Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-07-12
coMMoNERs DOMINATE
Delegates to Third Party conven-
tlon In Chicago Are Bent With :
Observation-Disclosures Likely
to Lose Control
BY CLINTON w. GILBERT

ny OblNIUN w. ulLbEhI
COPYRIGHT 1890, by Public Ledger Co.
Chicago, July 12.--Are we witness
ing what those who attended the first
convention of the Republican party in
1856 saw, the birth of a new party,
or are we not?
1t is sixty -four years since q per-
manent new party was born. In that
time many temporary parties have been
organized, some Of which have shown
strength for one campaign. The best
guess is that this third party being
made here in Chicago is another Popu-
list party, but no one can tell until
the vote is counted in November. La
Toilette, If nominated, will carry two
states, Wisconsin and North Dakota.
He may carry Minnesota, Nebraska,
Montana, Wyoming and Washington.
He probably will get 100000 votes
and his most optimistic supporters here
say he may get 1000, 900 or 5000, 900,
which, with women casting ballots, will
not be an extremely large number.
No. one knows what the people are
thinking. The Republican and Demo-
cratic parties have just voted that the
people were thinking conservatively on
social and economic questions and that
they desire, above all, to get back to
the old fashioned party government Of
the nineties. The people who are gath
cred here say they are tired of both
parties and that they don't want to
be governed by either of them. They
point to lot OF signs which they say
indicate this discomfort. They point
to the Nonpartisan League and the
revolution it has brought in the govern :
ment Of North Dakota, and which has
spread through Minnesota, Nebraska,
Michigan, Washington, Idaho and
Montana. They point to the big vote
for johnson in the Republican pri-
maries. They point to the Watson vote
in Georgia, to the La Toilette vote
in Wisconsin and to the narrow margin
by which Senator Cummins defeated a
radical farmer candidate for nomina-
ton to the Senate in Iowa. conservative
Iowa.
Declare War Was Unpopular
These third party delegates gathered
here come from Alice through looking
glass country. They express views that
are utterly the reverse of those com.
monty accepted. La Follette's anti-war
record, they say, will be his greatest
source Of strength. Look what has
they say, whenever the issue
has been presented. Look at the La
Toilette vote in Wisconsin. Look at
the Thompson vote in Chicago; look
at the Watson vote in Georgia. The
war was an unpopular wal. The West
never wanted to get in it. The West
feels that it was tricked by President
Wilson's fourteen points and hum
bugged by the League of Nations. To
have opposed the war Is point in
candidates favor. The men gathered
here come from the farms and the
shops. They are more nearly average
citizens than the professional politicians
who gathered at the Republican conven-
ton here or at the Democratic conven-
ton in San Francisco.
The League of Nations is the issue,
say the Democrats; and the Republi-
cans agree, but not so emphatically.
The League of Nations, say these peo-
pie gathered here, is sham battle. The
two old parties don't want to deal with
realities. They want to do a lot of
shadow dancing. The League of Ma
tions is dead in Europe. 1t never lived.
In place of the League of Nations is
the Supreme Council, survival of the
war organization. Is the election to
win on the terms upon which we shall
enter a league that is dead? The only
real issue is just division of the wealth
that is being produced, so as either to
reduce the costs of living or make it
more possible for earners to meet the
cost Of living. The two old parties
have avoided the realities. 1t is neces-
sary to have third party to deal with
realities is what they say.
Few Politicians in Convention
The people who say these things are
not politicians. There probably never
was a political convention which had
so few politicians in it as this one.
The progressive conventions were made
up largely of Republican politicians who
had belonged to minority factions of
their party; this convention is full of
the sunburned faces of outdoor work
ers, of farmers and laborers. On the
front row of seats to the right of the
speakers platform sit among the South
Dakotans two old farmers wives with
worn faces, massive frames, shoulders
broadened by toll. No horn trimmed
glasses aid their vision, but old-fash-
toned small lens, gold trimmed spec
tacles. Their hair is parted In the
middle and brushed fat to each side,
leaving the full forehead bare. Near
them are two sunburned men, blonde,
with gentle blue eyes of visionares.
Back Of them is an unmistakable crank,
who. out of order, insists upon making
a speech nominating La Toilette. Not
far away is the man who, when it was
proposed to take two hours recess for
dinner, rose and angrily insisted that
half an hour was enough for dinner
and certain caucusing called for at that
time. He was in a hurry to bring in
the new social order.
In the background are intellectuals,
the Records, the Pinchots. the Nc
the men Of means and social
position and the women they gathered
about them, mostly from New York,
New England and New Jersey, who
started the committee of forty eight,
Who are steadily losing control Of it and
who, if the junction is effected with
the labor unionists, will be displaced
bv the able politicians labor has de-
veloped and by the skilled leaders of
the radical farmers. The intcllectuals,
who look radical enough to most of
HE country, don't like the rising tide
of radicalism about them.