The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-05
PENROSE KEY


Unfortunately Justice Hughes can
not make a declaration this week. He
must remain on the supreme bench.
He must read certain important deci-
sions in the supreme court Tuesday.
June 49, The Republican nomination
will be made probably Saturday,
June 10.
The Progressives may possibly be
able to restrain themselves and not
nominate the colonel before Saturday,
but it will take more than the Ma
tional Guard to hold them. To ask
them to wait until June IA, the date
of the Democratic convention for word
from a candidate who inspires them
with little interest and no enthusiasm,
will be a fearful strain on their ma
teional emotions, and they are an emo
tional emotions, and they are an emo
tain that until Justice Hughes does
make an unequivocal declaration in
favor of a stiff foreign policy and a
preparedness program sharply con-
trasted to that of President Wilson,
the Progressives will not accept JUS
tice Hughes. and they will nominate
Colonel Roosevelt.
r. RS Attitude.
Colonel Roosevelts attitude toward
the justice may best be illustrated by
the fact that three times in one day
last week in Kansas City he quoted
the paragraph from the Philadelphia
Progressives would support no candi-
date whose only difference from Pres
ident Wilson might be removed by a
safety razor. The Republicans will
gladly accept Hughes without a state
ment of any kind. But he will be
November unless he takes the posi-
ton which Colonel Roosevelt has ex-
pounded in his speeches during the
past year. For the Progressives are
holding to their program. And if
they cannot get it before the people
under the Republican candidate they
will get it before the people under
their own banner.
There is no doubt but that Colonel
Roosevelt expects to go into the cam
paign vigorously this fall. He expects
to preach the anti-hyphenate doctrine
pure and undefiled. If the Republi-
can platform and candidate are not
interested in that kind of policies, if
that kind of policies embarrass them.
then the Progressives propose to have
candidate which will not embarrass
them nor any one else.
Delegations Friendly.
How all this talk bristles with
fight. Yet the situation in the Chi
cago hotel lobbies is anything but bel
Hgerent. The state delegations to the
two conventions are with scarcely an
exception exceedingly friendly. The
old bitterness of four years is gone.
Progressives and conservatives have
no political feud on. From the hum
blest sage brush leader to the big five,
Barnes and Crane and Smoot and
Hemenway and Penrose on the Re-
publican side of the house, and from
the most incurable lunatic of the
fringe to the sanest leader of the con-
sentative Progressives, pleasant little
conferences are being held in every
hotel in town. All day today, the del
egates have talked things over. And
they know now about where their op-
ponents stand. The Republicans have
been permitted to feel the cool steel
barrel of the gun under the Progress
sive olive branch, and the Progres-
slves have found out that the favorite
son is in high disfavor at home.
Penrose Key to Situation.
Out of it all has come this salient
fact That Boise Penrose is the KEY
to the situation. He can make har-
mony or make trouble. He has a low
opinion of the Root boom. He knows
that it spells defeat Root has every
element of weakness that Colonel
Roosevelt has. The hyphenates hate
him. The pacifists have hardened
their noses against him, and upor
political and economic questions he is
reactionary to degree. the Germa ms
ana the tQudKerS ana the PrOgreSSiyes
of 1912 can sweep Pennsylvania away
from the Republican column with
Root as candidate. With Roosevelt
as candidate the charm of a per-
sonality comes into the equation
So Penrose will have have none OF
Root. He is afraid of Hughes He i.
undecided. But in the end he will
take Roosevelt or Hughes. He is ser.
lously thinking it over. And when he
decides it will be all over but the
shouting. For Boise Penrose is thu
man in whose hands the fates have
given thu key 10 the most trying prob
lem that the country has faced in 8
, generation: And he will play polite.
with it. He will translate it into the
Pennsylvania situation, and # he car
regain his hold upon Philadelphia, ant
re-establish himself in Alleyhan,
county he will take Hughes or Roose
welt, and with God be the rest" o,
the devil take the hindmost," as tn,
case may be. How the high gods mus
laugh when they hear men talking il
tal' terms of the influences that max,
for progress in the Garth