Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-04-10
C. O.P. DELEGATES
FACING PROBLEM
Undecided Whether New York.
ers Will Vote as Unit in
National Convention.
CLASH OF AMBITIONS
MAY THWART HARMONY
Hughes and Root Sentiment Said to
Be Equal, With Scattering
Support for Roosevelt.

be Equal. WIN scattering
Support for Roosevelt,
| Special Correspondence Of The Star.
! NEW YORK, April 9.-Eighty-s sever
! is a big factor in convention number
/ ing less than one thousand delegates
| That is the way they are figuring ir
! New York now. The query is whether
| these eighty-seven delegates will be
/ able to get together and vote as unit
| If they do. it is assumed that this vote
may determine who is to be the repub-
| lican candidate.
| On the surface there would not seem
| to be much prospect of a united dele
| cation. Too many ambitions clash, too
many selfish interests are opposed, and
/ too much honest diversity of opinion
exists. Against this is what seems to
be an overwhelming instinct of the
| masses of the party to get together and
| carry the state.
1T cannot be said that the experiment
of the presidential primary has helped
will prevail. The primary. as it exists
in New York. has been called the poll
ticians primary. 1t is not the sort
which Justice Hughes favored when he
was governor. Yet it is a primary.
and if the masses Of the voters were
not satisfied with the opportunity CIV
en- them in selecting delegates they
could have upset the whole system.
Instead, their interest in downing the
bosses proved to be languorous.
Some Gallery of Familiar Faces.
There is the same gallery of familiar
faces which have been seen in previous
national conventions. Chauncey Depew
will be there, and SO will Col. NJ. J.
Dady of Brooklyn.
Professional reformers have been
cunning for Mr.. Dady many years, be-
cause. as they alleged, he is a machine
politician. Col. Roosevelt also at vari-
Gus times fired volley of blank shot
in Dady's direction.
Col. Dady himself has good deal of
sentimenrabout being delegate. He be-
gan going to national conventions in 1883,
and it is his frankly confessed ambition
to keep on going until he is gathered to
his fathers. The reformers have shown
no touch of human sympathy with this
sentiment They have declared again and
again that if the people ever had a fair
Under the primary system they had the
chance. but Col. Dady goes to Chicago to
help nominate a republican candidate who
can carry the country. He has good judg-
ment. too. in matters of this kind.
This case is typical Of many others.
Politics, under the primary system, go on
about as before. Here and there local
leader. or boss has been upset because
he got out of touch. Or because a younger
boss has come up. But there has been
no wholesale retirement of the old hands.
whether they were organization men or
anti-organiZation men,
Delegation of Able Men.
tion is a representative one. of which
New York need not be ashamed Elihu
Root for obvious reasons, does not head
it. but there are other able men of ma
tional prominence in its ranks
The outside world has little concern
whether Gov. Whitman or Senator Wads-
worth is s~chairman of the delegation and
thus has the advantage of getting most
frequently before the convention. 1t is
more apt to assume that with the repub-
lican senator from the state and the re-
publican governor among the delegates
at large the New York republicans have
a proper conception of the dignity of their
delegation and its influence in the con-
vention.
Scanning the list of delegates, there are
many machine politicians of the old
fashioned kind. There are also some ma
The scholar in politics always has had
recognition in~ New York. and he is not
forgotten in the present delegation Pres
ident Nicholas Murray Butler of Column
bla. who knows something of politics
himself. represents this element
National Committeeman Charles D.
Iiiles is one of the district delega les
Former Secretary Stimson is another.
and there are members of Congress,
state senators and members of the state
committee.
So far as there is line of cleavage
1t is between what is known as the or
ganization faction and the Whitman
syndicate. The organization faction in
ciudes Senator Wadsworth, William
Barnes and other skillful politicians
The Whitman syndicate is mostly COM
| posed Of upstate leaders who are equal
lily skillful Among them are Hendricks
William l.. Ward of Westchester coun-
ty. although Westchester might be con-
! sidered as part of Manhattan.
William Barnes to Be Considered.
| There is much pother over whether or
not William Barnes shall be reelected
as the New York member of the ma
tional committee. The control of the
| state committee also enters into the sit
uation. All this. naturally. is of great
/
and the newspapers give columns of
space to IT. But there is little of In
| terest in these factional maneuvers for
republicans throughout the country IT
! is simply local family fight which can
| exert no influence on national politics
though some Of the family fighters think
otherwise.
| Judging from the turmoil and the bit
| terness of the factions it might be
| thought that there is no prospect of
| the eighty seven delegates to Chicago
! getting together as unit. since most
! of them are mixed up with one faction
! or the other. but as an offset it NAV
| again be said there is the WIDESPREAD
| feeling of the mass of the party that
| this is a Set-together year in nationa
/ politics and any set of leaders or bosses
who baik this aspiration is likely to he
punished.
Presidential Preferences.
! AS TO presidential candidates. the ap-
/ parent division Is between the suppor,
ers of Justice Hughes and those who are
| supporting the nomination of Mr.. Roo,
! This means that the division is betwe.p
, Gov Whitman and his syndicate on one
side, and the oreanization. as repre-
| sented by Senator Wadsworth and Will
| liam Barnes, OIL the other side But
| there are too many modifying cIrcum-
to permit cOnrlusjopg tn he