The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1913-03-10
JERSEY DEMOCRATS
SPLIT BY FIELDER
His Candidacy for Governor a
Severe Blow to Wittpcnn's
Followers.
MAY BE WILSON'S WISH
Some Think Acting Governor
= Got Presidents o. X. Before
Announcing Himself.
NAY BE WILSON'S WISH

The announcement of acting Cover
nor James r. Fielder Of New Jersey
that he will be candidate for the
Democratic nomination for Governor
next fall presages tho liveliest kind OF
fight in the political camp which re-
Gently gave to the national service Its
most conspicuous member. Fielder Is
the third man in the race. his oppon-
cnts to date being Mayor H. otto
Wittpenn OF Jersey city, Flelders
home town, and cX-Mayor Frank $.
katzenbach of Trenton
Mayor Wittpenn started running for
Governor back in the fall OF 1910,
simultaneously with Woodrow Wilson.
hut was overshadowed by the cand-
dacy of the man who is now President.
He was opposed by the late Bob Davis
boss Of the Democratic county ma
chine. and did not mako any showing
outside OF Hudson county, and not
much there. The boss and his follow
crs backed Wilson to the finish and
gave him an unprecedented majority
in the county.
Ever since that one sided primary
and through all the peculiar changes
that have taken place in New Jersey
politics and the subdivision of the
dominant party into Wilson Democrats
and anti-wilson Democrats Mayor
Wittpcnn and his friends have insisted
that he was the only simon pure Will
son progressive who was entitled to
any consideration at the hands of the
progressive element for honors in the
chair made vacant by the election of
Woodrow Wilson to the Presidency In
fact some OF the more enthusiastic of
the Wittpenn clan have been perfectly
frank in trying to make II apparent
that Mr.. Wilson had placed the seal of
his approval on the Mayors ambitions.
Mr.. Fielder's veiS deliberate action
In getting into the race was bitter
pill for the followers Of wittpenn. who
had been hoping he would not accept
the call" and they promise to make
the primary contest extremely inter-
esting.
Mr.. Fielder declared that up to the
day he assumed the office OF acting
Governor he had hoped to he able to
persist in his refusal to be n candidate
and he did not give his consent until
after the big demonstration that at
tended his inaugural and the numer-
Gus requests for him to run that came
from Democrats who greeted him by
the hundreds at reception in his
honor on the occasion OF the inaugu-
ration OF President Wilson.
He said he was satisfied that the
demand had real strength back of it"
and therefore he could not refuse the
request that he should run.
hn n,
has much TO interest him In the Fielder
Wittpenn fight from the fact that ever
since Mr.. Wilson threw his brown slouch
hat into the ring Mr.. Fielder was one Of
his most consistent supporters in pro-
gressive legislation. He fought the
bosses and acquired the tag OF a Wilson
Democrat.
Although President Wilson as Gov
ernor never publicly favored one man in
preference to the other as a possible
candidate for Governor. a feeling is fast
growing that had Mr.. Wilson told Mr..
Fielder that he thought Mr.. Wittpenn
ought to have free field as the pro-
gressive candidate next fall Mr. Fielder
would have been content to retire to the
practice OF law at the expiration Of his
term as acting Governor The fact that
Mr.. Fielder calmly and coolly got into
the race after much deliberation has
been responsible for much guessing on
the part of the Wittpennites. who Won
der what 1t all means. anyhow.
The Wittpenn boomers are trying to
make it appear that Fielder's candi-
dacy is just exactly what the anti
Wilson men, headed by ex-Cnited States
Senator James Smith and James
NnRcnf. thai 1,yIn "a.