The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-05
Some 0 other Than Low den, Wood of Johnson to
 Be Nominated, But
 Horse Is Very Dark
By CLINTON w. GILBERT


 became incapacitated it left big void. A lot of enterprising gentlemen rushed in to fill the void. First the Senate stepped forward. assumed party au- tfcrity, laid out a whole programme. organized the convention, picked out and eliminated candidates, investi- gated campaign expenses, wrote a whole platform.
 There is q senator for permanent
 chairman, a senator for temporary
 chairman, senator for chief of
 the committee on resolutions,
 senator for chief of the committee
 credentials and several sena-
 tors for candidate for president. WHO'S DRUNK WITH POWER? The Senate" said the early arriving delegates yesterday, "is drunk with power. It has fought Wilson until it thinks it is the only thing in the world. It wants to run everything. It is the party autocrat.
 After what the Senate has said about the Presidents being drunk with pow CT. it is amusing to find the Senate itself accused of being an ''autocrat."
 When Senator Watson turned up here yesterday with draft of the Sem ate's platform for the party he started little revolt. Governor Beekman O. Rhode Island wanted to know "wheth- CT this is a Senate caucus or re- publican national convention?"
 THEY WANT PENROSE
 So far the would-be leader is John T King, General Woods former mana ger, against Frank Hitchcock, his present manager. One aims to elim- mate Wood and the other to nominate him. King up to this afternoon was trying to keep alive the notion that Penrose will be here and assume com niand. The crowd so far here wants Penrose; it wants leadership King speaks for Penrose. A~couple of times day he lets the press know that he has just talked by long distance tele- phone with the Pennsylvania leader. King is helped a little by the na y ticnal committees dislike of Hitch cock. The organization does not want Hitchcock. by naming a President. to make himself the successor of the old guard. It Is restricting MT. Hitch cocks field of operations. The south ern contests are going steadily against General Wood which is to say against Hitchcock. The purpose is not so much to deprive Wood of delegates as to deprive Hitchcock of delegates.
 If Wood is not nominated Hitch- cock might, by winning his south ern delegates, pick the dark horse and put the next President of the United States under obligations to him. The Wood southern delegates
 belong not much to the general as to his manager.
 WILL NOT COME
 Penrose's health is treated as if il were the controlling factor in the con- vention. From King you learn that the Pennsylvania senator will surely be here. From the Wood and tha Lowden camps come hourly bulletins of operations on Penrose, fortified by inside information that Sproul has taken the delegates away from him and that it does not make any diff ference whether he comes or not. Tha best information available is that Penrose will not be here and cannot control his own delegates in his ab- sence.
 The dark horse talk Is heard everywhere, hut the horses very dark. People believe that someone other than Wood, Lowden or Johnson will he nominated, hut one has the slightest idea who.
 Sproul suddenly came into promi- hence with Pennsylvania action in his support. Henry Allen, men out here say. has the same chance in making the Wood nominating speech that Gar field had in 1880. Hughes and Hoover occupy the position of big men to whom the convention may turn. but whom it does not wish to.
 GOVERNORS LINING UP
 There seems to be forming lne-up of the state governors against the Senate control of the party There are signs in plenty that the arriving dele gates do not intend to let the Senate step into the shoes of the old guard, especially the governors do not intend to permit 1t.
 The party is running at loose ends. The utmost confusion un- certainty prevails, the delegates can look to no one for guidance. there are no plans. there is no programme and no one is in au- thority. There is candidate in sight.
 One plan exists for bringing order out of existing chaos. and that is to organize the uninstructed delegates. It is said that the delegates this time not the leaders. will make the nomina- ton. It sounds prettily. but as a mat ter of fact. unled and unorganized delegates know only one way to make a nomination, that is by stampede and no self-respecting party wants to trust its fate to the results of a stam- pede.
 NO REAL LEADERS
 Tn a well-organized party. delegates seldom stampede. because they trust their leaders to keep their eyes on them. But in Chicago today there are no real leaders to trust and no one to keep eyes on. except. perhaps. John T. King. and the party is not prepared to keep its eyes on the lieutenant of Penrose. to whom the situation has tapered down. Organizing the uninstructed delegates is something like the German army plan of rehearsing behind the lines a great offensive before making it. Probably this idea of rehearsing the uninstructed delegates originated in the mind of MT. King. The idea is to teach the unin- structed their parts to give them cer- tain signs and signals to enable them to act together with confidence and pro- tect them against stampede.
 Instead of the uninstructed mass watching and obeying an old guard. it will watch and follow certain impro- vised leadership which will be created to meet the existing necessity. Per haps the plan will work. At any rate. here is . third way of filling the void
 6Continuea on Pare Sfxt Hen)