Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1913-05-14

feeling reached the high water mark
of bitterness during the week, when
Governor McGovern declined an in.
vitation to attend a harmony" ban
quet to be given by the Republicans.
The breach in the Republican party
has become widened that men whc
formerly were close friends, political
ly, at least, now hardly speak as they
pass by. Not since Senator La Fol
lette became Wisconsin's great lead
er has there been a controversy with
in the Republican ranks as bitter as
the present one, which will end when
either Governor NIcGovern has been
retired to private life or the govern.
or wrests from the senator the lead.
ership Mr.. La Toilette has so long en-
joyed in this state.
Other men, ambitious to occupy i'm.
portant positions in public life, have;
dared to do what McGovern has done,
but in no instance, perhaps, has the
break been so open and so marked.
In past years men who have broken
with the senator, as the governor has
broken with him, have been relegated
to private life, or at last, removed
from any active leadership in politi-
cal affairs in Wisconsin. A survey of
the men who have come and gone
because they failed to remain in line
with the senator, shows what a tre-
mendous task the governor has under
taken to accomplish.
La Toilette Still Leader.
While Senator La Toilette has
spent little time in his native state
since he was first sent to the United
States senate, he is still recognized as
the great Republican leader, and the
man about whom the people Of the
state gladly flock when there is an is
sue in which La Toilette is making a
fight. While McGovern is a fighter
and will die hard, it is difficult to con-
ceive of any situation which will re-
turn him a victory over the senator
or any man whom the senator may
decide to place in the field against
McGovern for the United States SEN
atorship, the goal to which the gov
ernor aspires.
The refusal of Mr.. McGovern to at
tend the Republican banquet came
when Sol Levitan of Madison, a dele.
gate at large to the last Republican
convention in Chicago, called upon
the chief executive and extended to
him an invitation to attend the ban
quet
"This is an insult" replied the gov
ernor. 'Let them play their own po-
litica1 game"
Strictly La Toilette Gathering.
The governor, it is understood, felt
that the arrangement of a banquet
without consultation with himself,
the nominal leader of the party in the
state, was an insult to the office he
occupies. It was not the plan to have
the governor play an important part
in the banquet, although there was no
disposition not to invite him to be
present.
AS it now stands, the event will be-
come strictly a La Toilette gathering
Governor McGovern intends to make
his own fight along his own lines. He
evidently intends to build whatever
machine it is possible to build under
the circumstances, and then trust to
a popular vote when the next United
States senator is elected. The cam
paign will be a bitter one, for it in
wolves the control of the Republican
party in Wisconsin, It probably
means that Senator La Toilette will
return to Wisconsin and take the
stump against the governor. No mar
in years has beaten the senator in
such a campaign. No man in public
life campaigns as strenuously and as
thoroughly as the senator when he
considers a contest of sufficient i'm
portance for him to take the stump.
The people Of the state await with in
terest the outcome.
Say Governor Gains Ground.
McGovern men claim that the gov
ernor has gained much ground in
winning the support and friendship of
members of the assembly. From the
opening of the session it was con-
coded that La Toilette men held the
power in the senate. There was never
any question about that. In the as