New-York tribune., 1922-10-14
in
Connecticut
Have Big Lead
tcent'nusd from pas. ea.,

"ho IhaC a new Organization
mas TO be built up every camna;pn
speiiacy has been doing an effective, 4
D'eiated, job. Some of his close friends
say that If he could have started :
s.ie 49, sooner IN this job Of organiza-
sioi ne would have been surely elected
taking the nomination. pract;c.1l,, IT, :
poor man, he became a membsr %
Francis Patrick Caravans law Arm i, ~
New York some time after leav;na ~ =
Department of Justice, and the nroh,ar,
was whether to stay in New York and
make money or come back to Connect
cut and lead the Democratic party. The
decision was hard one and was nayar
really made. What happened was that
Spellacy discovered that his old enemy.
gus Lornegan, former member of the
mouse, would get the Senatorial nonni-
nation and become the Acknowledged
party leader if he did not get in fha
nght. Lornegan took the nomination
Two years ago and was beaten by Sena-
Tor brandegee by something like
80 Spellacy found himself fighting and
pretty soon the decision was made for
MIN by his winning the nomination.
Mclean in South
The strength of Spellacy as spell.
binder is emphasized because the Re-.
publicans have nothing practically. te
offer against it. Senator Mclean him.
self is down at Virginia Hot Springs
with an extremely i'll wife. He did NOT
want to take the nomination at all be-
cause of his wife's condition, desiring
n "a shAr k1
eepted the nomination with the under
standing that he would not BE com
PEELED to take an active part in the
campaign. He may make a speech OF
two In the last week Of the campaign
but this leaves the Republicans with
very little artillery to reply TO the
perfect barrage laid down by Spellacy.
There is really rot man on the
Re publican ticket who is at once O
really good campaigner and at the
same time capable of handling the
particularly unfair and vicious heck
ling system which has grown up in the
Nutmeg state.ae IL.
Spsllacy's attacks have already
goaded Senator Mclean into state
ment. issued from Hot Springs, relating
chiefly to the tariff. This statement
and answer would be an amazing
revelation to the Progressive Repub-
licans of the Middle West were they to
read them. 1t would be even more
startling to the old fashioned Demo
Gratis who sigh for a~Grover Cleveland
& While talking much about special
privilege, Spellacy is not. attacking
many individual rates in the tariff
bill. This would be more likely to lose
him votes than to gain them and
Spellacy is not given to making that
kind Of mistake. So he contents him.
eral statement that the rates are made
In the interest Of monopolies and with
out exact knowledge. He clamors for
a tariff commission, which will fix
rates scientifically, just high enough 70
equalize the difference in cost Of pro-
duction at home and abroad plus trans
portation rates and other elements
which enter into the situation.
Accepts Protection
In short, he does not give the old
idea Of letting Europe sell US what
she can make more cheaply without re-
gard to the protection of American in
dustry even kind look 1t Is scarce
ly the kind Of campaign which the
Democrats made in Connecticut for
Grover Cleveland, but it is much safer.
Spellacy quotes the Democratic Ma
tional platforms back to 1856 to prove
that his is the orthodox Democratic
doctrine. 1t is all very confusing, esA
pecially when one recalls that the
Taft administration set up tariff
to do just the things that
Mr.. Spellacy is advocating that the
Wilson administration hastily repealed
The law creating that commission and
abolished it until the Underwood
Simmons Democratically framed tariff
could be got into operation and
hat then the Wilson administration
set up tariff commission to work on
The Underwood- Simmons law as a
,asis. And last Of all that the Harding
having approved the
,ariff law just passed, did nothing to
disturb the Tariff Commission set up
BY the Democratic party while Mr..
spellacy was 8 member Of it's admins
ration.
Just one tariff illustration of the
,ery slight difference separating Met
Lean and Spellacy: Connecticut farm
.rs raise a great deal of wrapper
.obacco, on which the duty, under the
Democratic tariff, was s1.S6 9 pound.
3enaLOT mCAShH iHQui4SN ~ tAFAAs
spellacv objected to the present bill
increasing that duty by rs cents a
,ound. Spellacy replied that the in
.fease no more than met the increase
n cost Of production during thar
period which had elapsed since the
Democratic tariff bill had been enacted.
Boiled down on this particular rate,
dr. Spellacy objects not to the height
# the Republican daty, but on the
contrary, by the clever wav I'm which
,e put his answer, inferred that per-
,aps the Democrats had. they con-
rolled Congress might have imposed
still higher duty.
No Issue of Importance
It is all very disturbing to an inno-
ent-ninded political observer who
,as been giving some ear to the wild
hrieks Of such Republicans as Borah,
and Norris against the
niauitous high rates Of tho Fordney-
icCunber bill, especially III one at
empts to draw d line ON the tariff
uestion and put the Democrats on one
idle and the Republicans on the other.
There is certainly no such line in
Connecticut that would be recognized
s orthodox in Iowa. Nebraska or Wis
on nsif--or even in Indiana.
But merely to attempt 10 state the
ssues is to become confused. The
ruth is that there are really no issues
{ real Importance.