Americus times-recorder., 1920-03-30
MONEY LIKELY To
BE- FINAL UNDOINC.
OF WOOD-RICkEY
Labor Sees Employers
Anxious To Put Mill
tary Man In Chair
BY H. N. RICKEY.

w WAOnlNGlON, MdFCn OO.--4 AS
fact that there seems to be no limit
to the funds at the command of the
managers of the campaign to make
General Wood the Republican nomi-
- nee for president, is pretty apt to
be the generals undoing. This is
entirely aside from the question as
to whether or not the money is be-
ing spent corruptly.
Conceding that Wood will go to
the convention with more delegates
than any other candidate, but not
enough delegates to nominate, the
influential men in the party who are
not committed to him will do every
thing in their power to prevent going
before the country with a candidate
who will have to explain who put up
the money.
rhe Newberry incident has not
left a very pleasant taste IN the
mouths of the voters.
1t is not at all unlikely that before
the campaign for Republican dele
gates has progressed much further,
at least one,, if not several, of the
candidates who are in the contest
with Wood will cause such a row
about the alleged Wood money
spending that the generals useful
ness as candidate will be destroyed.
Would Go Limit.
Senator Johnson, for example, is
not so keen about party regularity
that he will hesitate to go the limit
in an effort to bring Woods tinan-
cial hackers into the open, if and
when it seems wise to do so in the
interest of his own candidacy.
Johnson has more reason to feel
bitterly about the money aspects of
the campaign for Republican dele
gates than any of the other -candi-
dates because he is the poorest of the
lot, both in terms of himself and in
those of this hackers.
Also Johnson's entire political ca
reer in California is a history of
matching his energies and wit
against money bags.
If General Wood and his managers
are at all sensitive to impressions
they must have shivered bit when
they read a statement given out
few days ago by Senator Borah, one
of Johnson's leading supporters.
The statement, which was IN
Borah's usual vigorous style, con-
tanned this paragraph:
"The use of money in elections has
reached a point where the people
will have to take hold Of it and in
my judgment the people will do SO.
1t is nothing less than national
peril that two months before the
convention the use of money In the
attempt to control the convention has
reached the noint of scandal"
Didn't Say How Much.
The statement drew from Norman
J. Gould, eastern manager of the
Wood campaign, the denial that a
million dollars had yet been collected
in the generals interest, but Gould
was very careful not to say how
much had besn collected or from
whom.
Whatever the facts may be as to
the amount of money being spent to
make General Wood the Republican
candidate or what motive inspires
those who are putting it up, the i'm
preston seems to be pretty general
throughout the country that the
amount is large and that some mo-
tive less disinterested than patriotism
inspires at least some of the large
subscribers.
1t is perfectly we'll known that no
considerable sum of money could be
raised through small subscriptions
for this purpose and there seems to
be no doubt that considerable sum
has been raised.
One theory which is at least inter-
setting is that a number of big en-
plovers who fear that the unrest
among working people is going to re-
suit in greater labor troubles than we
have vet had, are fnancing the Wood
campaign, so that there will be a
military man in the White. House to
meet the crisis which they fear.
If there is anything in this theory
it would seem to depend upon one
point of view, whether such motive
comes within the category of patriot
ism.
There are two schools of thought
as to the way to deal with unrest
among working people. One tries
to find out the causes of the unrest
and to correct them. The other as
sumes that the causes are more or
less imaginary and that cold steel is
the treatment indicated.