East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1912-02-06
REACTION HELPS
WOODROW WILSON
SENATOR CHAMBERLAIN
PREDICTS NOMINATION
John f. Lathrop, Washington Cores
pondcnt of Newark News ami
Formerly With East Oregonian,
Tells of Washington View of Wat
terson Affair.

Washington. u. C, Feb. 6.-It is
now felt in progressive circles about
the capital that the Watterson-Har-
Vey affair has reacted in favor of
Governor Wilson and will aid his can
didacy for the democratic nomination
for president.
In an interview given recently by
Senator George E. Chamberlain he
said:
THE watterson affair has result
ed in benefit to Wilson. l believe
that from this time on he will be
seen to gain more rapidly than he
has and that he is the probable NOM
inee."
Writing from Washington to the
Newark Evening News, John f. Lath-
rep. Washington correspondent for
that paper and formerly editor of the
East Oregonian, said
1t is now accepted as true that
Governor Wilson was asked by Col
onel Watterson to take financial as
sistance from Thomas Fortune Ry-
an, that he refused and that Colonel
Watterson was annoyed because his
efforts to commit Governor Wilson
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had gone awry.
The explanation of the much-bruit-
ed affair has caused that reaction
which had been expected from the be-
ginning This reaction is sweeping.
Il appears to have wiped out the
slight injury that an insufficient
statement of the facts at first had
production it was not denied that
at first the opponents of Governor
Wilson produced a temporary stu
alton that was not advantageous tc
the New Jersey candidate.
Today, instead of indulgng in ad-
verse criticism of Wilson, for the part
he played. he is commended: and in
addition the disposition to condemn
Watterson and Harvey is noticeable.
In fact, Indignation is expressed on
every side at what appears to have
been an attempt to lead Governor
Wilson into political affiliations which
would have destroyed all his hopes of
enjoying further confidence of the
people of the country.
Impugning Wilson's Loyalty.
Tie important attribution to the
affair resulted from the human con-
sideratiOn. rather than the exact es-
Inmates that were made of the politi-
cal importance either of Watterson
or Harvey. 1t had been sought to
create the impressin that Wilson was
not loyal to his friends; and the deep
down motive, doubtless, was to show
In the minds of political workers all
over the country the suspicion that
Wilson's election as president would
not be to their interest,
For few days, this effect was
produced. But, upon the genera
publication of the facts relating L
the attempt to lead him into the ul
tra-conservatiye political camp, al
entirely different character of com
ment was noticed here in the man,
places where politics is talked evei
before the state Of the weather
The Washington Herald prints al
excerpt from a Southern paper, whicl
says that Judging from the Waiter
son-Harvey matter. if Wilson were t
be president, ne would not be a good
natured man surrounded by men VIII
know exactly what they want"-par
aphrasing the now famous epigrar
of the late Senator Dolver, Of Iowa
when he was describing Presiden
Taft.
1t is realized now that that excerI
exactly expresses the result that ha
come from an undoubted "frame-up
the object Of which was to get Wilso
in a position so that he would hay
to join the reactionaries.
It adds TO, although it does nc
originate, the conviction that the re
dictionary influence in American po
itical life have determined that If
be within the limits Of human powC