The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-05
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsI1IN, Director.
Washington, d. C.
wANTED: AN IssuE.
Washington, d. C.


Washington, D. c., jan among
the high leaders of the two great
parties which have fought all our ma
jor political bouts since the Civil war,
there exists feeling of bewilderment.
They find themselves on the eve of an
| other presidential campaign with nary
an issue between them. They are about
to fight, and fight to the bitter returns
they going to fight about?
Some people think there is plenty to
fight about Labor, for example,
wants government ownership of rail-
roads, and it wants the government to
reclaim lands and make farms. There
are several other things it wants. Any
party or any leader that will champion
labors demands will not lack some
thing to fight about. And the farm
erS think there are issues, too. They
also favor more government owner
ship and control, especially the meat
packers and storage interests. They
are making their desires more en-
phatic and articulate every day.
And the ultimate consumer believes
that the high cost of living is worth
more specific attention than it has yet
,, received. Any leader who would run
on a platform to make the dollar buy
as much as seventy-fiye cents bought
before the war could get a certain
amount of backing.
All of these various demands might
be considered issues by a mere anna
teur in the great game of politics
Politicians know better. These things
are not issues, in the partisan political
sense; they are known, instead as
dynamite. and they are labelled
keep off"
OF course each of the great party
platforms will contain a few sonorous
phrases on labor, promising it equity,
justice, and few abstract things like
that And each of them will refer
gracefully to the rural population and
promise to solve its great problems
without telling how; and each will go
SO far as to admit that it will reduce
the high cost of living, but neither OF
them will offer a specific mustard
plaster for that annoying swelling :.
And both of them, inevitably, will say
just about the same things. No. gem
tlemen; there is no issue here-noth-
ing that can be safely whooped up in
the newspapers and shouted from the
stumps. What we need Is something
wholly irrelevant and unimportant
about which we may furiously dis
agree.
Ask any Republican highly placed
politically and he will tell you that this
campaign is to be made on admins
trative economy, on Americanism, on
law and order. Walk around the cor
ner and buttonhole an equally highly
placed Democrat and he will tell you
that law and order. Americanisrn, adj
miniStratfve economy, are to be the
watchword of the next campaign.
II the League of Nations is men
toned to a good Republican he will
hasten to assure you that the League
of Nations and Americas participation
in world affairs are not political is
sues. A Democrat will give you the
same assurance. To be sure, repre-
sentatives of the two parties sare fight
ing each other tooth and nail on the
issue, but when it is suggested that 1t
be thrust into the campaign, all hanSx
are raised in Quieting admonition.
And the old issues Of yesteryear, the
tariff, expansion. retention of the
Philippines, the full dinner pail, turn
the rascals out''-all the old-fashioned
issues are gone.
So the leaders are beating the bush
and are saying, one to the other,
We've gotta fight but what the dick
ems are we gonna fight about?"
And from this situation grows the
greatest political novelty of the time
in the form of a committee of sixty
carefully selected bush-beaters to go
forth in the highways and by-ways in
search of an issue. The Republican
central committee has decided upon
such a committee. Its personnel will
be announced in two or three days.
GOOO HleH, IrleQ ana true pulSe-Ieel-
ers of national reputation, are to be
selected. Between now and June they
are to work diligently. When conven-
ton time comes they are to have
found something TO fight about.
The Republican national committee
takes this venture very seriously. It's
| committee is to be made up of the
very best material in the party. It
| will Immediately resolve itself into
subcommittee. There will be a SUBJ
committee to find out what the farm
ers want, one to learn what the women
| voters most desire, one to study the
labor situation and pitch the labor
plank in just the right key, one on in
| dustry, one on immigration. The sub.
committees have not yet been selected
but undoubtedly special study will
| be made of every issue of Importance.
| These subcommittee will tour the
country and hold hearings. They will
| listen to everybody, everywhere. They
will arrive at conclusions. They will
| have the facts when the convention
meets.
This is a much more pretentious
| scheme than the usual method of writ
ing platforms. In the past the plat
forms have been written by committees
on resolutions of the conventions.
These committees have been appoint
| ed after the conventions have met.
have worked feverishly. night and day,
have been pulled this way and hauled
that, have attempted to hear various
| groups of various interests, have
patched up platforms that have had
the faults that might be expected of
documents so prepared.
The novel Republican plan of this
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
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