Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-04-22
Poe;t;c4 &.
Pe~~o4esosio
By the Ex-Committeeman

J. Nothing since the announcement
e of the candidacy of Joseph f. Guffey,
{ of Pittsburgh, for the Democratic
| nomination for Governor last year,
: appears to have given as much graf
itication to the Democrats who are
, opposed to the reorganization ma
chine control of their party, as the
, intimation from Washington that
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer
may be Presidential candidate in
order to sew up the Keystone
State delegation. This will afford an
opportunity for the partisans of
Judge Eugene C. Bonniwell, the
gubernatorial candidate who was
) "bawled out" by Palmer here last
: summer and defeated by such tre-
, mendous majority at the general
, election; the friends of Colonel
Jim" Guffey, the old time leader.
and others who have been fighting
the Palmer Mccormick machine, to
start out on the war path.
Every one remembers the influ-
ence that the present Federal office
holders were able to swing at the
Baltimore convention in behalf of
: Wilson. when things reached a criti-
cal stage and the Democrats who
. appointments, ),
especially recall the manner in
which Palmer. Mccormick and
others collected when offices were
being handed around.
The recent conference of the
machine Democratic leaders in Phil
} adelpha was more or less of Il
mournful affair, as it was shown
that while the Federal jobholders
were making themselves solid in of
flee, the Democrats of the State were
characteristically getting mad and
that Palmer-McCormick machine
stock was below par. Hence it was
decided to send out some mission
aries to galvanize the Democracy.
and to tell them how important it
will be to Sustain" the President.
Now the manner in which the
President is to be Sustained" will
be to have Presidential delegates
elected in the interest of the attorney
general. There will be the usual
stuff about Palmer being "close to
the President" one of the "big fig
ures at Washington" and other
:. phrases which have supplanted the
old style term of the 'favorite son."
1t will also be noticeable with
IaVidity the Bonniwell Democrats will
receive the Palmer candidacy. if it
ever gets to the point of being used
as means to have the keystone
State delegation made a block. The
whirl of the grindstone as the anti
Palmer men sharpen their knives
can already be heard in the valleys
of Pennsylvania and there will prob
: ably be some citizens with long
memories who will recall how the
Palmer-McCormick people used to
saw that it was one of the worst of
the offences of the old Guffey regime
: that it endeavored to tie up the
whole delegation by the unit rule
and other devices which are appar-
entity just what the machinists have
in mind now
Still more significant is the atti-
) tude of mind of the Democratic
bosses in trying to establish favor
ite son" booms. It is taken to mean
that there will be an open field and
that the President far from being n
candidate for any third term. will
have trouble putting over any per-
sonal choice.
There is also the engaging posi-
: bilitv that the Philadelphia Press
) mention of Mccormick may be only
camouf1age for Mccormick.
summed up, the developments
of last night in the PHILADELPHIA
: charter revision legislation, which
f brought Senator Penrose to Harris
3 burg, are that the Senator succeeded
in winning point in having the
1 Woodward bills come out on second
= reading in the Senate, but that Sem
tator Ware secured more dc!av bv
announcing a hearing on the bills
for next Tuesday, when cx-MIovors
| Smith and Weaver are scheduled TO
D appear. The district attorney bills.
p in which the senior Send tor is also
interested, are having their hearing
to-day. The Senator will be back in
Harrisburg again next week.
G THAT the Senator means to fight
Y was apparent to-day. He said so
again last night and to-day was busy
making alignments to insure the suc-
cess of the bills, while the Ware ele-
t ment was just as ousy among mem
= bers CT the House in tho hone of
- getting votes against the bills Tho
Ware tactics in the House have been
e an interesting study for weeks and
last night a fresh example was given
: in the voting on :he third-class city
. nonpartiSan repeal bill
Governor Sproul last night gave
) the legislators fresh notice that sal
1 airy bills are going to have a hard
t time when he announced veto of
, I one salary bill.
The senior Senator also took the
Il highly important strategic position
of being unreservedly in favor of in.
n creases of teachers salaries and ap-
: proved of the Scott bill to permit
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to in
crease the tax levy limits to provide
j the funds for the purpose.
: Incidentally, the Senator dealt
: a blow at the bill generally supposed
to be a Ware scheme to provide for
> an elective school board in the two
e big cities. This bill is now consider
i ed in the morgue.
p Senator Penrose's idea is that
the session will not end now until
: June I. He said so much time has
e been lost that the session will run a
Il month or six weeks longer.
limited Cfnfoc of INorI<J