Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1919-10-26

Dld Tor the convention, but the I'M
preston is that they win be pasesd
over.
Primaries In April.
Twenty-one states now have some
form of presidential primary law. Ten
simply require primaries for the sell
ection of delegates. The leven re-
naming require the names of the
candidates to be voted on directly or
delegates pledged to some candidate.
Most of these primaries are to be held
in April and May, although there are
three in March, South Dakota vot-
ing that month along with New Hamp-
shire and North Dakota. State COM
mittees determine how and when the
delegates shall be chosen in the other
states and particularly in the South,
the custom is to have the conventions
in April. Inside of six months the
maj ority of the delegates to both con-
ventions will be chosen and neither
party today has more than a guess
as to who its STANDARD bearer will be.
Inside the G. o. P. Ranks the i'm
preston is growing vnat no candidate
will go to the convention with any
thing like a majority of the dele
gates-that it will be free-for-all
even after the convention gets to-
gether for several days and then the
party chieftains will measure the va
rious candidates by the political yard
stick as to who can get the most votes
and will run best and possibly nomi-
nation will come with a whoop, out
of days and nights of midnight eau
cussing.
That, at least, is what the ocnserva-
tive and canny chieftains hope to see
come about. They fondly talk of the
Benjamin Harrison convention, way
back esteem" years ago, and say 1920
will be a repetition. Anyway, they
hope it will be. They don't want to
see any one candidate loom up so
strong he will run away with the con-
vention from the start.
Wood Once Looked Best.
Of course, myriad things may hap
pen between now and next June to
upset these calculations. New issues
may bring one or the other of many
candidates to the fore in a command
ing way. Tor time it looked as if
Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood might
sweep things. He has more national
strength than any other possibility to-
day. Then Senator Hiram Johnson,
in his League fight, started in to run
away with things. He captured all
the surface talk and had the senator
ial group of candidates shaky and
gloomy. johnson will be factor to
the end. Then an effort was made to
trot Governor Lowden, of Illinois,
to the spotlight, but while he has
big campaign behind him there isn't
chance of his going to the conven-
ton with majority or even a near
majority of the delegates. He will
have few states pledged-that's all.
And so it will continue, but with so
many candidates-and there will be
more-all this plays into the hands
of the party chiefs.
The conservative group in the sem
ate has Senator Harding, of Ohio, in
mind, but isn't ready to put him for
ward yet, desiring to see what the re-
publicans back home think of him.
In the democratic field, William
Gibbs McAdoo has the call, and all
except the boosters of Attorney Gen
eral A. Mitchell Palmer admit it. That
doesn't mean that McAdoo will be
nominated. 1t means that as the sit
uation stands he can command more
support and backing than any other
democrat. More than half the ma
tional committee is behind him pri-
vately, if not publicly.
Palmer a Candidat,
Attorney General Palmer isn't a
possible" candidate. He is a can
didate-the most active and open one
in the democratic ranks. He comes
from a bad state from democratic
standpoint Pennsylvania-and isn't
known as McAdoo is. But Palmer is
out to make himself known. He isn't
, missing a chance to make speech
out West and is using his cost of hv-
ing campaign to cover as much terri
tory as he can in states where he isn't
known. His activity, together with
that of the men around him, leaves
no doubt but what he will make ev-
cry effort to get the nomination. Pal
mer has been an ardent "dry." His
hackers hope William J. Bryan will
throw some Of the dry support of
the West to him. But, after all, Pal
mer's fate will be told in the cost of
living campaign. He's got an oppor-
tunity to make fame, but tough one.
If he gets anywhere in this campaign,
he has a platform. If it fails, he is
"goner."
The great market place of the COM