Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-05-06
RIVAL WREcKlNG CREWS
THREATEN THE G. o. p.
johnson, Dangerous ~>as He Is, Is
Hardly More Dangerous Than
Some Of His oId.Guard Enemies

TT HAS been said that Providence
looks after the United States. One
may only hope now that during the
next year or two Providence will not
be otherwise engaged. The people
themselves seem still unready for re-
sponsibilties which in the past have
been borne somewhere in the skies.
Rain kept voters in New Jersey from
the presidential primaries.
The farmers IN Indiana remained
away from the more recent election be-
cause the weather was fair. They pre-
ferred to stay at home and do whatever
a farmer does when the sun shines.
About - per cent of the Indiana vote
turned out.
And those who have taken the trou
BILE to go to the polls aren't participat-
ing in a campaign. They are engaged
in political melee dominated by
strong willed minorities who may tear
the Republican party TO pieces if they
aren't curbed.
IL the G.. o. p. ever needed inspiring
leadership and a guiding mind it needs
it now.
The chances that Mr.. Hoover would
become the voice of the party and the
symbol of enlightened purposes were
lessened in California. 1t would be
idle to deny this. And Mr.. Johnson
continues to loom as potential wrecker
but as wrecker little more danger
Gus than the breakdown gang IN which
Mr. Penrose is one of the able foremen.
4 survey of the primary results in
the various states where Senator John
son has scored heavily is discouraging.
The causes of Ireland, the causes of
the Russian proletariat, the causes of
every small or unfortunate nation in
Europe, the causes of switchmen's $
unions and self interested groups of all
sorts. rather than the causes of Amer
lea itself. are being warred over at the
polls. The haters of one nation and the
friends of another. the credulous, the
embittered and the visionary make up
the army of johnson insurgents. Among
them any one who happens to be the
thoughtful friend of America will have
good reason to feel lonely.
Tnpreparedness, of which Mr.. Lodge,
Mr.. Penrose and others complained in
apparent as it is in the party which
these gentlemen have dominated. They
! have permitted something very near to
chaos in the G.. o. =. Some one will
have to be more frank than the present
party leaders if Republicanism is to
have the new definition which is needed
to hold it together as u constructive
force in national affairs.
johnson calls himself a progressive.
He is, about as progressive as u gale of
wind - and as constructive. And If
johnson, with his narrow antipathies,
his credulity and his dangerous in
genuousness, is Republican, what is
| Taft, Root, McCumber, Hoover?
If Johnson is to be accepted as a
.Republican, all the men who, desiring
| to give the nation the benefits of sanity
and independence and profound knowl-
edge at Washington, supported Hoover S
candidacy are something else.
What are they? And who is to
rally the forces necessary to keep the
party intact against the raids of John
son and his clans?
Some such question as this, rather
than the rain in New Jersey or the
sunshine in Indiana, may have served
to keep the people from the polls.
| IL the voters are disinterested and non
committal they may be reacting, in their
own way, to an odd sort of instructive
wisdom. They have, by their very
aloofness, brought a good deal of con
fusion to leaders who, in the nation s
interest, need to be confused, frustrated
and destroyed.
If the men who directed all their
skill and their energies to the elimina :
ton of Hoover do not now know who
is to be nominated at Chicago it is be
cause they do not know who can be
elected In the end the cupvention will
not nominate any man who cannot in
spire the allegiance and the confidence
of the Is per cent of Republican voters
who would not take the trouble to cast
urinary votes for General Wood, Sen
ator Johnson or Mr.. Harding. Mean.
while. what is becoming of the party
organization to which the people of tn,
country have looked for forward minded
leadership?
Johnson may desire to keep hi
pledges. He may not wish to bolt wher
refused the nomination. But in tn,
course Of his campaign he has beer
generating forces which he himself ma!
be unable to control. II he obeys tn,
will of the powerful elements that hav
become involved in the direction of hi
campaign he will split the party rathe
than surrender to saner cOunsels a
Chicago.
In any event, Johnson will hold
! very heavy club, forged and given int
: his hands by the old school leaders
who vet may have to feel the weigh
: of il. For it was not until the HeOve
; candidacy was definitely op. osed by tn
t men higher up that johnson became
t serious factor in the situation. He ma
vet be able to go into the Chicago con
I yention with the knowledge that, shoul
D he will il, the tremendous odds agains
v the Democrats may be reduced by abou
o 80 per cent.
b The primaries in Indiana, Ohio, Me-
c Jersey, Maryland and elsewhere haV
. not shown that the people of the cOun
try have any great yearning for WOOD
Johnson or Harding. They have nc
been actually expressive of national po
litical feeling of any sort.
q What has been chown is that abou
n IN per cent of the qualified voters hay
q been temporarily blinded to the funda
mental interests of their own countr
hy n sentimental regard for hard
II PRESSED Germany, by an inherited dis
!, i;la of the English character as IL