The Democratic advocate., 1920-10-01
THEY WENT TO SEE
HARDING
WELLER AFTER HAWKINS GOLORED
FOLKS--GOx WILL CARRY MARYLAND.
Hotel Rennert,

Baltimore, September 80, 1920.
Senator Harding has. been here, and
great Mass Meeting TO greet him has
taken place, and, to put it mildly
there has been no sensational devel-
opment as a result Of the meeting.
While a good talker in common
place and rather didactic way, the
Republican candidate is no orator,
has no real personal magnetism, and
the greater part of the crowd was
drawn to the Armory to see what
sort of man he was, and when they
had seen him, they went their way,
no wiser, so far any POLITICAL wisdom
was concerned, than they were before
the meeting. The speech was a care
fEl prepared mass of assertions giori-
flying the old-time Ohio and Penn
sylyania notions of politics, claiming
the credit for all that was good in the
government Of the country, since be-
fore the Civil War. There is no after
math of enthusiasm here as q result
OF the meeting, and Senator Harding
has come and gone, and left a decided
feeling of disappointment behind him
The truth is, he is like all the Presi-
dents who came from Ohio. He is a
weak, second rate replica of Hayes or
Garfield, or Harrison, or Mckinley,
all Of whom history has placed in q
category below the second rate. He is
even weaker and more colorless than
the fraudulent Hayes, who ranks as
the most pitiable and weakest of all
the second rate politicians who have
been inflicted on the country as
Presidents, since the Civil War He
newer made a speech which was no.
tieed even in his own State in all his
career. His newspaper, to which he
has devoted his life work as founda-
tion for his influence in politics, is a
fair index of the man weak, colorless
and bitterly narrow and partisan, and
the only time it is said,to have shown
any real force, was in the campaign OF
1912, when it exhausted the expletives
of the English language in Touring
out vitrioIic abused of Theodore
Roosevelt He was elected United
States Senator, after a campaign in
which the religions issue was pre-
dominant and in which the flag of un-
american bigoty was saved aI0ft by
the man who is now asking the peo-
pie to make him President. Now that
it is becoming known that the Repub-
lican nominee for President is not
only a narrow minded cross roads
partisan in politics, but is also an
equally narrow minded bigot in relig-
ion, many people who at first favored
his candidacy are changing front for
they want no such man in the White
House.
Governor Ritchie with his usual
vigor is taking hold of the work of the
campaign, and has thrown himself in
to the contest in a way that is infus-
| ing new life and energy in all those
who are charged with the details of
the battle that is going on in Mary
land. He is untiring when he gets
started on anything, and he is de-
| termined that all those connected with
his administration, in any compacity
shall do their full part in this work,
he is backed up by Major BrookIee,
the comptroller, who is working day
and night where it is necessary to
keep Maryland in the Democratic col
urum, in National as we'll as in State
affairs Secretary of State Perlman
/ 3
and ability, and all together the State
administration is doing its full duty
by the party which placed it in power.
One of the striking peculiarities of
Mr.. Weller, the Republican candidate
| for the Senate against Senator Smith,
is his unwillingness to meet people
and to appear in public. Very few peo-
pie know him by sight, and as has
been frequently alluded to before, he
4 very seldom ever makes a public
| speech, and when he does speak in
public, the audience usually feels
sorry for him, as well as for itself
/ for he is what is known as rotten
speaker" He is probably himself
4 aware of the fact that he is a bad
speaker, and hence his disinclination
to appear on the stump. AS was stat
ed in those letters some time ago, he
is doing most of his campaigning in
4 the negro alleys and black slums OF
| the town, after night-it is said that he
and Chairman Tate, of the Republican
committee, are often out in the black
belt until after midnight. At present
they are engaged in using their elo-
quence, and possibly other and more
effective arguments, to prevent the
candidacy of w Ashbie Hawkins, the
able young colored lawyer, whose en-.
trance into the fight for the Senate
1 bids fair to disarrange the Republican
/ plans. While the Democratics are
having their trouble in the manage
lnent of the campaign, Mr.. Weller an6
his Republican colleagues are moi
/ without their troubles, and the way
they are gum-shoeing around the city
and State, trying out their dark Ian.
tern schemes, indicates that they are
Il greatly worried at the outlook. 1t is
also reported that in view of the vas
campaign fund the Republicans are
reported to have at their disposal, The
Il colored brethern are making largely
increased demands, for cash and thai
the colored sisters are not behind il
their claims, and not few of tht
black women are going SO far as t
demand five dollars. before they vii
register with the expectation that al
fSuo dOIIaT.es x4-iD ha forfh h