The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-02-24
SEE POLITICS IN
VISIT VS. TO BOSTON Be!
Presidents Landing There is
Considered Significant of
Coming Issues
SUPPORT FOR LEAGUE
LIKELY TO DEVELOP
As Result of Speech Made in New Eng
land Metropolis This Afternoon
Election in Massachusetts This Year
May ForeteIl Presidential Result.


BOSTON, Feb Politicians here
profess to be at no loss to account for
President Wilson's choice of Boston as
his first speaking place on his return from I
the Paris peace conference. They would
have been surprised, in fact, if he had
picked any other city. The rest Of the
world has not yet grown accustomed to
the fact that Massachusetts is doubtful
state, but that is only small part of /
the situation. It is the only state which |
will hold a general election this year,
and the result of that election will be the /
magic crystal for the Presidential year
just as men used to watch the Sep |
tember elections in Maine, before Maine |
became too mixed in politics to be a ba-
rometer, and the September elections in
Vermont, until Vermont became No
yember state, so men will watch this
solitary election and then draw auguries
from it. 1t may be said that Alassaehu-
sets will be the first state to vote on
| the League of Nations, certainly the first
state to register any kind of verdict on
the Presidents activities abroad
We all know. that states commonly
vote on local issues, but there is always
enough of mixture OF national issues
| to show which way the wind is blowing.
Aside from this: Massachusetts hap
pens to be, in the common belief, state
| in which the Republican party is opposed
to the league OF nations plan. This is
not quite the fact however. The oppo-
nents of the league within the party have
| been so yoluble and their utterances have
attracted so much attention as to give
| the impression that the whole party
agrees with them. The reason why not
so much has been heard from the other
side is that, included in this other side
are some of the wiaest and most infiuen-
tial workers in the state, men who
learned politics in another school of ora
tory, and these men have been quietly
applying the. strongest kind of pressure
to suppress for convert their erring and
| laxative brethren.
| There is reason to believe that they arc
succeeding The anti-league element in
the Republican partSLhas been dimin-
ishing Senator Lodge has fallen silent
agreeing to respect the Presidents re-
quest not to discuss the league until
after the Presidential dinner, and it is
evident that, even when he does discuss
it, he will not show the bitterness
which is shown by some of the anti
league Spokesman hereabouts and in
the senate.
1t is not meant TO suggest that the
lparty leaders who have been mentioned,
and who are men of national prominence,
have exerted any pressure on Senator
Lodge, but they have on others, and the
work of the slnti-leagucrs has been cell
siderably undermined.
Therefore the great reception VIII Oh
the President is receiving will be of great
political value in the way of strengthen
ing his cause IN state where it most
needs support because of its political
condition Massachusetts last year de-
feated Senator Weeks, Republican, and
elected David Walsh 1t elected the Re
publican candidate for governor, Calvin
Coolidge, but by a majority only one
third of that which he had been expect
ed to receive. The question of how it vii
20 next November is a dubious one, ant
is made more dubious by the fact thai
the Democrats are determined TO go K
the polls on the issue of what is to b.
done for the soldiers
/ Each party is striving to outbid III,
Iother, but the Republican party is hand
icapped by the fact that it is in powe
and therefore has a sense OF responsible
ty. At the beginning of the war bonu
of $40 was paid to each soldier from Mas
sachusetts. but the war department oh
iected on the ground that this created
feeling of unrest among soldiers iron
other states, and at last Massachusetts
discontinued the bonus. But when tn
Hal n,,I ha Il I'D mt xr-a
no longer interested, the proposal wa
made in the State House to restore tn
bonus and pay up all the accumulate
unpaid bonuses. which would amount
S20a00,000. with from five to seven mi
lions more for soldiers not vet out of tn
service. This measure will receive til
. vote of every Democrat in the Stat
House and of q good many Republicans
There is another proposal before til
legislature to give $50 outright to ever
soldier when he is discharged. Altogetht
there is race of promises to discharge
soldiers, with every advantage on Il
side Of the Democrats. The lnemplo,
ment situation is serious, with hotels III
trolley lines out of business hi every d
lrection, to say nothing of the shut -dpgr
and lessening strength among ordinal
business. particularly everything thaaa
related to the building trade One plum
er, for instance. who used to cmplc
twenty-six men before the war, now en-
tploys five and says he cannot find wol
enough for them. Meanwhile the I'll
has four or five different job findir
agencies for soldiers.
1t viii be seen that the situation
not promising for the Republican part
and the chances for an emphatic Dem
cratic victory are not to be sneezed q
Boston is the towns of towns for t
President to present his case in, and t
opposition to the league of nations III:
become unpopular after his reception t
day. Mr. Taft has been received he
with great enthusiasm, and the .hithcr
submerged pro-league section of the pa
ty may turn ont to be, in the MAORI
after all 80
At the very least, the Presidents /