The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-09
WOOD STRONGEST IN FIELD AND JOHNSON GROWS DESPERATE He and Borah Sure to Gre ate Stirring Scenes Be-
 fore Convention
 Is Over
px CLINTON W. GILpERT

By CLINTON w. GILBERT
 Chicago, June 8.-(Spe- cial. )-As the convention gets under way the swing against Johnson's position upon the League of Nations is evident.
 The delegates do not want the Indiana platform, which means anything from 4eserva- tions to no league at all. They want the league and u.iey want Lodge reservaLioAs.
 The effect of this and the sense that he Is getting nowhere as a candidate
 is pushing Johnson to an extreme po-
 sition against the league.
 In his speech before the auditorium
 crowd last night he said that reserva-
 tions would have little effect and that
 the way to avoid danger was to keep
 out. The speech as delivered went
 further than the speech as written and the speech as written went further
 toward the bitter end than Johnson's
 interviews show, while he regarded
 himself more seriously as a candidate and was trying to get on the probable platform.
 The crowd was enormous in the auditorium and the streets. But 1t meant nothing. There were few delegates in 1t. Mayor Thompson, having broken with LOwden, did not let the great meeting of Lowden's rival fall to be impress sive, The high point of the even- Ing was when Johnson referred to Ireland's freedom md then his auditors went wild. That gives
 the key.
 sharp fight is shaping up in the iconvention, between Borah and Johnson and on the campaign expenditures
 Borah and Johnson have been running the republican party in Washington The delegates here are not inclined to pay
 much attention to them. There will be fine row at some stage of the proceedings
 The arrival of the eastern delegations has brought the answer to Johnson These delegations for the most part Temporarily but they kaow that they are not for Johnson The New York deiega- ton, biggest of all. with It's eighty | eight votes. is in the most confused state of all. It's mood Is typical of the whole convention. Said one of the leading men | in 1t:
 "I usually know where stand. bu, this time I do not. outside of a compli- mentary vote or two for Butler. who is to be my candidate"
 The delegation cannot be united upon any one Probably it cannot at any stage of the convention until the win ner is plainly in sight. The Wood man. agers are claiming great strength for Wood in the New York delegation. Bus irquiry failed to disclose 1t. Those who know 1t best say that at the present moment there Is more Lowden support 1 in New York than Wood support. There are two or three votes for Hoover There are few votes for Johnson. There are votes for Hughes. There will be scattering votes But the one plain fact Is that the few votes
 which are now for Johnson are all the votes Johnson will get in New York. WOODS POWERFUL FRIENDS | If Wood should show etrength he has powerful friends In New York. like Sen ator Wadsworth These men might go | to the front effectively for him if he looked like a probable winner But New York Is like great part of the con vention It will only be for Wood to get on the band wagon The same thing
 
 ward Lowden Is inclination of men with machine sympathies to participate in a machine movement, and the biggest machine movement in sight Is the con centration on Lowden engineered by Tcbe Hert and centering about the big Mississippi valley states.
 If Lowden could be nominated he, like Wood might get the bulk of New York. Hut the New York delegates hope and pray for some other candidate than either Wood Or Lowden. But they won't l, have Johnson.
 The Wood managers make claims of great prospective strength in Pennsyl-
 vania. Pennsylvania is committed to Sproul. and thus it is harder to learn what Its delegation will do in certain exigencies. Good judges think there is as much Lowden sentiment in Penn. sylvania as Wood sentiment. The Penn- sylvania delegation is regarded here as the big leading delegation. When it is traded it will be traded as a unit and as a unit 1t will never go to Johnson. l T. has genuine hopes of nominatins sproul. It would go to Wood If Wood showed sufficient strength to make his l support good gamble. It would 20 to Lowder under similar circumstances. I, prays for a dark horse, especially Sproui. But it Is not conceivable that lit will go in any case fo- rahnson. CASE OF MASSACHUSETTS Massachusetts Is more of Wood state l than either New York or Pennsylvania I But the Coolidge support there takes Coolidge seriously. as the Pennsylvania
 delegates take Sproul seriously. Coolidge
 has his chance. It ranks with that of Henry Allen, Lenroot and Hughes. and a little below that of Sproul. who has more delegates to start with. But Massachu- ] setts in no case will turn to Johnson. l Thus the east has answered Johnson. He Is stopped in his tracks and he has
 begun to play Johnson politics In the convention. He Is encouragiRg favorite sons. Sproul is the object of s6me of his wiles: The Pennsylvania governor is be- ing encouraged by Johnson's agents to believe that in certain contingencies John- son will throw his strength to him. The ot- ject of this is to keep SprouI in the race as long as possible and to prevent any | trade of which Wood or Lowden might be the beneficiary. sproul is the most eourted man In this race. Johnson. Wood | and Lowden ars pi laying sieee to his heart. Senator Borahs statement that he would support Hughes on a Borah plat 1 fern with regard to the league covenant | has q similar object.
 The senators who arrived here from {! the east brought real Hughes boom with them. And Borah would like to set Hughes up as a candidate attracting cer- 1 tain support and holding 1t away from Wood and Lowden. If fair number of New York delegates were to support