Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1920-01-07
PALMER FOR PRESIDENT

Governor Bill SprouI, now the repub-
lican chief executive of Pennsylvania
Palmer studied law and worked as
a stenographer to pay his way. He
became a court stenographer. which
indicates that he was pretty good in
shorthand. Woodrow Wilson still
makes pothooks in the transaction OF
his daily duties and SO does Mr..
Palmer. He sometimes hands his
stenographic notes TO his secretary
a 1.-the young man named Robert T.
Scott-to transcribe, and thereby
creates an impasse, for the shorthand
of yesteryear is not like that of today.
over on that side of Pennsylvania
which borders New Jersey are the
counties of Pike Monroe. Carbon and
Mort hampton. According to the friends
of Palmer there used to exist among
the machine democrats of that part
of the state, an agreement under
which the right to furnish the con-
gresham from this district should ro-
tate among these counties. Palmer set
out to smash this machine agreement
and got himself elected in 1908 and re-
elected in 1910. 1t was his first grapple
with the machine.
Following that success. he tackled
the Guffey machine which was state
wide. He ran for national committee
man and, when Guffey was declared
elected, protested and tried TO get him
self seated by the national body. He
was politely seated on the sidewalk
outside, but the next year reappeared
with the scalp of Guffey. This marked
the passing of the old order iI Penn
sylvania state democratic politics. !
Palmer is still national committeeman.
He was national committeeman
when the democrats met at Baltimore
to choose candidate for the presl- |
dency in 1912. He was for Wilson. He
ii H.
would not quit. Champ Clark had and
held almost the necessary two thirds. /
and Wilson asked that his name be /
withdrawn. But the fighting Quaker
would not quit II he had there would |
have been no Woodrow Wilson in the /
time of the world war.
Wilson offered Palmer the place of
secretary of war, which he declined /
because of his Quakerism. He was
later offered the place of chief justice
of the court of claims. which he also
declined. Then, in the midst of the
war he was offered the post of alien
property custodian, which he accepted.
When Palmer came to Washington
to fill this post he went to the state
to take his oah. That de-
parment refused to accep him, said
here was no such officer under it. He
went to the treasury department with
the same result Finally he left his
signed a single room back of a tailor
shop When he reached that room the
next morning the messenger who had
been assigned to him refused to admit
him. The two men We're not yet ac-
quainted.
An hour later Ralph Stone of De-
troit arrived. He and Palmer had
gone to school together. 1t was Ralph
and Mitchell between them. Stone
brought an Austrian countess with
him and the papers which delivered
million dollars worth of her property
to Palmer. It was his first act under
the new assignment. The second was
TO recruit Stone an assistant.
The job of the alien property Gus
todian in less competent hands. say
the friends OF Palmer, would have
amounted to little. The man made
the job. He took $S00,00o,000 away
from Germans and poured it into the
Golfers of the United States. He broke
down all that elaborate German ma
chine, which, through such agencies as
companies, went SO far III
facts for the German secret
service. No German, say the Palmer
advocates, will vote for him.
Then Palmer became attorney gen.
aral The fight on the radicals was
lust beginning. He demanded a law
with teeth in it, A radical went TO
his house to blow it up, stubbed his
toe on the doorstep. blew himself into
fragments and shook up the Palmer
home just enough to make the best
sort of newspaper copy. Palmer fought
ind is still fighting the radicals. No
-adica1 will vote for Palmer, his friends
say.
Then Palmer launched the fight on
he profiteers, the fight to reduce the
.oSt of living. He was succeeding, his
,artisans state, until series of strikes
made reduction of prices impossible.
There must be production before ma
erials can be cheap. He will return {
o the fight on high prices. No prof |
teer il is set forth. will vote for
Palmer.
Then there was the fight of the gov
.rnment to break the coal strike. Tt