Evening star., 1920-05-25
'0[DGUARD' TARGET
FORPROCRESS|VE
SHOTSAT CHICAGO
"NeW Blood" Element Has
Confidence, But Division in
Own Ranks Exists.
BY n. o. MESSENGER.

of the republican party is about to give
up the ghost and that the progressives
and the new blood will control the ap-
preaching convention
This has no invidious reference to
cahoidates for the presidential nomina-
tlon, for you and / know there is q lot
OF buncombe about CHASING this or that
candidate as the favorite of the old
guard.
Such classification is used to condemn
candidate in public or promote him in
private, as the exigencies of the case
may demand. 1t does apply, however,
to a class of leaders. The term includes.
so IT falls out. the men who in the past
decade or two have furnished largely the
brains, the experience, the conservatism,
the guiding and directing power of the
republican party.
Joe Tumulty would dub them "a lot
OF old seals" Joe's picture of them
would be Of grizzled. mustached leaders
OF the seal herd. summing on a rock.
barking at the rising generation and
lashing the foam.
Fate Of Old Leaders.
Out here they say that W. Murray
Crane, having announced prospective re-
tirement, is retired at once: that Boies
Penrose is i'll and they prematurely
mark him off as a dead one; that-and
here there is an all-sweeping gesture
taken In the whole boundless horizon
that 1.-The old guard is all in: we are go
ing to run the party
Speaking of progressives, with Gen,
Leonard Wood far and away in the
lead Of popular favor as the repub-
llcan choice of presidential candi-
dates. as expressed in the primaries.
why Is 1t that he is continually cried
down as impossible of nomination?
Resented Woods Campaign.
In the first place. it might be sked.
who is crying him down as impossible
of nomination? The reply would be:
The practical politicians numbered in
the potential leadership of the repub-
lican party. At the outset they re-
sented his entrance in the presidential
race and protested the manner of the
furtherance of his campaign. He was
not of them, nor did he answer to
their requirements. Their hearts were
set upon nominating man of expert
ence in statecraft. politics and busi-
ness. They believed the country
wanted man of unusual executive
capacity in those essentials
They resented the method of push
ing his bobm. 1t may be accepted as
fact that no candidate for the NOM
ination in our time has been so sys-
tematically. thoroughly and efficient
ly forwarded as Gen. Wood. Eff
ficiency." as the word is understood
IL u
might: be hkened to a selling cam
paign Of q product desired to be
mark eted. The country was organised
for him. through the medium Of Wood
clubs year before the primaries
were to come off. Publicity and ad-
precedented scale-and this is the day
Of publicity and advertising.
Aroused johnson supDorters.
At the outset he was put forward as
the heir apparent of the old Roose-
velt-progressive strength. Imme-
diately this aroused the ire of a group
of progressfves who were personally
inclined to Senator Hiram Johnson of
California, the man who had run with
Roosevelt on the presidential ticket
in 1912.
That feature of the affair did not
interest the republicans at large. They
regarded it as factional Jealousy
among the progressives and were con-
tent to let them fight it out.
Then came the suuabbles in the
Wood camp among the would-be cam
paign managers. John T. King of
Connecticut, who started the whole
AFFAIR. created animosities among the
old-line leaders. He was succeeded
by Col. Proctor of Cincinnati. and
the same time. Proctor and Hitch
cack got their trolleys crossed. and
Gen. Wood had to put each one on
his own track and set their respective
trolleys straight.
Then there arose the charge of un-
due expenditures of campaign moneys.
Al the same time reports came into
the east to the old-line leaders that
zen. woods stand on military prepar-
eoness Was unacceptable to the west
!! MADE no difference whether his at
titude was misrepresented and mis-
understood; the fact was. so it was
represented. that the west looked upon
him as n militarist and would have
none of him at the polls in Noyem-
ber.
Looked to Elections.
The preferential vote in the nr;
mares seemed to make no difference
to the eastern leaders. They put il
down as expression of the old Roose-
vet strength; question of decid-
Ing preference. They were looking
farther ahead, to the election in No
vember. Michigan. the veriest hotbed
OF progressiveism. declared against
Wood in favor of Hiram Johnson The
eastern republicans took that action
to heart as warning. 1t was the
green semaphore in the block ahead
OF the red signal
So there has been a gradual accunnu
lation OF objection to Gen. Woods
from objection to him personally. If
is thought to be a fact that repub-
Hcans generally would be satisfied
with Gen. Wood in the White House
II he could be elected. 1t is declared
to be fact that the impression has
been growing steadily among repub-
licans of influence in their party that
1t will be very difficult to elect him.
Ihere Is no doubt in the mind of any
man conversant with what has been
going on that an element in the re-
publican party has been for a month
or more trying to prevent Gen. Woods
nomination. 1t should not be desig-
mated as the ''old guard" element. for
the progressives have joined it. That
opposition was Irrespective of favorit-
ism to their candidates. Naturally.
the friends of Gov. Lowden, of Sen
ator Harding, of Senator johnson and
OF such dark horses as there may be-
felt the primal necessity of first head
ing off Gen. Wood.
Proxressives BADLY Split.
In addition to this strictly personal
opposition to him, there has been and
is still strong antagonism from the
republicans at large. who fear that
he could not be elected if nominated:
enthused over Gov. Lowden and who
would be utterly against Senator
Johnson. The progressives. then, ap-
pear to be badly split up over their
candidate. They are united on the
thought that they are to down the
old guard. That must be done at ali
hazards Afterward who is to bell
the democratic cat?
Let johnson do it," is one cry. Let
Wood do it," is another cry.
Then there are the sincere repub-
licans, including men in the so-called
old guard and in the two progressive
camps, who fear that neither can do
it. which suggestion brings up the
question which the uninstructed del
esates to the national convention /
will have to settle some time after /