Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-06-06
Republicans All Mt Sea

\ maze OF uncertainty, jealousy, hesitation
1 doubt and fear. the Republican party will
open its national convention at Chicago to-
morrow. What will come out this haze no
man knows. Whether the presidential nom
NEE Will be Hughes or Roosevelt or one of
the ffty-seven varieties of Favorite Son is
mere speculation, based the airiest pre-
misses. Just now the Colonel appears to be
eliminated, and the pointer turns to the
Supreme Court justice, but the shifting winds
of political fortune may bring a reimbursement
overnight
If Justice Hughes would consent to mako
statement satisfactory to the Progressives
and to their leader, he probably would render
his nomination certain. He has said, how
ever, that he would make no statement-that
he would offer no bid for support. whether
of Colonel Roosevelt and the Progressives or
>of any else. He takes refuge in an i'm
pcnetrable silence. On the other hand the
Progressives say they will not indorse Hughes
in the absence of such declaration, and the
Roosevelt forces in the Republican convention
are OF the same mind.
1t all makes very pretty kettle of fish.
The fact is the Republican party is a party
without generally approved principles 1t is
divided into almost as many camps as 1t has
leaders. The beligerency of Roosevelt and
Root is matched by the pacifism of Cummins
and Ford. The reactionaries like Barnes and
Penrose and the other members of the Old
Arma geddon that have drifted back into the
Republican fold The party that camors-
at t1meS--for more vigorous foreign policy
cannot throw aside the record of it's effort to
throttle President Wilson when he stood bold
ly for American rights.
AS with men, with issues Of course it
is shame, but the old battle cry Of "the full
dinner pail" has been appropriated by the
dishonest Democrats. The country is more
prosperous than it has ever been, and pros
perity shows no signs of disappearing. That
industrial menace OF a Democratic admins
tration, of which the Republican textbooks
once were full, is hardly likely to work
Capital and labor both are employed, and
receiving high wages for their toll. The
tariff, as campaign vote winner is as dead
as Caesars ghost
In the meantime. the G. o. p adherents
endeavor TO keep up their courage with re-
fections that in the last election President
Wilson received minority Of the popular
vote. According to these naive theorists, all
that is necessary to insure Wilson's defeat is
to stave off Progressive nomination They
take ii for granted that all those who voted
four years ago for Taft or Roosevelt would
have voted for either Of them had the other
not been in the field.
Clearly this is political stupidity. The
Republican party four years ago was so hope
lessly divided that the faction defeated at the
convention would have cast its votes, in large
measure, for the Democratic candidate, if it
had not had candidate of it's own. If
Roosevelt had been nominated instead of Taft
the result would have been the same although
the Democratic accessions would have come
from the other side
There is such sharp cleavage now as
there was in 1912, but the differences still
exist. They cannot be reconciled by any can
didate the Republicans can choose or by any
platform they can frame. With the votes
of Independents and Of those high minded
and patriotic Republicans, who give honest
praise TO the President because he has pre-
served the national prosperity as well as the
national honor, and has kept his country
out OF war" the differences in the opposition
ranks will decide November's battle and as
sure the triumphant e-eecton of Woodrow
Wilson.