The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1915-12-29
NO MAN, NO ISSUE
FOR REPUBLICANS
Present Plight OF q. o. p.
Leaders.
The DEMOCRATS HAVE WILSON
Who Is Very Popular, and
Fewer Problems Than
Ever Before.
WAR ISSUE IS NEARLY DEAD


Washington, Dec. 27.--The logic
of the sound political axiom first
enunciated by Odell,- the most saga
cious of New York Republican lead
ers, that you can't beat somebody
with nobody" applies exactly to the
conditions confronting the two po-
litical parties already planning for
the next Presidential campaign.
The Democrats have candidate
whose denomination appears abso-
lutely assured, unless he himself
should decide not to accept another
term. No other man figures in the
calculations of the party leaders,;
none appears so certain of receiving
the support of hundreds of thous-
ands Of men politically drifting be-
tween the Republican Scylla and
Charybdis; none ever has been bet
ter fitted to lead his party for the
second time. These at least are the
conclusions of the leaders of all fac
tions in the Presidents party.
The Republicans have nobody.
That is, there is no man among the
bakers dozen or so talked of whose
intellectual capabilities and political
equipment are sufficiently appealing
to recruit the support of enough del
egates to the next National Conven-
ton to give him anything like as
good a chance as that which is Pres
ident Wilson's for the acceptance.
The concern of the Democratic
| leaders is therefore not over the
question of a candidate AS a mat
ter of fact, the party is confronted
with fewer problems involving pros
pective embarrassments than any
party in power for more than forty
years.
The Republicans. on the other
hand, appear to have neither a man
nor an issue. The finding of the
| former will only be accomplished
after the sort of guerilla fighting
that has torn the Republic of Mexico
into tatters for three or four years.
AS for an issue, the foremen, sap
pers and miners, both reactionary and
progressive. admit they are placing
greater dependence upon the Demo-
cratic Congress to provide them with
war munitions than on any of the
ancient traditions that used to scare
the average voter during a Demo-
cratic Administration.
Aside from the archaic tariff,
which has lost most of its sting dur
ing the last decade, the two factions
of the tout party" have scant lar
der on which to draw in the pros
pective emergency. And even the
tariff does not promise to be of any
help.
The steps already inaugurated by
President Wilson and his advisers to
divest that thrcadbare issue of the
vital sparks remaining in it appear
almost certain to take It out of poll
tics. Congress is depended on to
take the starch out Of it," as a po-
litical issue.
The international situation. which
the "straight-goods" Republicans
and conciliatory Progressives figur-
ed on as a "live wire" in the next
campaign, also has lost much of its
charm as political potent. II is
the complaint of the average Repub-
lican that the voter doesn't indicate
sufficient degree of indignation at
the "blunders made by the Wilson
Administration 10 insure the over
whelming tide of resentment antici-
pated by them couple of months
ago.
That the "out party" will have to
dig up an issue more attractive to
the voter than either the tariff or
any resulting from the European
AYR. is generally admitted.
|