Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-12
THREE HARDING
MEN Of SENATE
60 To VOTERS
Fight on Hale, Maine,
Based on His Never
Having Been Welded.
Kellogg Of Minnesota
and McCumber Have
Uncertain Routes.
By ROBERT T. A

Copyright. 1922. By Tho Great Falls Tribune.
Washington, June Il Political
storm signals are flying IN Washing
ton and the politicians are reefing sails
and standing by for the next big blow,
wondering how they will weather the
gale.
In other words, three significant and
important primaries are in the i'm
mediate offing and if these three be-
have like three of their recent pre-
decessors some of the most important
rigging of the grand old republican
ship of state will be swept away.
The old line republicans are hoping,
however, that these coming primaries
will reverse the order established in
Indiana, Pennsylvania and Iowa, and
present the spectacle Of the people
standing solidly behind the sitting
United States senator's.
Within the next 10 days two of
President Harding's closest friends in
the senate must face their constitu-
ents. A week later Senator Porter J..
McCumber, successor of the powerful
Penrose as chairman of the finance
committee. Trainer of the new tariff
bill and the new soldiers bonus bill.
will be put on the grill. With these
political irons in the fire. the end Of
June should be fraught with an illumi-
mating significance.
Maine and Minnesota are to hold
primaries in the week beginning June
10. while in North Dakota the pri-
mary is set for June %.
Hale Up For denomination
President Harding has a particular
interest in all three contests. In
Maine Senator Freddie" Hale. init
mate golf companion of the president,
is in the midst of a very unusual fight.
He is being attacked by one of his
most formidable opponents on the
ground that he is a bachelor, the con-
tention being that it takes a married
man with family responsibilities to
understand the many problems arising
rather difficult to meet, especially
nov that women are voting and every
woman, as is well known, believes that
every man should marry. Thus far
Senator Hale has kept silent, choos-
ing to ignore the pamphlets and
posters that bespatter the Pine Tree
state from border to border. Sen
ator Hale unquestionably has many
illustrious bachelor statesmen to point
to in the years agone, but it is sig
n~ificant that Colonel Smith Brook
hart, who has just won the republican
senatorial nomination in lows against
heavy odds, made much of the fact in
his campaign that he was a married
man with six outstanding children.
The best belief in Washington is
that Senator Hale will be renomi-
mated. Maine is a decidedly conserva-
tive state and has the tradition of
generally standing by her senators,
once they have been placed in office.
This was true of the elder Hale and
ever since his day Hale has been q
name to c~onjure the Maine voters with.
If Maine by any chance should turn
against the sitting member, the near
a very real one.
Woman Offers Real Fight
There is also confidence in Wash
ington that Senator Frank Kellogg,
another member of the Harding golf
cabinet" will be renominated at the
Minnesota primaries . A much harder
fight awaits him in the election next
November, when he will be opposed by
Mrs. Peter Oleson as the democratic
candidate. Mrs. Blossoms campaign
terest, for she is the first woman to
offer the real prospect of a feminine
invasion of the august senate.
In North Dakota Sentaor McCumber
is beset with many difficulties. First
and foremost he has not been able to
go home for n length of time to
attend to his fences and his opponents
in the party have been extremely ac-
tive in his absence. When he became
chairman Of the finance committee
Mr.. McCumber undertook one of the
most onerous tasks in all the senate.
This was especially true when a tariff
fight was pending and the mooted
question of a cash bonus for the sol
diers was being urged as a patriotic
duty and a political necessity. The
late Senator Penrose was able to take
care of his work as chairman of the
finance committee because he had a
wonderful political machine at home
to look after his interests and he
was always within striking distance of
home. Many times Senior Penrose
used to streak out of Washington and
I'D the Baltimore pike bound for
Philadelphia in his big red touring