The Washington herald., 1920-06-13
OLD GUARDS WIN
2-DAYS' BATTLE
FOR CONSERVATIVE
BY ROBERT T. HARRY.
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.
believed that he could win the con-
vention and then explain away the
Missouri delegate deal on the
ground that the governor himself
had neither knowledge of nor part
in the check distribution.
Senator William e. Borah stands
responsible for the defeat of Low
den. He started out to get Wood.
whose expenditures in States where
Senator Hiram w. johnson was en-
tered in primaries had discouraged
the Johnson forces. Mr.. Borah's
early attack was directed almost
entirely at Gen. Wood. He began
by discussing the issue in the Sem
ate, then carried out to the field
of battle.
His statements drew q favorable
response and when he decided to
urge a Senate inquiry he found the
Old Guard leaders quite ready to
cooperate with him. They were
just as anxious as he to eliminate
Wood and Lowden but for different
reasons. They were not desirous of
promoting the johnson interests.
Wood .Never Did Take
With reference to the failure Of
Gen. Wood to get across, or even
to muster the strength anticipated
by his managers. the chief express
sion here was an echo of what had
been said time and again at Wash.
/ ington. His candidacy did not take
with the leaders. Even after he
won some of the Ohio delegates
away from Harding there was no
the time he continued to hold the
pre-convention lead there was a re-
markable absence of opinion in
Washington that he would be.
Senators Watson, New. Penrose.
Fernald of Maine, Curtis of Kan
sas, Smoot of Utah and their asso-
citation in and out of Congress re-
fused to lose faith in Harding,
even after he had violated one of
the cardinal principles of a sue
cessful candidacy when Wood
grabbed some Of the Ohio dele
gates.
They decided upon Harding. They
wanted the party to go to the coun-
try this year as the party of con-
servatism. They wanted man
whose position on the league of
nations fell in with neither group
of extremists in the Senate. They
did not want an ultra-mild reserva-
Zionist nor an irreconcilable. Their
attitude was the same with respect
to labor. They could not consider
for a moment any candidate cater
ing to radical thought on indus
trial problems
For Collective Bargaining. :.
In Harding they fornd q man,
who, while favoring the compul-
sorry arbitration provisions in the
original Cummins railroad bill, was
a strong advocate of the principle
of collective bargaining. They had
before them his record as an en-
lployer of labor in his newspaper
plant at Marion. o.. where he never
has had a controversy with his
workers. ...
The conservative leaders were
convinced that the candidate of the
party should stand for the rights
of the public above the rights of
labor or of capital. Senator Hard
ing'S views on labor problems were
outlined recently in his letter to E
]. Miller, secretary of the B. and o.
Federation at Newark, o. He said:
I'm my private Pursuits, as a
newspaper publisher. I am an en-
ployer of organized labor, having
never known n controversy. and !
believe most cordially in rational
unionism. organization and coll
lcctive bargaining. under wise
leadership have donC more to ad-
vance the cause OF labor than all
other agencies combined. and any
one who thinks to destroy sane un-
! ionism by legislation or otherwi Use,
Is blind to conditions firmly estab-
lished. and Is insensible to a pub
lie sentiment which is deliberate