Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-04-08
THE POLITICAL SITUATION

THE POLITICAL SITUATION
n S 1t appears to-day, the gage of
n war thrown down by Governor
Brumbaugh and those associated
with him will be accepted by Senator
Penrose and other Republican leaders.
The hope existing up to the eleventh
hour that peace overtures would pre-
vail has been blasted and the party is
facing another futile factional conflict.
Peace is more remote to-day than at
any time since the first threat of
hostilities. Republicans in general de-
plore the situation. and while there
have been and will be factional align
ments. the rank and file care little for
the petty personal ambitions of either
side and bitterly resent their intrusion
at a time when all leaders and all
factions should be standing shoulder
10 shoulder for the success of the
party ticket in November. There has
appeared already a very strong cur
rent of dissatisfaction and discomfort
among Republicans who believe in
party principles but care little for per-
sonalities, and who have no taste for
anything smacking of the disastrous
differences of 1912.
Such conflicts as that now impend-
ing always involve bitterness and the
use of any kind of weapon the warning
factions can lay hands upon, but it is
still the hope of the great mass of
Republicans who are out of sympathy
with the factional outbreak that
nothing will be done which will make
impossible a reunion of the discordant
elements after the primary election.
Indeed, it will go pretty hard with any
leader or faction attempting to carry
this fight beyond the primaries.
Few Republicans have any personal
cause or desire to take part in the
pending struggle, but many of them
will be drawn into the melee more or
less, and even these will expect the
primary decision to be final, and that
Immediately following there shall be
a realignment of Republican forces for
harmonious action against the COM
mon enemy.
The contest in this State otherwise
might have a far-reaching influence.
The party throughout the nation had a
right to expect that this great pro-
tectionist commonwealth, the very
keystone of Republicanism, would en-
ter the Chicago convention as a solid
and formidable force, ready to join
whole-heartedly with the representa-
tives of other States in a perfectly or
ganized and harmonious movement for
the crushing of national admins
tration that has been unsatisfactory to
the country at large and which is a
constant menace to our peace and
prosperity. This must be brought about
at all odds, and nothing should be
done that will make difficult the con-
certed action of all Pennsylvania dele
gates at Chicago when the proper time
shall arrive. For this reason, if for no
other. both sides should refrain from
personalities. The futility of mud
singing in recent campaigns in Penn
sylvania ought to admonish all con-
cerned that such tactics only besmirch
both sides and accomplish nothing
except to disgust those who have no
part in the fray.
This newspaper has endeavored in
every proper way to discourage the
factional differences which have been
brewing since the beginning of the
year. 1t still believes there should have
been some way of composing those
differences; but since peace appears to
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