Americus times-recorder., 1920-05-04
OHIO VOTE AIDS NEITHER
WOOD NOR HARDING.

CLEVELAND, May 4.-Consider-
ed from the standpoint of general re-
suits the Ohio presidential primaries
were close enough to give both the
Harding and Wood people a chance
to claim victory. And they are
both claiming it with the usual gusto
of politicians. Harding carried the
state on the preference ballot and
gets most if not quite all of the dele
gates to the Chicago convention.
This means that he continues in
the race as a candidate for the nomi-
nation, but the small margin by which
he carried his own state and the fact
that ne will not have the backing of
a solid delegation, removes him from
the list of leading candidates.
About the best that can be said of
the Harding candidacy, viewed in the
light of the Ohio vote is that it is
still alive. But it certainly has less
vitality than the Harding people, or
for that matter the political prophets
generally, have been claiming for it.
AS "favorite son." Harding made
much poorer showing in his own
state than did Lowden in Illinois, and
the latter will be in a much better
strategetic position to claim the sup
port of the reactionary leaders and
delegates at Chicago than will the
former
Didn't Help Wood.
On the other hand it is hard to fig
ure out that Wood added anything
to his strength beyond the ACQUIRE
ing of few delegates.
Had Wood been able to carry the
state, he not only would have great
ly increased his delegate strength,
but the moral effect of having de-
feated as conspicuous a "favorite
son" as Harding in as important a
pivotal state as Ohio, would have
tremendously increased his prestige
as a national candidate and would
have made up in large measure for
his slump in such states as Michigan
and Nebraska.
Whatever the Harding and Wood
people may say to the contrary, the
plain truth about the Ohio vote as
it affects the candidates. of their re-
spective heroes is that it does not
put either of them appreciably nearer
the nomination goal.
The fact that after several months
of intensive organizing and campaign
ing, involving the expenditure of
large sums of money, a comparative
ly small percentage of the Republi-
can voters took enough interest even
to go to the polls, shows that neither
Harding nor Wood is the popular
choice of the great mass of Republi-
can voters of the state.
Hoover Looms Up
Of far more significance than the
vote either for Wood or Harding, was
the fact that in Hamilton county,
where the contest between these two
candidates was very bitter, nearly s.
900 Republicans wrote Hoover's name
on their ballots.
The total vote in Hamilton county
was roughly $4,000, so that one out
of every six voters expressed a pref
erence for Hoover.
The Hoover vote in Hamilton coun-
tv was nearly half the Wood vote.
When one considers that this vote
for Hoover was spontaneous; that
there was no arrangement on the bal
lot to induce the writing in of names
and that Hamilton county is the home
of Colonel Proctor, the Wood ma
tional manager, who made the strong
est possible effort to get big vote
for Wood, the Hoover strength takes
on added significance.
1t is also interesting to note that
Johnsons friends in Hamilton coun-
tv made a very considerable organ
lied effort to corral big written-in
vote for him. They made strong ap-
peal for the radical and labor vote
and also for the vote of the old
Roosevelt following as against the
Wood claim to this vote.
The result was that Johnson got