The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-01-15
PARTY SPLIT :.
IGNORED BY
DEMOCRATS
Leaders Aren't Doing Any
thing to Bring Two Factions
of Party Together or to
Unity Program.
THREE ARE LEADERS
BY MARK SULLIVAN.


ocratic leaders and ask them what
they are going to do in the way of re.
organization they reply that it isn't
time yet.
This attitude does not express a con-
viction; it. expresses mood of doing
nothing merely because their circum.
stances are such that to do something
calls for ia little trouble. The real
reason the Democratic leaders aren't
doing anything yet is that there is
certain amount of strain between two
factions of the party which l shall
describe at length later on, and there
seems to be no one. sufficiently aggres-
sive or sufficiently impressed with the
need and the opportunity to go work
and either bring the two factions to-
Sether or in some way bring about
solidarity and organization and unified
leadership and a program.
This attitude isn't worthy of the
leaders who take it. and it isn't fair
to the party nor to the country, any
detached observer is able to see both
need and an opportunity wh: :ch
increases daily, and which the Dem
ocrats ought to meet and meet
promptly.
Are Three Leaders.
The present situation with the Dem
ocrats is this: outside Of the house
and senate in unofficial life there are
three Democratic leaders. McAdoo,
Cox and Bryan. The McAdoo faction
and the Cox faction are distrustful Of
each other. and watch each other for
the first move. All three of them are
busy to degree but their activity con-
fines itself to watchful precaution lest
one of the others get an advantage.
Bryan, in a way, stands alone as a
sort OF outsider, but az between the
two leans forward the McAdoo faction,
he. as well as the two others has heen
active recently in some steps toward
reorganization which have been too
cautious to be useful.
McAdoo's Attitude.
'' The program of McAdoo's friends
was and Is to pull the partv together.
to infuse its-with fresh spirit, to let
Chairman White out and to supplant
him with some active. strong man,
with a gift for organization, whose
circumstances will permit him to give
his whole time to his work Their
program os course included the paying
off the debt. They were entirely will
ling to raise this sum if they were
permitted to control the organization.
but Coxs friends promptly let it be
known that thew were not dead broke
and that they were not either paupors
or pikers and that they are entirely
willing to take care of the deficit if
they were permitted to dominate the
organization.
Should Be Rcorganized.
The McAdoo program. if they should
carry it out not in the interests of
their own faction but unselfishly in
the interests of the party as a whole,
is exactly what ought to be done The
Democratic national committee should
be reorganized and a first class man
who can give all his time to it, and
who possesses proved organizing abil-
ity, should be placed in charge, and he
should begin at once the work of
country wide organization to the cleo
ton three and one-half years from
now.
That is exactly what the Republi-
cans did after they suffered disaster
in 1916. 1t was this continuous work
for three years before that gave the
Republicans the advantage of vastly
superior organization in the recent
IL.
have the position they ought to have
in 1924, it is not a day too early for
them to go to kork, to follow the Re
publican example.
Have Senate Leaders
Come now to the other end of the
party leadership from which principles
and policies must be expected, that
end rests in the Democratic leader,
in hn nd
In the senate the Democrats are
fairly we'll provided with leaders. The
principal one is Senator Oscar Under
wood, of Alabama, who is the official
party leader Underwood has high
ability. Different men have different
kinds of ability and it is difficult to
make comparisons. but probably no
one would hesitate to concede that
Uudorwood's title to Democratic lead
ership in the senate does not depend
merely on his length of service. but is
entirely justified in all other respects.
Undcrwood's Fault
If Underwood has a defect in res
poet to what is now needed. that de-
feet lies in a quality that occasionally
comes TO men who have spent too
mU"h time in Washington. such men
occasionally acquire an almost exceS-
sivo urtarity, in the course of time,
hooaus" Of wholly admirable qualities
&c p"rsCnahty they acquire friend
sh'rs and fall into kind of official
code of friendly manners in their per-
sonal relationship. 1t is an admirable
quality. but it sometimes unfits a man
for hard hitting and for that touch of
ruth'nssness which is almost inds-
pensiblc to leader in times of crisis.
Carter G'ass Leader
1nother Democratic loa1er in the
senate. Carter Glass. of Virginia. will
never fail in respect to aggressiveness.
He is if anything a trifle too much too
sacrificiaI. a trifle over waspish in
his leadership, it is only in his public
capacity as a leader that this quality
appears. In his personal relations
Glass is a most friendly and ingratiat-
jig man. in such conflicts as are to
deyelon between the Republicans and
the Democrats in the senate Glass
will probably be more active, more ag-
Continued on Page Four)