The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-27
WHEELER LOOMS
 AS BIG FIGURE IN
 POLITICS OF 1928
Montana Senator's Going To La Toilette Should
 Cause No Surprise
By CHARLES MICHELsON

By CHARLES MICHELSON
 WASHINGTON, July 26.-It should
 have occasioned no surprise that Sena-
 tor Burton K. Wheeler went bolshe-
 vik" after John W. Davis was nomi- mated for President at New York. The
 junior Montana senator is closer to La
 Toilette, mentally and politically, than to the democratic candidate. In fact, it
 is doubtful if any other of those balloted for at Madison Square Garden than Senator Tom Walsh could have held him to the party during this campaign.
 Between the two Montana senators exists only healthy amount of rivalry. Ordinarily senators of the same party from the same state are as antipathetic as twin prima donnas in an opera com pany, but Wheeler and Walsh get along rather we'll Perhaps it is Wheeler's newness to high politics that has pre- vented, or at least delayed, the struggle for the Montana democratic machine
 that sort of conflict is next to inevitable when two strong men rise to equal of ficial eminence.
 Just how new Mir. Wheeler is isindi cated by the circumstances that that melee in Tex Richards temple of art was the first national convention he had ever seen.
 Montana, geographically and psycho- logically, is of the same genus of states as North Dakota-with no big cities, and a terrain of grass lands, wheat farms and mines, with q population of organized miners and dis0rganized farm CTS, as fertile field for the cultiva- tion of radicalism-or liberalism-it de- pends on what part of the country the view of the crop Is taken from-as ex- ists between the oceans.
 J About the only thing that has held Montana from Townleyism or La Fol letteism when the neighbor states fol- lowed that trend is Walsh. He is a sort of holdover from the old regime, who by reason of personality, popularity, ability and a certain uncharted pro- gressivism of his own design has been enabled to survive. Until two years ago Walsh was the only democratic senator along our northern border, from Maine to Washington, and he was marked for defeat this coming election, and prob ably has been saved only by the na- tional reputation he gained from the oil disclosures.
 HI COAAC ICbRCCNS " dk6n pdEdhClS BOrah of Idaho on the other side of the political fence, but has managed to con form to his party label closer than the Idaho senator and still retain the sup port of the independents of various complexions whose votes kept him in office.
 Into this situation came Wheeler, about the youngest member of the Sen 0fA f..I frontier lawyer (born, however, in Mas sachusetts and wearing thin nose and tight lips perhaps by virtue of it) a democrat by virtue of the circumstance that democracy in the absence of dis tinct political rebellion represented op- position to privilege and reaction, but actually veering closer to the as yet formless and undefined dissatisfaction with things as they are which has taken La Toilette as it's exponent. Democrats and insurgents in the Senate usually voted together during the session that closed just before the conventions, which perhaps explains why he has not tam gented away from his party before this. He has 23 years the best of Walsh and therefore is not bedevilled by the time demon that is pushing so many of our national figures, among them La Fol lette, who at 69 realized that he could wait no longer for the big adventure that has been threatening so long and so has plunged while the issue, so far as his personal advancement is con cerned, IS hopeless. La Toilette may lay the foundations of a new political dynasty through the disruption of one Of the old parties, but hs is only pre- pairing the place for another. That other may well be Burton K. Wheeler. Senator Norris of Nebraska more logically IS La FOllette's political heir than Wheeler, and Norris is reported to nave abandoned his own senatorial race In order to devote himself to the further ing ot the Wisconsin mans ideals. But Norris IS older than his 63 years, his health IS not much better than that of La Toilette, and in 1928, the year to which all the political rebels are looking forward for the fruitiOn of their hopes, It IS doubtful if the Nebraskan will be capable of holding aloft the heavy ban ner' Wheeler is the only figure that promises prominence enough to hold to- gether the organization which La Fol lette's effort this year win build. Borah might do 1t, but Borahs route to reform lies within the republican breastworks. His course has frequently run parallel to that of La Toilette, but they have never cOnverged. Borah is not for La Toilette, nor has the Wisconsin senator ever been for the big man of Idaho.
 So the defectiOn of Wheeler from the democratic ticket must be considered rather in the light of it's effect on the next campaign than of the particular damage it does to John W. Davis next November. The tangible results of his going with La Toilette this time will be limited to the electoral votes of Montana, which he ought to be able to bring to his new chief and which may be of greater importance than in other elections because of the possibility of La Follette's getting enough to throw the election into Congress. Against this is the certainty that La Toilette will garner more republican votes than democratic, and the fact that Walsh will also be running this time and will get the full strength of his party vote and so may be able to pull the presidential ticket through with him in Montana.
 Wheeler said when Davis was nomi- mated that a ticket so headed would