The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1916-02-22

1t has been said that Mr.. Stokes
would link up with Senator Edge and
do team work with him in q campaign
to secure both the Governorship and the
United States Senatorship for South
Jersey. The Jersey Journal man is in u
position to deny this report on absolute
authority. Stokes present plan is to
make his fight alone, and that has been
his plan from the beginning. All his
close political friends know this, and
Senator Edge is one of them.
| Mr.. Stokes idea is to avoid unneces-
sary antagonisms and to maintain
friendly relations with all the Republi-
can candidates. If he pooled issues with
any one candidate he felt that he would
narrow the contest to factional battle
and that In predicament he wants to
escape in this Presidential year. When
| the primaries are over, he wants all the
candidates, defeated and successful alike,
to be good friends and ready to work
wholeheartedly for the success of the Re-
publican ticket.
Something may happen, of course, be-
fore the campaign proceeds much fur
ther to swerve Mr.. Stokes from his
present neutral course, but, If so, it will
not be Of his doing. III he links up with
any candidate for Senator it will be be-
cause his competitors will have forced
MIN to resort to that expedient.
What this means is that if the Muir
ply Baird Dalrymple machine should
turn its guns upon Stokes and Edge, for
example-or upon any other Guberna-
torial candidate supposed to be partial
to Stokes-it may become necessary for
Stokes in self-dsience to conduct team
campaign.
In such event, with what candidate
would Mr.. Stokes unite his forces That
would depend upon developments.
stokes is in the fight to win, and if he
selects running mate at the primaries
he would pick man who he thinks
can be nominated for Governor in spite
| of the opposition of the Murphy
machine. Perhaps the man will be
Senator Edge, perhaps Robert Carey, of
Hudson. Not even tentative plans have
yet been formed in that direction, be-
cause Stokes is determined to escape
factional battle if it is at all possible to
do so.
Asked to-day what he thought of the
possibility OF being compelled to make a
team fight at the primary, Mr.. Stokes
replied that he had not given any atten-
ton to that matter at all and would not
discuss or consider it. One of Mr..
Stokes political intimates, however, had
this to say about it:
Former Governor Stokes will run for
the United States Senatorship on his
record. He cannot run on anything else
His record as public official and as a.
Republican is made. 1t cannot be
changed. Everybody in this state who
knows anything about public men and
affairs is familiar with it. Why should
Stokes, known as he is to all Repu blican
voters. appeal for their support now as
factional candidate? 1t would be ridicu-
to him and discour-
teous to the voters; in fact, unworthy OF
any true follower of Republican princi-
Piles.
Now, suppose an attempt should be
made by some of the other candidates or
their friends to coerce Stokes into Join
ing hands with one of the Gubernatorial
and making what they call
team fight with him, what would Stokes
do? He would fight, of course, and
when Stokes gets into fight everybody
is aware Of it, And he would win, and
whatever candidate he supported for |
Governor would win with him. This is |
a poor year for machine combinations in |
politics, and all Stokes would have to do |
would be to point out the combination |
which was trying to coerce him and tell |
the people all about it.
1.-THE voters would do the rest. NV
advice to all and sundry is to let Stokes |
alone and not compel him to appeal to |
the people for a square deal at the pri-
maries. This is to be peoples cam
paign. Party organizations have a le-
Ultimate function to perform, but con-
trolling nominations and manipulating
primaries are no part of it. The voters
are supreme and they will resent coercive |
tactics at the primaries as they would re-
sent any other form of tyranny"
Senator Edges candidacy will give an
impetus to the Republican campaign in
South Jersey and freshen interest in the
throughout the state. The |
Senator is popular in all the counties
Of the Southern tier, even in Camden,
although the Baird organization there is
very strong and now leans toward Sena-
tor Austen Colgate, of Essex, for Govern
or. II Baird supports Colgate, however,
he will find it hard to induce his follow
ers to support also former Gov. Franklin
of Essex, for the United States
There is adeep-rooted pre-
iudice in Camden against taking the |
for the two big Offices to be
filed this year from one and the same |
and that North Jersey county
IL both OF these candidates could be TAX
en- from Camden. the prejudice would |
probably disappear.
1t is noteworthy in this regard that no
protest comes from South Jersey over |
the prospect of having Mr.. Stokes, of
and Mr.. Edge, of Atlantic,
as candidates for United States Senator |
and Governor, respectively. Mr.. Dali
rymple and his friends in Essex take the |
ground that as the Senatorship is q |
Federal Office and the Governorship a |
state office proper, and as their functions
are totally different, it is immaterial |
candidates for these Offices live
in the same county or even in the same |
house. Besides, under the direct pr.
mary law, they contend, all merely geo.
graphical considerations are obliterated.
Any citizen who desires to run for either
Of the two big offices may do SO, and it
Is up to the voters to register their choice
1t the primary.
While it is well-known that there is
m poIitical compact between Stokes and