The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-06-06
BANKING FIGHT
HELPS JOHNSON
Wall Street Split Over Interna-
tiOnal Finances May Give
Californian Nomination.
MORGAN is FOR GEN. WOOD
Steel Interests Find Johnson's
Platform of america First"
Favorable to Them.
MORGAN is FOR GEN. WOOD
(Ry gibson eARpNER)

Chicago, June 5.-There is a chance
that Hiram Johnson may be the re-
publican nominee after all.
AT first all the prospects were for
his defeat. 1t seemed to be the ma
chine against the favorite of the pri-
maries-a repetition of 1912.
But another complication has set in.
1t is no longer just the machine
against Johnson. There is a rift in
the machine--a monkey wrench in
the cloud-so to speak.
AS usual there are two sides to Wall
street. And as usual they are work
ing and scheming against each other.
There are two groups of banking in
terests and they are not in harmony.
They have different and conflicting
interests, and different theories about
ruling the world-and choosing a
ruler for the U. S. A.
One group which may be called the
Morgan group, is backing General
Leonard Wood and a League of Ma
tions or the variety set forth in the
treaty plus the Lodge reservations.
Another group, which may be called
the Steel group. cares not at all for
any League of Nations, hut is inter-
ested primarily in dominating domes-
tic markets and asserting the financial
superiority of the U. S. A. This group
finds its political outworking through
Senators Penrose and Knox, and the
America First" platform of Hiram
Johnson.
The Morgan group wants the Amer
ican presidency as an aid to stabiliz-
ing the credit of Europe. The other
group wants the. presidency as an aid
to the survival and increased pros
perity of American business. The In
ternational group are interested in the
oil fields of Batum. The other group
are concerned more with the oil of
Mexico and California.
The international group are financ-
ing Poland and Hungary and hold
bales of the Securities of France,
Italy and Great Britain.
The domestic group are less inter
ested in these ventures and securities
but are concerned over steel. coal, rail-
way development and domestic recon-
struction. a
1t is the internati 4al against the
econmi <schism. And the
republican nation convention is
getting the reflex II these powerful
forces.
Penrose is great political boss but
he is only the agent of greater bosses
of the business and banking world,
whom he serves. They tell him what
they want Gf they are to finance the
game) and he tells them what they
can get out of the play. of practical
politics
If Leonard Wood had the support
of Boise Penrose (and what is back of
him) it would be all over but the
shouting. But he obviously hasn't.
Penrose is blocking the broad game.
Knox and Johnson are good friends
and personally. Knox is
Penrose's candidate in nominal sense
only.
Suppose Penrose finds 1t necessary,
in order to head off Wood and the |
Morgan crowd, to throw his support
to Hiram Johnson. Suppose Penrose |
advises this as the only safe course |
in the presence of the threat of a !
third party led perhaps by LaFollette. |
Suppose Penrose believes this course |
the only one which will leave him in
control of the republican organization. |
Suppose-but those are enough suppo- |
all quite near the facts
to show why Hiram Johnson may, after |
all be the candidate named by this |