Evening star., 1923-10-29
JOHNSON TO FIGHT
COOLIDGE FOR 1924
&C. 0. ?. NOMINATION
California Senator Prompt to
Seize Preparations Move
as Campaign Issue.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
International developments of the
| past week have had a prompt roper
| cussion in the American political sit.
| uation. The administrations decision
| to join in settling the reparation mess
has had the effect of throwing a
lighted torch into the irreconcilabI
camp and firing it with a fierce de-
| termination to oppose "entangling'
| cooperation with Europe.
In particular, the friends of Hiram
Johnson believe his hour has come
They are convinced he at last has
been provided with an Irresistible
issue. Until President Coolidge and
Secretary Hughes made a positive
move toward "internationalism," SEN
ator Johnson was a sharpshooter
without target. Now that he en-
visages the United States as back
| ing into Europe" through the repara-
tions commission, johnson has some
thing at which he thinks he can use
iuily blaze away. Politicians at
Washington are no longer in doub,
that the Californian is at length ready
TO bring up his heavy guns and train
them in the administrators direc-
tion on the international issue.
Now Formal Contender.
Henceforward, there is every indi-
cation that Hiram Johnson is to be
considered formal contender for the
republican presidential nomination.
He has, 10 fact, been carrying on an
unmistakable campaign to that end
and In his native California. He re-
alizes that a prog :essive republican"
delegation from his own state, pledged
under the unit rule to his nomination,
is all-essential.
Johnson.s supporters claim Califor-
MIA Is safe for him, although under
the leadership of Gov. Friend w.
Richardson, there is an intensely Bit
ter fight in progress against him.
Anti-Johnson republicans state they
40 not care especially who controls
the delegation, as long as Johnson
aoesnt; ,aa Their first choice is Cool
idge. Either Hoover Pinchot can
have it. if it is not wanted or needed
by the President
While Senator Johnson's revived
hopes center mainly in the belief
that he alone, among leading re-
lp.Hnilcans, l.fInr now incarnates hostility to
say he has even a stronger claim to
the nomination. namely, that Johnson
is the only Sure-fire winner the re-
publican party can put up.
Doubt Voters for Coolidge.
They affirm that Washington, sat
urated with administration senti-
ment, is the one place in the United
States where men award Calvin Cool
idge the nomination by default. In
the outside country, Johnson boosters
aver, an entirely different opinion
prevails. The business community
is admitted to be pro-Coolidge. But
the rank and file of republican voters
the men and we men who elect state
governors, county sheriffs and town
off1ciais, and who constitute the bone
and sinew OF the party-are said to
be FOR man who can win"
That man, if johnson enthusiasts
are to be credited, is their hero. They
trot out another argument to clinch
the johnson claim. Shrewd demo-
Gratis have informed them, they tell
you, that the one republican feared
for 1924 is Hiram Johnson, because
of his whirlwind methods as a vote
getter.
This writer had access to the con-
fldences of men who speak by the
book, where Johnson's presidential
interests are concerned. They talk
with frankneSS and amazing con-
hdence. Their man and their pro-
gram. according to their statements,
Will soon be out in the open. He will
give battle not only to Calvin Cool
espouses American embodiment with
the chicanery of European politics.
Cite Kellogg's Selection.
No matter how veiled. Johnsonites
scent the danger of such embroil-
ment in happenings Of the moment.
They sniff an unholy alliance between
Great Britain and the United States:
believe that our participation in a
reparations inquiry Is only the first
step in general policy of European
ENHANCEMENT; consider that we are
bound to be wheedled into a discus
sion OF allied debt cancellation; and
finally see in the appointment of an
"internationalist" like Kellogg to the
London embassy an unmistakable sign
of "Wilsonism" on the part of the
Coolidge administration.
In David Lloyd Georges tour of
America, the Johnson phaianx dis
Germs still another link in the chain
which is to shackle the United States
President Coolidge's letter to the
overseas writer's. terming Lloyd
tune for both his country and our
own" is interpreted as prima facie
evidence of British-American collus.
ion--colIusion of sort that on;v
needs to be interpreted to the country
by man like Johnson, to be damned
up hill and down hale.
Apparently Hiram Johnson will
fight in 1894 with even greater in
tensity than in 1920. His friends
foreshadow a contest as pyrotechni-
cal as any in republican history.
Johnson Is to be financed this time
more scientifically than four years
ago. His friends are not claiming
this early IN the game that his nomi-
nation Is assured. But they insist
Coolidge will not be nominated with
out a fierce struggle.
Johnson men reason that, as mat
ters are shaping, Coolidge is as vul-
nerable for the democrats as Hard
ing was, and that G. o. p. salvation
lies only in nominating an outright
progressive standing four-square on
platform OF no meddling in Euro
pean affairs.
Copyright, 1921