Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-07-02

ocA 9~t>s149

~ VICTOR 10bOWetOAs
IRON the many inquiries, judge that there
J. is much interest in the personality OF Will
lam R. Wilcox, who has been chosen 10 manage
the Hughes and Fairbanks campaign as CHAIRMAN
NJ the republican national committee. l happen
to know Mr. Wilcox, with an acquaintance DAT
ing back more than a dozen years. He is lawyer
who has been at various times active IN puDinc
affairs in New York, graduate OF COLUMBIA IN inc
later sos. who was brought forward by President
Seth Low when he became mayor of New York
CITY, commissioning him president OF the park
board and then, in succession, was mace post
master by appointment OF President KooseVeN
and president OF the Public Service commission by
attending the experimental Inauguration OF THIS
form of public service control and regulation IS
credited largely to his ability and shrewdness,
and when his position was claimed tor "a, democrat
at the expiration OF his term Mr.. Wilcox went
hack 10 the practice OF law, naturally attracting
business that kept him in touch with public serv-
ice commissions. When was in New York last
winter | stopped in to see Will Hayward and at
the same time to pay my respects 10 oscar ..
Straus, who had that very day been sworn IN as
chairman of the commission by appointment OF
Governor Whitman. As former chairman, Mr..
Wilcox was there too to congratulate his latest
SUCCESSOR and we all sat around and enjoyed
pleasant chat
It goes without saying that from the outset
Mr.. Wilcox has been stauneh champion and
admirer of Hughes. I saw him again over at
Chicago during the convention, where he was
volunteer Hughes booster like the rest OF u.s. al
though not delegate nor in any way othciaily
accredited. 1t should be added also that Mr..
Wilcox is essentially a worker and an organ
zer and not talker or a dress-parade man.
The refusal Of John M. Parker Of Louisiana,
nominated for vice president on the bull moose
ticket, to follow Colonel Roosevelt into the re-
publican party by acceptance OF Hughes, IS not
strange to anyone familiar with the setting OF
was never republican, but was at best an in.
surgent democrat and a personal adherent OF
| Roosevelt whose host he was, it will be remem-
bered, during the presidents famous hunt in the
cane brakes The color line Is the Key to the
Of the white voters Of the south IN the democratic
| fold Large numbers Of men like Mr.. Parker,
| men OF advanced ideas and desire to break away
| from the bourbonism Of democracy, would gladly
become republicans except TOR the reason that It
negroes and at this they balk We have had
double contesting for the delegates seats
from Louisiana every four years since 1875,
| fight between the so-ealed Lilly Whites and the
Black and Tans" and usually, il not invariably,
some sort Of compromise has been forced
recognizing the blacks either in whole or in part
We had a repetition OF this condition in Chicago
this time, and Mr.. Parker himself told me-, with
much insistence, that the white delegation should
be seated, and that in no other way would the
door be opened to him and his associates, who
had formed the bull moose organization there,
to come in and help build up effective party in
the south in opposition to the democrats.
1--WE can work with the men on the white dele
CATION" he said, "but recognizing the black dele
CATION. we will take as meaning that we are not
| wanted"
All could reply was that, being no longer a
| member of the committee was not to pass on
the contest, but the point is clear to my mind that
it is the negro question and nothing else that
prompts the hesitation Of the southern bull moos-
ers to become republicans after they had led
themselves to believe they had good start for a
| white party to combat the arrogance and corrup-
ton OF the entrenched democrats in the south.
If these men do not support Hughes it is not be-
sons superior qualifications. Had the republic.
ans been willing to back-rack on their traditional
| policy that discountenances negro disfranchise-
ment, the southern progressives, almost all,
would have been with US.
So Charley Tanning is to have the Omaha
postmastership by grace Of our democratic United
States senator-sure thing this time however
much delayed in transit This elevates Tanning
to the same hi gh level of distinction enjoyed by
our previous democratic postmasters-Alfred D.
Jones' he OF the letter -in-his-hat fame w. w.
Wyman, Euclid Martin and Con V. Gallagher
mighty few but therefore all the more choice
specimens OF unterrifed and unadulterated democ-
| racy 1t remains only for the new incumbent, as
soon as he is comfortably ensconced, to become
an ardent advocate Of civil service and life tenure
and its immediate extension to include hrst-class
postnasters.
| am reading book sent me by Walter Well
| man, whose fame was won by peculiar combi-
nation Of newspaper writing and North Pole ex-
| ploration. and who is now living in semi-retire-
ment in New York City. Walter Wellman, by
the way, is almost Nebraska man. having done
for many years near Hastings, where the son
used to pay him frequent visits. But to get back
to the book, is an attempted projection into the
future, depicting developments at the close OF the
present European war as his imagination sees
them, with an uprising Of the people of Germany
| to throw off the monarchical yoke and make peace
on their own account-hence the title "The Ger
man Republic" Wellman has worked out Ger
man Declaration Of Independence" modelled
upon our own, and reorganizes the German gov
eminent in the form Of popular democracy. 1t
is all very suggestive, even il unconvincing, or
will be for those who live long enough to
test his predictions by the stern logic Of events.
Another book that is engaging my attention is
the volume written by Mrs. Nelson O'Shaugh-
compiled from the letters she wrote home from
day to day to her mother while her husband was
representing our government as charge dafffairs
at the Mexican capital. Friends who read this
column will perhaps remember reference
made at least two years ago to similar book
about Mexico, written in the early 40s by the wife
OF Calderon de Ia Barca, the first Spanish min
lister sent to Mexico after its war OF independence
and before her marriage to him, teacher in a