Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-09-11
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What Hammond's Post Mortem Re-
yeaIs,

What Hammond's Post Mortem Re-
veals.
Aurora, Neb., Sept. S.-To the Ed
itor Of The Bee: was very much
interested in, not to say fiabbergasted
by, Ross Hammond's post mortem,"
reproduced in The Sunday Bee. The
confession of Mr.. Hammond that he
was more favorable to his own candi-
dacy than hostile to that of Norris
sounds rather sordid, coming from a
man whose ambition was supposed to
have been rooted deeply In the soil Of
100 per cent patriotism.
How can Mr.. Hammond reconcile
the declaration, in the announcement
Of his candidacy, that while the war
lasts all else must be subordinated to
it." with the fact that through his
candidacy alone the denomination of
a man who has opposed the war at
practically every stage was made pos
sible?
Mr.. Hammond suggests that "such
attacks as those made by Mr.. Per-
kins" are responsible for Norris insist
ing upon a vindication, and says that
the senator not long ago almost sue
ceeded In enlisting in the marines. If
Senator Norris can extract any salts
faction from nomination by IS per
cent Of the republican voters partici-
pating in the primary he is welcome
to it SO far as I ana concerned. mas
much as he demanded a referendum
on his armed neutrality filibuster, in
dicating that unless sustained by ma
jority of his party he would resign,
the way now seems clear for him to
seek some other field Of usefulness.
The plain truth of the matter is that
Norris is not the choice Of his party,
and his nomination was made possible
only by multiplicity Of candidates.
His suggestion to Mr.. Hammond, 10
days before the primary, that they
were interfering with each other by
dividing the prohibition vote, was
puerile. Prohibition was not, and is
not an issue In this campaign, and any
man who thinks that a considerable
body of voters is Going to be stam-
peded by that scarecrow Is simply
reckoning without his host
I have personal knowledge of many
staunch American republicans who
supported Mr. Hammond because they
believed him to be more zealously for
the vigorous prosecution of the war
than Congressman Sloan. I think he
will himself admit that the encourage
ment which induced him to run came
from people who professed themselves
dissatisfied with Sloans (as well as
NorrisD war record. Sloan had, from
the declaration of war, not only voted
for every war measure, but had taken
an active part in preparing some of
them, notably the revenue bill. His
single offense, SO far as am informed,
was a vote against the declaration it.
self. Norris, on the other hand, not
only made war inevitable by filibus-
tering the armed neutrality bill to
death, but declared that we were plac-
Ing the dollar mark on the flag when
we took the only course left open, and
has from that day to this consistently
opposed every measure calculated to
strengthen our armed forces, with the
single exception, so far as I am ad-
vised, of the new draft bill, which
passed the senate unanimously.
What will Mr.. Hammond's true
friends-those who urged him to run
because they honestly believed he had
a chance. not the tricksters who de-
ceived him in the interest of Norris
think Of is open avowal that he is
scarcely disappointed" by the result?
Mr.. Hammond spoke truly when he
said that post mortems" were not al |
ways profitable, for this Is indeed a
case where silence would have been
golden. CLARK PERKINS.