The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1924-07-04
COOLIDGE LIKELY
TO Be KEPT BUSY
IN ARBITER ROLE
No Love Lost Between SIemp
and Butler GoSSip
at Washington.
By HARRY B. HUNT
YEA Cerrfce Writer

AEd CcFCtCG FttCF
WASHINGTON, Juy 4.-Presi-
dent Coolidge has had to sit hard on
rival groups in the Republican camp
in order to prevent what might have
developed early into a disastrous
split in his campaign management.
That there has been no love lost
between c. Bascom Slemp. secretary
to the President, and William NJ.
Butler, Coolidge's selection as new
chairman of the G. o. p. national
committee, has been open gossip for
weeks. Developments at the Cleve-
land convention, where Buffers at
tempts to dictate the vice presiden-
tial selection met with rebuff,
widened the breach.
Slemp. it has been limited, had
rather hoped to be chairman himself.
AS an experienced politician. how
ever. he found it hard to remain 81
lent while contemplating what
seemed to him exceedingly amateur
ish moves in Buffers style of game.
$50
For the other side of the table
came the opinion that it no longer
made any difference whether SIemp
liked things or not; that he was
brought into the administration
family to line up the Southern dele
gates for Coolidge and hat now
they had been delivered. his hand
was played out.
IL 1ozrTlnsf r. mas sfru-raE-a6 da-
liver electoral votes. Indeed, with
Democrats ready to revive the old
story Of his activities in raising
party funds from postOffice ap-
p~ointees. the campaign might run a
lot more smoothly if he would go
back to Big Stone Gap, Va. and run
his coal mines, the Butterflies in
ferred.
In this situation. Slemp wen into
executive session with the president.
The John T. Adams-G George B. Lock
wood wing Of the party smiled
broadly when Slemp emerged and
announced that the rumOr he in
tended resigning was altogether
baseless
AAoO"0AA0 L4iAo was CAdLC0 VIII
emphasize expected TO be a mem
her of an advisory board TO be set
up. which wCaId manage the presi-
dental campaign. The President
made it plain later. however. that
his friend Butler would remain first
in command.
How we'll Slemp and Butler viii
team as members of an advisory
boETd on the conduct Of the cam
.Ssign remains to be seen. Butler
insists he is glad Slemp stays. Slemp.
rather grimly. says he's glad to
stay.
Buffers efforts to get Borah TO
make the a C with Coolidge were
responsible for e%ngendering toward
him the bitter enmity of the ex-
IRENE conservatives in the party.
Butler wanted, first of all, a ticket
that would win. The others wanter,
first of all, a ticket that was safe.
They insisted that the ticket be
kept clear of western progressivism
, while Butler held that it takes all
kinds Of men to make a party, and
that a man is not necessarily wrong
just because he happens to dis
agree with certain other men. Fun
damentally, he couldn't see why
Coolidge and Borah couldn't stand
on the same platform.
Butler, from the viewpoint of other
Republicans who have been watch
ing his course, is more interested in
Calvin Coolidge than in the Repub-
lican party. His is held to be a per
sonal rather than a party interest.
The same cannot be said for the
Lodges. the Watsons. the Smoots. the
Adamses. They think in terms Of
party first and of party free from all
the influences and dangers" of lib
eral' thought.
AS a result, the campaign manage
ment is apt to be fraught with com
plications. And Coolidge must be ar
bitter in all these disputes.