The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1916-03-17
BIRDS, FLOWERS AND CAMPAIGN
INTEREST APPEAR IN
WASHINGTON.
PRIMARIES DRAW ATTENTION
Excitement Far Less Than Four Years
Ago, for Few Candidates for Presi-
Dental Nomination Have Headquar-
ters in Capital City.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.

of various kinds. The advance guard
of migratory birds has come up the
Potomac valley; the big black birds,
purple grackles, the scientists call
them, are stalking across the White
House grounds; the hepaticas are
peeping from the ground along the
bluffs in Rock Creek park; the for
sythia is bursting into bloom in the
gardens; the crocuses are everywhere,
and every other day there is balm
in the air which is the forerunner of
heat which before long will set the
asphalt boiling on Pennsylvania ave-
nue..
So much for the signs of natures
spring. There is another sign OF
spring, however, which is more inter-
esting to the politicians in Washing
ton than the blooming of flowers and
the return of the birds. 1t may be
called the primary sign of spring, for
the awakened interest is in the presi-
Dental primaries throughout the coun-
try.
Four years ago Washington pol
iticians did not have to wait until the
Springtime for plenty of excitement
and interest specifically political in
character. In February, March and
| April, 1912, there was a political pct
boiling near everyone of the principal
street corners in the downtown district
of this capital city.
Lively Spring of 1912.
In 1912 every Republican and Dem
ocratic candidate for the presidency
had his headquarters open in this city,
and the campaign in its intensity, anx-
iety and interest was like the cam
psign throughout the country in the
late October days of a presidential
year. Four years ago the fight for the
nomination was on between William
Howard Taft, who then was president,
and Theodore Roosevelt. Bulletins
were sent forth twice day from each
OF the two headquarters. Prominent
Republicans from all over the country
were pouring into Washington daily
and making lively, and on occasion
noisy, the headquarters of each of the
party candidates. There was life and
political news every hour of the day.
| In the same months of late winter
and spring four years ago, all the Dem
ocratic candidates for the presidency
had headquarters in this town, and in
their offices the scenes attending the
daily sessions in the Taft and Roose-
welt headquarters were repeated. In
one place the friends of Harmon of
Ohio, gathered. Not far from the Har-
mon headquarters were those of Will
son of New Jersey. and the efforts in
his behalf were just as strenuous and
marked by just as much enthusiastic
noise as were those in the other quar-
tiers of political activity.
Just a little way removed from the
Wilson headquarters were those of
| Champ Clark, where the speakers
friends gathered daily to watch the re-
suits of the primaries as they came
along. The other Democratic candi-
dates, Underwood, Marshall, and the
rest, also had their headquarters here,
and the noise of acclaim from all the
| Democratic Offices met that which
came from the Republican headquar-
tiers and the din, If one may so put it,
was somewhat terrific.
Few Headquarters This Year.
This year there is a change, but just
now enough interest and excitement
has been put into the situation to keep
the politicians keenly alive to the fact
| thof 81
minent. There are no Democratic
headquarters open here except those
of the party itself, for the subdivisions
into supporting forces of this candi-
date or that candidate are no longer
in evidence, because seemingly the
Democrats have taken it for granted
that Woodrow Wilson is to be nomi.
! mated to succeed himself. This NAV
not be a correct view of the case. but
it is the view so far as most of the
Democrats assembled in Washington
are concerned.
1t is the fact that presidential mi.
maries have just started in the diff
ferent states of the Union that has
finally reused Washington to extreme
interest in the campaigning. This
year there are a good many Republic.
an candidates for the nomination, but
with one or two exceptions they have
not opened headquarters in the city
of Washington. For the interest in
the case, the politicians here must look
to the primaries as they occur through
out the Union.
War Maps in Cabinet Room.
The cabinet room at the White
House these days looks like one
OF the council chambers of the war
college. Maps of all the countries
at the present time engaged in war
have places on the walls and with
them are maps of countries that sup
posedly are near to war, and along
side of these are maps of those lands
which are It peace, but which by some
turn of the wheel may be brought into
war.
The war maps in the cabinet room