Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-05-09
THEY WANT WOOD

THEY WANT WOOD
Republicans Working Up Presidential
Boom for Doctor Soldier.
In the opinion Of Senator Moses Of
New Hampshire, according to Wash.
ington correspondent to the New York
Times, a growing sentiment Is spread
ing throughout the Republican party
for the nomination of General Leonard
Wood as the party's candidate fol
president in 1920. Senator Moses says
New Hampshire will offer General
Woods name at the Republican con-
vention as a favorite son, and he be-
Ilieves that the General If nominated
would be elected.
Senator Moses says sentiment fol
General Wood is developed in all the
New England states, as we'll as
Throughout the west. He finds more
sentiment of the kind that elects presi-
|dents surrounding General Wood than
any other who has been mentioned as
a nominee in 1920" The only quest
ton, he says, is whether the demand
among the party's votes can be trans
'muted into the kind of sentiment that
produces delegates and nominates
presidents"
Senator Moses says New Hamp-
shire has prior claim to General Wood,
as he was born in that state, but that
Massachusetts also backs him, as he
entered the army from that state,
while Kansas has given him her citi-
zenship.
"He will 60 to the convention" de-
clares the senator, like Grant from
Appomattox and its famous apple tree,
supported by a nationwide circle OF
friends, and If nominated, will be elect
ed"
The drift in the Republican party
toward General Wood, the senator
says, "is readily explainable."
1.-THE people," he said, "are turning
away from Wilson, who will return
home sadly diminished in spite Of the
League of Nations and its initial ses-
sion to be held in Washington. A most
significant feature Of many public
meetings which I have attended In
New England was the readiness with
which the audiences rose to any gibe
at Wilson. This would have been I'M
possible prior to the presidents trip
TO Paris; and now It signifies the shift
in public opinion.
f "In turning from such a figure, the
inevitable tendency of the public mind
us to seek it's antithesis, Colonel Roose-
welt embodied this ideal to the last de-
gree, and had he lived think he would
have been our candidate, named, per-
haps, by acclamation. With him gone
there is a demand for an inheritor Of
the Roosevelt legend.
ITO many minds Leonard Wood
seems the rightful heir. with the straw
berry mark on his right arm, and all
the other signs of full Identification.
With Roosevelt he sought to serve
overseas, and that privilege was re-
fused; with Roosevelt he accepted un-
complainingly the fate which jealous
politicians meted out to him, and did his
full duty at home, like the good SOL
dier that he is. Like Roosevelt he has
an infectious personality which has
'baffled all the plans of the admins
'tration to pocket him. Exiled to
Charleston by the war department
he infected the southland nowhere
has he more admirers than in that So
lid Democratic section. Sent then to
the pacifist plains Of Kansas as q safe
hiding place, he inoculated that re-
gion with his genius-and now the
prairies are ablaze with enthusiasm for
him. Transferred now to cosmopoli-
tan Chicago, he seems to be repeat
ing there his experiences in the DEM
ocratic south and the paciflst middle
West-and his sturdy Americanism is
already producing its inevitable react
len.
General Woods speeches, too, are
of a character to attract attention. His
thought is always for his country; and
the controverted questions Of acute
momentary inerests have not diverted
him from the central idea that the
United States must depend upon itself
lin the future, no matter how massive
may be the international machinery
which inventive minds are trying to
set up for the manufacture of a mill
ennium. This soldier as administra-
tor and statesman has no illusions,
and the constructive period which de-
layed peace will usher in will find him
ready to help solve its problems"