The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-09-14

L
Special Despatch To The Reformer Copy
right 1920
! HELENA, Montana, Sept l4.-Gov-
crnor Cox has a good chance of winning
NIontanas four electoral votes, but if
he does it will be close margin and
certainly by nothing as comfortable as
i the $4,000 plurality by which Woodrow
Wilson carried this state in 1916.
Heart to heart talks with Democrats
and Republicans of prominence at Bill
Grcas Falls and Helena in western Mon
tana lead to the conclusion, that, while
The Republicans are hopeful and the
| Democrats are by no means as cocksure
viii go to Cox. The uncertain factors in
he situation have absolutely nothing to
do with tie relative merits of Governor
/ Ecx and Senator Harding either as per-
SONS or opponents of party doctrines.
! This state IS much more worried about
4 the sudden rise of the Non-Partisau
Ilcdguc than it is concerned over the out
| epme of the presidential contest in the
| nation itself Almost an exact parallel
to North Dakota has bobbed up here
and given every business man, whether
| he is, a Democrat or a Republican, an
anxiety that can only be understood
when the havoc wrought by the Nom
Partisan league with respect to political
lines in North Dakota is studied.
For while the Non-Partisan league cap
tured the legal machinery of the Repub-
-,
Non-Partisau league, plus the labor ele-
ments in Montana, seized the Democratic
machinery in the state primaries this
year and nominated their own man for
governor. B. X. Wheeler, formerly Uni
ted States attorney, whose record Of
friendship for the radicals and i. w. W.'s
during Wartime caused the Wilson adj
ministration to fail to re-appoint him
when his term expired last year.
1t so happens that Governor Cox re-
ceived Mr. Wheeler on the train while
campaigning in Montana last week, al
though this pleased the Non-Partisan
league Democrats, it made the old line
Democrats and conservative elements ini
the state swallow hard.
The situation is SO acute, that while |
the Democratic state ticket of Non-Par-I
tisan leaguers has officially endorsed Cow
ernor Cox very much as the Non-PartI-
san group in North Dakota has formally
approved of Harding and Coolidge, this
has very little bearing on what the rank
and file viii do. For instance while the
Democratic politicians who had the party
machinery wrested from their grasp att
TIE primaries may hesitate for reasons
OF expediency to say publicly they will
support the Republican candidate sor gov
L L = I'll 80 Sayt-
ator Joseph Dixon. The truth is the
regular Democratic vote will be split and
only part of it will go to the Non Par
tisan league Democrats.
Party lines are disappearing in the an
imosity the Democrats and Republicans
cherish against the intrusion in Mon
tana affairs of Townleyism and other
North Dakota experiments in radicahsm.
1t is bad enough to have three crop fail |
ures in succession and it's hard luck tol
waste millions of dollars on seed and see
the whole state retarded III its growth /
and DEVELOPMENT by factors over which,
there is no human control. but when a |
set of persons deliberately throws a
monkey wrench in the struggling wheels /
of an infant state like Montana, the FUR
rowed brows of the business men, bigl
and little, the property owner and the
pioneer. are thoroughly comnrehenslble.
The Democratic press, which predomi-
rates in this state, is either lnkewarm
or hostile to the state ticket OF Demo |
Gratis foisted on the party in the primar-I
les. For while it looked as it the Non.
Partisan leaguers would select the Re-
publican state machinery rs their prey
IN the primaries just as in North Da-
<ota
There are some Democrats who are in
torested in national politics. who Think
the utilization with the Non-Partisan
league absolutely assures the state tol
Cox. But there arc others who wonder
if much of the Non-Partisan leagte vote
will not 90 to Christensen, the Farmer
III. g. ,,roc;Jon+ or snahSsd