The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-10-23
CURIOUS TWISTS
 OFTEN OCCUR IN
 GEORGIA POLITICS
Thomas E. Watson Stood Out as PoWer-Fight Develops Between HardWiCk
 and Harris
By HUGH ". ROBERTS Washington Bureau. The AEe- Herald,
 outd HutIr

300 Davidson Building
 Washington, october 22.-(Special) In the opinion of Washington ob- servers, Georgia has taken first place in the list of those states where poll itios is the d-est
 Thomas ". Hardwiek. after having been beaten for reelection to the Senate because of the activity of Woodrow Wilson in behalf of Will liam J. Harris. offered for governor. and with the aid of the late Thomas E. Watson, was elected. At the ex- piration of hls term. he ran for TO- election, and because of the opposi- tion of the late Thomas E. Watson. was beaten.
 Then Watson died, leaving . va oancy in the Senate. Hardwick, as governor. offered the vacancy to Mrs. Watson. widow of the man who had beaten him; and on her refusal to accept, offered it to another woman, Mrs. W. II. Felton. who accepted. but who will never take oath of office.
 Judge George Wins
 In the senatorial struggle before the people, Hardwick, not quite re- covered from his defeat for governor, energetieaily injected himself He was defeated by Judge Walter Y. George.
 Judge George. in former days ardently supported the League Of Ma tions, and supported Mitchell Palmer. Wilson's friend. when he opposed Hoke Smith in a race for the presi- dential nomination in Georgia. But in his campaign for the Senate, George renounced his former al legianee to the league. soft-pedaled his support of Palmer. and otherwise conducted himself so as to win the favor of the Watson following, and secure the indorsement of the Wat son newspaper organ.
 All candidates in the race, as \ matter of fact, got under the gar ments of the late Watson. The late Watson. as a matter of fact, was ap- parently never so strong as when he lay moulding in tho ground.
 Senator Harris Aids
 There Is considerable interest in Washington because of the row which developed between Governor Hard wick and Senator Harris. When the latter, on the eve of the senatorial primary election. left for Washing ton, newspaper men sent the 'eport that he would oppose Hardwick, and endeayor to get the people of his county to center on a candidate 10 beat him. This enraged the gover- nor who issued statement decrying the senator's ability and his service. and alleging that he secured high office as result of bootlicking Wood row Wilson,
 Senator Harris issued a vigorous reply in which he connected Hard trI- terests, and many other interests al- leged to be bad. Thus Harris con tributed to the defeat of Hardwicls and the election of George. Following the election, Hardwick. declaring in- tention to publish a weekly paper. denounced Harris as coward and i q liar and offered to give him any satisfaction that he had courage 10 aemand." The governor charged that the senator had expressed himself so late that the governor had no chance i to answer. It seems. however, that the senator spoke almost immedi- ately after HardWick had attacked him.
 Hardwick Shows Teeth Under the Harding administration. signs of belligerency actually shock. So Washington was all a-quiver when uardwick, following double-bar- reled defeat and preparing to retire into the sanctum of country ed- itor, so vigorously expressed himself It was taken in Washington to mean that Hardwick had at last seen the handwriting on the wall, but couldn't resist the temptation to show his teeth as he observed 1t.
 Even Senator Harris. in his state- ment bearing on the senatorial cam paign, took cognizance of the Wat son influence to the extent Of re- terring to him as the Tate lamented, and by relating very friendly and all most partisan conversation which | took place between them before the | death of Watson. But it is known that the senator is still regular" as far as Wilson and the league are concerned.
 This may be the issue in the next senatorial campaign in Georgia | Washington thinks that Hoke Smith will be a candidate but not Hard wick.