Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-01-12
MITCHELL PALMER SWELlS
WITH PRESIDENTIAL HOPES
He Seems to Think He Can Win on His
Record and Through Republican
Fiqht in This State

OF his career which corresponds to the
period in the life of the more famous
Alexander of Macedon when he had not
yet begun to weep because there were
no more worlds to conquer.
The Alexander of Pennsylvania is con-
fident that the future holds for him
greater triumphs than any which he has
yet enjoyed. He is nursing the hope of
becoming the Democratic nominee for the
presidency and of being elected with the
help Of the thirty-eight electoral votes
of this state. Word comes from Wash
ington that he made a favorable impress
sion on the assembled Democratic leaders
at the Jackson Day dinner, and it is
limited that he is the favorite of the
President
A wish is the father of many delG-
sion, and the paternity of the report of
the Presidents friendiiness may, per-
chance, be traced to the ardent desires of
the candidate. The President himself has
said nothing on the subject and is not
likely to say anything for long time to
come. Meanwhile, Mr.. Palmer will get
such comfort as he may from the pleas
ures of anticipation.
The President certainly has been kind
to Mr.. Palmer. He appointed him to the
bench of the Court of Claims, an honor
which he declined Then when the oppor-
tunity offered the President made him
alien property custodian, a job which
brought him into contact with the big
business interests and exhibited to them
his capabilities. When his work there
was about finished, the President took
Mr. Palmer into his cabinet as attorney
general, in order that the nation might
discover what he could do as a prosecut-
ing officer.
Mr.. Palmer is satisfied with what he
has done and is willing to run on his
record. And he is confident that the rum
blings of dissatisfaction in the Republi-
can party here are premonitory of a bit
ter fight within the party ranks which
will make it easy for popular Demo-
crat to carry the state in November.
Mr.. Palmer is confident that he is a
popular Democrat. He has certainly done
something for his party here, for it was
he and Vance Mccormick who succeeded
in breaking the hold of the Guffey- -Bren-
-Ryan-Donnelly bipartisan conspira-
tors on the party organization and in de-
stroying the partnership between the
Republican and Democratic organiza-
tons, which made every campaign a
friendly farce instead of fight between
two hostile forces for the control of the
state government. This is to his ever
lasting credit.
AS attorney general he has used the
courts in an attempt to settle the coal
strike; he has made an agreement with
the packers trust which he is confident
will accomplish as much as could have
been accomplished if he had prosecuted
the packers in court, and he has waged
a campaign against the high cost of liv-
ing in the interest of the people of mod
crate means.
If he should be nominated it is easy
/ to imagine the spellbinders going up and
down the country next fall proclaiming
to all and sundry the splendid achieve
ments of this tribune of the people. They
would say nothing of the hostility of
labor aroused because of resort to injunc-
tions in the coal strike. They would ig-
more the other side of the packers case
and forget that the packers were charged
were allowed to go scot free if they would
only agree to reorganize their business
and sell out-possibly to themselves
certain branches which the attorney gen.
eral did not think they should conduct in
connection with the wholesale marketing
of meat. Yet there are people who would
like to know why, if there were justifica-
ton for the suits against the packers in
the first place, they should be dropped
after an agreement which provides nc
penalties for any one. If Mr.. Palmer
should confess that the suits were part
of a plan of political bluff which is
doubtless true, he would bring an indct.
ment against himself.
And the spellbinders would weer
copious tears for the poor and lowly as
they described the solicitude of. Mr.
Palmer for them and his earnest en-.
deavors to force the greedy producers tc
reduce the prices of the necessaries OF
life.
And there would be people who would
/ swallow the whole tarradidde without
| batting an eye or turning a hair. But
it is not by such stuff that presidencies
| are won.
AS to a break in the Republican party
| serious enough to enable a Democratic
presidential candidate to get the electora
vote, no one familiar with the politics OF
the state can possibly regard any sucl
! break as probable.
We have some of the cannest polit
clans in the whole country. They know
when to quarrel among themselves anC
when to arrange a truce, and they know
| that on the eve Of an election, at whici
a President and United States senate
are to be chosen, is the time for the ad
iustment of differences without an opeI
! break
There are valid grounds for dissatis
faction with the state committee an,
there are valid grounds for objcctmg tt
any program which would turn the stat
body and breeches over to the control o
the manufacturers or to any other groul
| nF epgriaI interaCtg