The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-06-14
HARDING IS OF
M'K|NLEY TYPE
Looks, Acts and Thinks
Like Famous Martyr
President
HIS CHOICE RESULT
OF GREAT FATIGUE
Delegates Were Anxious to Break the
Deadlock and Go Home - General
Wood Chose Wrong Managers -
Coolidge Adds Strength.


Wood Chose Wrong Managers -
Coolidge Adds Strength.
By DAVID LAWRENCE.
Copyright by The Reformer)
COLISEUM, CHICAGO, June 1.-THE
Old Guard won, the progressive and
Roosevelt clements in fac Republican ma
tional convention were beaten. Warren
G.. Harding, conservative, old-fashioned |
Republican, who looks like Mckinley, |
acts like Mckinley and thinks like Me |
Kinley, was nominated for the presi- |
dencv bv convention that was worn |
out by the prolonged ballotting in a |
sweltering temperature. The delegates |
seemed so glad to have it all over that
as soon as the deadlock between General
Wood and Governor Lowden was broken,
the delegates didn't much care who they
nominated SO long as it gave them a
e nnce to go home. 1855
II opinion among the several hundred
GO respondents here counts for much,
tn, expressions of doubt concerning
VI rdng's opportunity to win are indica-
tie of a belief that the Republicans by
no means chose their strongest man.
Hughes, Hoover, Sproul, Johnson were
i garded as sure winners-but Harding
il looked upon as far from certainty.
Possibly this will change when the Dem
Ocrats have nominated their man, but
the editors. correspondents, and indeed
rany of the managers who worked so
hard for Leonard Wood and Hiram John
son were ominously doubtful about the
outcome
Yet Senator Harding. is a man who
improves upon acquaintance and nobody
will know until the campaign is well
under way whether or not the American
people after all are inclined toward a
man of the Harding type. He is con
scientous and honest. He has a splendid
reputation for rugged Americanism
Washington correspondents recalled his
famous speech on the night war was de-
clared against Germany. Senator Lodge
and others took up the Wilson cry that
it was a war for democracy and human
ty, but Senator Harding politely took
exception. He said he was voting for
war not because of that, but simply be-
cause American rights on the high seas
ware invaded. That seemed to him the
only justification for war. Senator
Harding favors the entrance of the
United States into a league of nations
AID the ratification of the Versailles
treaty with proper reservations. Never
did lie Join the Borah johnson group of
irreconcilables. He will interpret the
Platform as meaning immediate ratifca
tion of the peace treaty. To that extent
the Borah-Johnson group have been out
wtted and overthrow. Their only
cl ance for mischief lies in boiling the
party or refusing to stump for Harding.
it will probably not be Immediately ap-
parent what they will do and maybe Mr..
Harding will deem it politically wise to
ray as little about the treaty. as pos
sble until after election so as to keep
harmony in the party. He need not in
terpret the platform plank. He need
Only stand on it and say 1t represents
agreement among Republicans.
The strategy by which Harding was
nominated was a remarkable piece of
work. The press section was aware of
the clever way by which the delegations
were manipulated and many an expires
sion of disappointment and disapproval
came from Republican editors 1t will
be long time before the Republicans
will erase what has happened at Chicago
for the resentment of disappointment
and disapproval came from Republican
editors.
II is a bitter anti-Wilson feeling ant
fear of the Wilson dynasty through
the election of McAdoo which will keel
the Republican party together. Never
theless, it will go down in political his
tory that the Republican party wa
dominated by a group of United State
8pnators who were determined that on
of their social club should have the nomi
nation. Even Senator johnson and Sen
ator BOrah were parties to the nomina
ton for there were moments when the
could have objected and made fight fo
more progressive candidate. More
over, even though much was said
praise of Theodore Roosevelt, the ma
who was nominated fought bitterl
against the colonel in the Ohio campaign
1t was a severe defeat for the Woo
forces and the Roosevelt group.
But General Wood has only himse
to blame. For he could easily have bee
the Republican nominee He playe
with the wrong set of managers. E
didn't affiliate with the real powers
the rarty. And when he acquired Fran
Hitchcock he made domination impo
sible for the men behind Lowden al
behind the other candidates had con
mon meeting point-they would new
let Wood have it. To be sure, War;,
Harding's success is the result of Il
inability of the Lowden men to win f
their own man. They planned to ha
Lowden pass Wood on the ballottin
they planned to push Lowden over
possible, but the Wood forces would n
bulge In the psychological moment
became necessary to hold the Johns
delegates from going to Wood so t
Old Guard told the Lowden manage
that the Illinois governor would ha
to be abandoned. Talk of Knox a
Sproul came from the Penrose camp, b
the distinguished political leader fro
Pennsylvania had Harding in reser