The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-15

| vile courier-Journai jumps into
 the saddle of political rhetoric and unlimbers himself in this wise. Whether his views are indorsed or not his produc- tion is well worth the reading as thor oughly Wattersonian:
 On the Wane
 There are many signs and tokens that the Woodrow Wilson presidential boom has started on down grade. To the in itiate these are unmistakabe From the first they were inevitable.
 In it's inception the scheme to nominate Woodrow Wilson for President of the United States was foredoomed to failure It resembled one of those visionary min ing deals attractive to look at, but laid for the most part in printers ink and hot air. It began with a gilt-edged Wall street promotion. It still conceals a mys- terious Wall street connection, for 1t is backed by plenty of money.
 When Harper's Weekly started it the sale of Woodrow Wilson's books, bear ing the Harper S Bros' trade mark, was all that was intended. As time passed, however. and political conditions came to be more and more confused, the mo- tion of actually going through the mo- tions," irradiated the lively fancy and adventurous spirit of Col. George Har- vey To this end it was necessary to call in ex-Senator James Smith, Jr., sometimes irreverently called Jim smith, The incarnation of machine methods, the ex-senator was boss of what was left of the New Jersey democracy. He readily took to the plan to try upon the voters, growing restless and. out of conceit with the republicans, what polit- ical virtue there might be in a president of the University of Princeton. So, with the ex-senator's machine and his money and Harper's Weeklys genius for explot- tation, Woodrow Wilson was nominated and elected governor of New Jersey.
 At once he bloomed into a full-Hedged candidate for President of the United States.
 Fairly in the saddle he proceeded to play his own game. He must pose as an inde- pendent and reformer. To do this the
 
 ladder of machine politics upon which he had climbed. He must get rid of "Jim Smith," He must not only get rid of "Jim smith, but he must make the break so pronounced as to advertise him self in the character of Saul of Tarsus. the part he had resolved thereafter to impersonate. He had no further use for Jim Smith" and "Jim Smiths ma chine. Outside of New Jersey, where they had given him gubernatorial nomina- tion and election, they could only hurt him as "a man of the people," By crush ing Jim Smith" he could signalIze him. self as "leader' So down went the heel on Jim Smith," It is true that "Jim Smith gave him both the pretext and the cue. That was a kind of opportunity which, whilst 1t revealed a genius for ingratitude, indicated fitness for rough practical politics of the Roosevelt va 1 riety.
 The Harper's Weekly plan of presiden- tial promotion proved indeed progressive Mounted and booted and spurred our Saul of Tarsus rode westward, not to- ward Damascus. but Lincoln, Neb., and speedily saw the light. Paul himself was not prompter to put the past behind him and to embrace the new belief.
 He had argued copiously on the eastern side of the questions in dispute. He be- gan to argue copiopsly on the western gan to argue copiously on the western Jennings Bryan into cooked hat He hastened to proclaim him his high priest. Yet, was there one other thing to do In order to perfect his alleged separation from Wall street and to complete his con- version he must get rid of his friend and packer, Col George Harvey. as he had gotten rid of his friend and packer, "Jim smith," He concluded he had no further need of Harvey. From somewhere he had obtained the requisite campaign fund. But he must get rid of Harvey upon a pretext which would ring over the country and still louder proclaim him the enemy of plutocracy and the child of the people. So it was given out that be had spurned Harvey because Harvey sought to force Ryan upon him. This fimsy and false device gave the boom great impetus, but it finally dropped to earth and pe- tered out of sight. sound and smell. As a rule the publicity agents of prima donnas and prize fighters. who are medi- tating a descent upon the public, limit Themselves to keeping their stars before