Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-08-03
POLITICAL SITUATION
GIVEN new ASPECT
Continued from page II

lAl0 PAL " dGhGlOBCu IL QAAdAAAillOQS oO-
'cision that If the Republican party
were to ask the American people to
continue it in power for another four
years it must do so on the record of
the Harding administration and,
therefore, necessarily ask for the re-
election of Harding, because they
reasoned, to fail to re-nominate Mr..
Harding would be a failure to en-
dorse the works of the party. Mr..
Harding UP to that time had per-
mitted no authoritative word of his
intentions to get out and a delega-
ton of the leaders went to the White
House to find out about them.
Warren" said the spokesman,
who was a friend and colleague of
many years standing, you've got to
make some announcement of your
intentions. These fellows who are
opposing your nomination are
grooming this one and that one and
before we know it, our wing of the
party won't have anybody as a can
didate and We'll have lost political
advantage"
Boys" said the President, II
haven't made up my mind. I ex-
pect to make some speeches in the
west and elsewhere sometime soon
and If the reaction is favorable I'll
carry on.
But that assurance failed to sat-
lsfy the committee of friends and
advisers and they continued their
arguments that Mr.. Harding should
make an announcement. A refusal
to run for a second term, they argu-
ed, was a confession of failure. The
matter of his nomination they con-
sidered secure by the processes of
party machinery, Blaine, idol of the
country at his time, they pointed out,
could not wrest the nomination from
Harrison and Theodore Roosevelt
himself with all his hold on popular
favor was unable to take the re-
gular nomination away from Presi-
dent Taft in a Republican conven-
ton because of the processes OF
party machinery. Mr.. Harding's re-
nomination they considered certain
If he wanted it.: Election they o
him would of course be affected by
the events of the intervening time
".AlI right fellows, responded Mr..
Harding, with a characteristic wave
of the hand the intimate expressions
of friendship that he always used
in speaking with old associates, III
carry on: That's settled, I'll carry
on. Tell our fellows that.
A few days later, Senator james
e. Watson of Indiana, one of the
administration spokesman and party
whips made the announcement in the
Senate that eff Warren Harding
wanted a denomination lie was go
ing to have it and that it was Idle
to discuss a prospective contest"
Following that declaration the
President was an open and avowed
candidate for renocination and cleo
ton and within a few days of his
departure from Washington he told
a friend in a conversation in his
study at the executive offices that
barring some unexpected develop
ments he expected to be renomin-
ated and reelected.
UNLESS something unforeseen comes
up," he told this friend, such as a
disastrous business panic, a period
of great depression or something of
that sort 1 don't see anything that
will prevent my denomination and
reelection"
Just at the same time word had
come 10 MIN thai OHO " LiO AAlSAA
who was looked upon as a principal
contender had said he found him.
self without an issue upon which to
run, and a close friend of the same
prospective contender sent word thai
he would undertake to guarantee
that the former would not go into a
single state on the stump as a can
didate seeking delegates to the con-
vention. The men who had beer the
principal financial hackers of the
contender referred to had become
devoted friends and in fact parts OF
the Harding administration machin-
cry, and the clouds all appeared to
be out of the sky.
Another western Senator, a power
in Republican affairs, not because OF
his party regularity nor his adher-
enee TO the Harding program at the
same time was using all his person
al influence to keep the foremost
prospective contender against Mr.,
Harding out of the field and was
telling all his friends, much to their
surprise that he was for Harding.
There must be no repetition of
1912" this leader said. mo Demo-
crat must be elected because the Re-
publican party cannot agree. We
must take Harding for another
term"
Then just as everything seemed
to be smooth sailing for the nomi-
nation. Mr.. Harding made his dec
laration for entry of the United
States into the world court, and
that swept over a stage which q
erybody thought was finally set.
The friends among the stalwarts
who had urged Mr.. Harding to de-
clare himself for another term tolc
him he had made a great mistake,
those who had won for themselves
the sobriquet of 'irreconcilable be-
cause of their opposition to any
participation by the United State!
In the affairs of Europe sent to Mr.
Harding a declaration of war, ano
the contender who had once TOLD
Mr.. Harding'S friends and support
ers that he feared he found him
self without an issue on which tC
fight the president for the nomi'
nation sought out the same mer
and told them that his previous
declaration to the mwas "all off,
and that he believed he had found
the issue: That he was out for the
Republican presidential nomination
IL a little further investigation con
vinced him he had e. chance to gel
II and that he probably would entel
every state having a presidential.
preference primary seeking dele
gates.
Naturally that upset the Harding
friends and advisers and how much
if at all, it upset the Presidents plar
is not known in Washington because
he was in Alaska when the develop.
ment came about but word was sen
to him informing him fully.
All these developments threw