The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1920-06-03
MINUS PENROsE
OLD GUARD SEES
DEFEAT COMING
Last Of Great G.. o. p. Bosses
Is Thought to Be Too Sick
to Personally Lead His
Fight.
Bv Mark Sullivan.

49, vi O. AS-Vt Ny Az l. -
Inc. and The Sioux City Tribune.
Wilmington, Del. May S1.-If you
can detach youself a moment from
statistics of delegations and all the
other convention details that press
increasingly upon you and look for a
brief pause at 1t picturesque and
human in the picture, your imagfna-
tlon is sure to rest on Penrose.
He sits in his old fashioned house
In the bic fashioned residence dis
trlct or Philadelphia, a sick old
oachelor ~descendent of all that is i'm
pied by an old Philadelphia family.
Inc room where visitors wait their
turn, and the = where Fenrose;s
sprawling bulk rests in a chair that
suggests a throne but is really only a
speclal adaptation to his illness-doth
nave the Jostling lncongruities Of a
nome where past generations of femi-
nine taste have been a little sub
merged by bachelor disorder, hunting
trophles from the Rockies crowding
>ld mahogany into the corners.
Mecca Of Politicians.
10 TINS house come the politicians.
they talk-they listen, and they leave.
AL the steps. reporters waylay them.
Al the hotel. the telephone girl tells
them indianapolis is on the long dis
lance. Some other politician of a
lesser degree not favored with an in
vitatlon wants to find what the
big fellow" said,-and they discuss
the very shading of his words in the
nope or getting a hint to guide them
in their own decisions.
1t is no rhetorical exa%ggeration. but
llteral 1acts, that men have travelled
hundreds OF miles to talk with a man
VINO talked with Penrose. Men speak
OF another man who was been to
Spruce street" with something of the
reverent w that exalts a pilgrim
who has been to Mecca.
Much Sentiment In It.
To a degree this is sentimental.
some men go to see the sick Penrose
and pay him a generous Difference
who always stood up against Penrose
IN his prime. But. for the most part,
the visitors are the "old guard" fell
low leaders who shared the high COM
mand with Penrose at previous con-
vent1ons, and minor staff officers from
smaller states now looking for in
structlons, or at least for inspiration.
Penrose-even Penrose sick-is by a
the biggest figure the old guard has
lett IN the way of leadership.
Bosses Lose Prestige.
That same spirit of the times which
has been such a slight and untimely
frost to kaisers, cars and kings, has
been an equally hard winter onSAmer-
lean political bosses. Time was when.
II called on by the necessities of pub
Tic curiosity to provide information
about what the old guard was going to
do in a convention, you could go to
three or four men and find out.
In New York you could go to Plat
or ODell or Barnes, or even that
weakest last of the dynasty, Whit
a and you could get something to
dig your teeth into; could assure
yourself where that solid IS delegates
from New York would stand when the
last ditch came. But New York has
no such leaders left. New York po-s
lidcally is no longer an empire-it is
seven grand duchies. seven little
Ukralnes q Esthonias presided over
by seven little local leaders whose
security OF tenure has been as sadly
shaken as authority everywhere has
been, in the general disruption of ac-
cepted things. Efforts have been
made to remedy thi.I condition in New
York by getting tn, leaders together,
but the insecurity OF thej. authority
has made them so lacking in self con-
fidence and so jealous of each other
that they won come together. They
can't be brought into the same DOM
each fears he might leave the room
with his political pockets emptier than
when he entered it.
And so Penrose-even Penrose fiat
on his back-is about h only source
the old guard has left for authorita-
tive direction and the inspiration of
confident leadership. And even from
Penrose the troubled leaders don't get
anything very definite.
Penrose Undecided.
So far as your correspondent knows
nad nothing said in the article has
any better authority than second
hand-Pentose hasn't made up his
mind. A long time ago Penrose was
for Senator Watson. of Indiana. That
was when he was well-rather too
well and too confident. When it be-
! Came apparent that Watson wouldn't
do, Penrose gave half hearted assent
to Harding. That was, however, an
emergency choice to bridge things
over, and did not really mean much.
It was in the early months Of the
campaign, about the time that Wood
was making a degree 81 progress, that
alarmed the old guard leaders. They
i used to hurry to Penrose to Impress
upon him the need of getting together
and agreeing on someone.
1
WILSON NAMES TWO