The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-06-13
SAY, HERE 5
TERRIBLE
MIX UP
You Can't Tell, Maybe Coolidge
Cor Somebody Will Be Next
President of U. s.
BY WILLIAM HARD.

y Y
If La Toilette or Ford should
run on a third-party ticket next
year, the result might be that the
next President of the United
States would be Calvin Coolidge,
of Massachusetts,, now Vice Pres
ident.
One Possibility.
This ii. one OF the numerous
amazing possibilities which political
managers here are discovering out
'Uf a study of the extraordinary po-
litical circumstances of next year
and out ora study also Of the equally
extraordinary provisions OF the
Twelfth Amendment to the United
States Constitution.
Under that amendment, in GER
tain circumstances which are not at
all beyond the bounds Of possibility
or even of probability, the selection
of the next President would go to
the House of Representatives. Then.
for certain reasons presently to be
explained, the House of Representa-
tives might not be able to reach a
decision. Whereupon, according 10
the Twelfth Amendment, Mr.. Cool
idge would supplant Mr.. Harding
and become President in his place,
unless in the meantime a certain
other Constitutional weird provl-
sion should be called into play.
In order to set all these n'"visions
and possibilities into the political
picture and in order to be prepared
to act upon them, political man
ayers here are sitting entranced ana
perplexed before copies of the Con.
stitution and tables Of electoral
votes as likely to be cast in the next
years election, as follows:
Must Have 266 Votes.
President Harding, in order to get
reelected in the actual election,
must accumulate 266 votes in the
electoral college. That is, he must
have majority of the electors
chosen by the voters in their respec-
tive States. There will be 531
electors.
It is admitted that IL Ford or La
Toilette should run on a third-party
ticket, it might readily turn out
that neither President Harding nor
his Democratic opponent would get
majority in the electoral college.
Suppose. for instance, that the
Democratic candidate. besides carry
ing the Solid South, should also
carry the whole Border South and
also New York and New Jersey and
Indiana and Arizona. He would
still lack three votes of having a
ajority in the electoral college.
In those circumstances, however,
the Republican candidate, in order
to win, would necessarily have to
carry every other State in the
Union, and he could not do so.
probably, if La Toilette were run
ming as the candidate Of a third
party.
La Toilette, as a third party can
didate, would probably carry at
least Wisconsin and Minnesota and
North Dakota, giving him thirty cleo
toral votes.
No Majority Possible.
The result would be that in the
electoral college there would be no
| majority for anybody. A similar
result would follow from any other
| of quite larger number Of possible
| outcomes of a three-cornered strug-
gle for the Presidency.
Immediately then the House OF
| Representatives., which was elected
in 1922, and which will be in office
till March 4, 1925, would be called
upon under the Constitution to
elect a President
| 1t must elect him on vote by
States. Each State delegation in
the House will have one vote. The
one representative from Arizona
will have one vote. The forty-three
representatives from New York will
have one vote. There will be a
total of forty eight votes. The win
ming candidate for the Presidency
must get a majority of the forty
eight; and the House in voting
must confine itself to the candi
dates who got the three highest
votes in the electoral college.
| Now it happens that in the House
! Continued on Page 2. Column -