Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-07-08
OLD GUARD HELD
CONTRAL IN BOTH
POLITICAL CAMPS
David Lawrence Compares
Work of Amateur Bosses
With Veterans.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

or poSSeus vi COURSE, tIlc
point enthusiastically to the forty
four ballots and TO the prolonged de-
| bate on the platform as evidence that
the delegates worked out their
choices here without dictation or I'M
due influence,
| But the writer, who isn't In the
| slightest degree Interested in which
party Is successful next fall. came to
| the conclusion that in only u very few
places did the democratic convention
differ from the republican gathering.
Essentially they were the same. Sen
| ator Penrose welded his influence as
of old. SO did Chralie Murphy of
Tammany Hall.
| The old guard in each party came
back to party control this year. Along
side the veterans at Chicago, the group
| who tried to get the nomination for
Hiram Johnson were the mereSt anna
| tours, And alongside Murphy of New
| York, Brennan of Illinois, Nugent of
| New Jersey, Moore of Ohio, Marsh OF
Iowa and Stanley of Kentucky, the
group OF democrats who were born
with the advent of Woodrow Wilson
at Baltimore were the merest cadets.
Wilson Kept Hands Of.
| Everybody who is in a position to
know the facts will testify that the
master politician Of the progressive
democracy = Woodrow Wilson kept
hands off because his son-in-law was
in the race, but it is also true that
| Mr.. McAdoo's fortunes would nave
Jared much better if he had had at San
Francisco, somebody like Daniel c.
Roper to deal with the democratic
] bosses, and talk to them in their own
language.
The convention itself was Embossed
| in the sense that the balance of pow
er was held by set of western dele
gates who were free from eastern
domination. But these delegates We're
worn out and confused by the effort
of the chief McAdoo leaders to play
the game with the old men, which
the knew ever SO much better. 1t
is true the bosses who favored Gov.
Cox's nomination because they
thought him wet enough to help their
local tickets in state and city cam
paigns did not actually control
majority of the democratic conven-
ton.
Jimmy Cox didn't get tainted NOM
nation. No, the delegates who were
infinitely painstaking processes of
persuasion which are known only to
those who have worked on a conven-
ton floor in the heat of battle.
The west finally swung to Cox, and
the speech made by Senator Pat Har-
rison of Mississippi, nominating Cox, to-
gether with the skillfully presented
arguments concerning Cox'S fine rec
ord as Governor of Ohio during three
terms. helped create, so far as Cox
himself was concerned, an atmosphere
entirely favorable. The deadlock and
struggle came because of the vets,
who were espousing Cox.
Showed Political Wisdom.
| The democrats must be given credit,
however, for one piece of political
F, wisdom which the republicans should
have followed. The managers of the
| McAdoo forces virtually entered into
1 an agreement that the choice must be
| McAdoo or Cox. No dark horse was
I to be considered SO long as either had
| a chance to win against any other
candidate. The democrats didn't elm
| mate their strongest vote getters sim
ayers, as at Chicago. One side here
surrendered to the other.
| First, Palmer withdrew, then Ms
Adoo'S men capitulated. DiSinter-
ested republicans say Wood or Low
| den or Johnson would have been
better vote getters than Harding. OF
course, the republican leaders at Chi
tcago considered the resentment over
the Wilson administration so great as
| to make it possible for any compro-
mise candidate to ride into power on
the nom entum of the grand old party
But the republicans felt sure the
democratic candidate would be Nc
Adoo or some counterpart of Wilson
II udppcHS JlaI the democratic nom
iinee was given birth by parents who
are almost as resentfui OF Woodrow
Wilson's treatment of organization
democrats as are the republicans on
lother issues Wilsonian. The truth is
lGov. Cox may be found praising the
league of nations and unfolding the
record of President Wilson's admins
tration, but enthusiastic Tammany
and other democratic organizations
will spread the word throughout their
various celebrates that Cox means a
ineW deal, a new cabinet.
Will Not Be Responsible,
Nor will Jimmy Cox be required to
| submerge a domestic issue like the
| cost of living to that of international
| ism. He will not be held responsible
by the spellbinders in his behalf for
anything that has happened in Wash
lngton in the last eight years any
more than will Warren Harding be
| held to account for the mistakes of
| Taft.
| Unquestionably the democrats have
| improved their chances in the east
by throwing off the Wilson burden,
| chance with the west, which still
| treasures it's idealism and looks at
| the achievements of Wilson as some
thing too big in history to be brushed
ASIDE by mistakes in the appointment
CT third-class postmasters.
Republicans at Chicago drew away
from the larger international issues
and reverted to the good old days of
simple campaigning and simple ques-
tons. So did the democrats, who
spent more time arguing about beer
( and wine than they did on anything
else. Even after the platform was
adopted, the liquor issue was the con-
| trolling factor in the movement for
and against Cox. 1t Is to be an old
| fashioned campaign on both sides,
probably with the torchlight process
| sions and marching clubs.
No iQuarrel Over League.
| Jimmy Cox will not have much Of
a quarrel with Senator Harding about
| the league of nations. Both will ask
| for the same thing-the ratification
| of the treaty with reservations that
! reconcile all differences"
| For be 1t known that the twenty
! one democratic senators who voted
| for the Lodge reservations threw
| most of their support here to Gov.
| Cox, since they expected him not to
| offer them up on the altar because
they differed with President Wilson
| on the matter of reservations.
The league issue is likely to be
obscured in the east unless Hiram
Johnson jumps into the fray and de-
mands that Harding interpret the re-
publican platform too literally. The
present outlook IS for q straight on t
fight on the merits OF rcpublicanisn
and democracy apart entirely from g.
| far Europe. Wars may como and wars
may go. Politics. II nothing else, is
back on a peace basis.
Copyright. 1920