The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-05-05
WOOD BOOM STIRS
UP NEW ENGLAND
Senator Moses Declares Gen.
eral Will Have Support
Of New Hampshire.
CALLED ROOSEvELT'SHEIR
Sentiment for Soldier Said
to Be Growing as Wilson's
Popularity Wanes.
Special Despatch to TIE suS.

| Dpee'o' DcsputCN 10 Sun.
WASHINGTON, May 4.-Gen. Leonard
wood probably will go into the next Re-
publican national convention with New
England behind him, Kansas friendly
and the city Of Chicago his adm,rer. ac-
cording to Senator George H. Moses
| IN HI, who in a statement tonight
declared that Gen. Wood is "the riehtfui
heir of Theodore Roosevelt and pre-
dicting that the next national conyen-
ton VIII find him supported by a ma
.'onwioe circle or friends-and IL nomi-
mated will be elected
| There Is more sentiment of the kind
that elects Presidents surrounding Cen.
Leonard Wood than any other who has
peen mentioned as a possible Republican
nominee In 1920" said Mr.. Moses, and"
ne AIDED, tho only question is whether
.nis Rlnd or sentiment which elects
PRESIDENTS can be transmitted in Gen,
woods case into the kind of sentiment
mat produces delegates and nominate.
| Presidents"
The Senator said he has no doubt this
poiitlcai alchemy will take place in New
hampshire. where Gen. Wood "is a IA
Vorite son." having peen porn in a tene-
inent over grocery store in the village
OF winchester, where his father was a
doctor. 1'
Means Union of Factions.
The first mention of Woods candi-
| dacy in his native State" the Senator
continued. was In an editorial declara-
tion In the Claremont Eagle, a news
paper edited by a retired army officer
Recently the Manchester Union the
largest newspaper in the State. editer by
MAJOR FRANK Knox. who has Just come
back from the trenches and who was a
| leader In the Progressive party in 1912.
| has presented Gen. Wood as New Hamp-
shlres choice. 1t seems evident that in
| the Wood candidacy both factions OF the
Republican party in the State can unite
| and bury their differences, and so far
| as one can Judge of an event which is
more than year in the future l look TO
| see New Hampshire send a solid dele
cation for Wood to the next nominating
convention.
There Is also a large and growing
Wood sentiment In Massachusetts,
Maine and Vermont, and have no doubt
| that his strength will develop in Rhode
Island and Connecticut also"
The Senator said that the drift of Re-
publican opinion toward Gen. Wood is
| readily explainab BILE. The people, he
said. are turning away from Wilson,
In spite OF the League of Nations and its
! initial session to be held In Washington.
most significant feature OF many pub
lie meetings which l attended in New
England was the readiness with which
the audiences rose to any gibe at Wilson.
This would have been impossi BILE prior to
the Presidents trip to Paris, and now
slgnihes the shift in public opinion
as Wilson energies from the glamour OF
a
egotist whose colossal vanity enable.
crafty foreign statesmen to use him as a
| catspaw.
Points to Woods Popularity.
In turning away from such a figure
the inevitable tendency of the public
mind is to seek its antithesls Col,
Roosevelt embodied this ideal to the
last degree, and had he lived I think he
would have been our candidate named
perhaps by reclamation. With him gone
there Is demand for an inheritor of
the Roosevelt legend. To many minds
Leonard Wood seems the rightful heir
with the strawberry mark on his right
arm and all the other signs of full iden-
tlncation. With Roosevelt he sought TO
serve overseas and was refused that
privilege with Roosevelt he accepted
uncompla!ningly the fate which Jealous
pollllclans meted out TO him, and did
his full duty at home like the good SOL
der that he Is. Like Roosevelt he has
an infectious personality which baffled
all the plans of the Administration to
pocket him. Exiled to Charleston by
the War Department. he infected the
South. and nowhere has he more ardent
admirers than in that solidly Democratic
section. Sent then to the pacific plains
OF Kansas as a safe hiding place, he
inoculated that whole section with his
genius, and now the praires are ablaze
with enthusiasm for him. Transferred
now to cosmopolitan Chicago, he seems
to be repeating there his experience in
the Democratic South and the pacific
middle West. and his sturdy American
ism is also producing Its Inevitable re-
action.
Gen. Woods speeches. too, are OF
character to attract attention. His
thought Is always for his country. and
the controverted questions OF acute mon
etary interest have not diverted him
from the central idea that the United
States must depend upon itself in the
future no matter how massive may be