
encompassed by corruption, they must
bare it to the uttermost.
Beyond that they must lose no time
girding themselves for the struggle to