The Washington times., 1924-08-13
HAS KEEN
POLITICAL
INSIGHT
Democratic Candidate Knows
Practical Side of Game,
/ Says Hard
Continued from First PageJ

ertheless, he intends to conserve his
strength throughout the campaign.
lie does not intend to exhaust it.
Accordingly, the nature Of the
campaign which Mr.. Davis will wage
has the two following aspects. He
will begin slowly in the manner 1T
numerous engagements and will do
his best not to arrive at the peak of
his efforts until within a few days
of the final election hour. He in.
tends SO to manage his speaking and
other engagements that the altitude
| OF his endeavors will come at some
time during October. He does not
| intend to come to a climax early
and then fizzle out. He intends to
approach his climax gradually and
come to 1t only within a few days
of the ultimate trial at the polls.
Nobody can talk to Mr.. Davis re.
garding his manners and methods in
this campaign without perceiving
that he happens to have a sound
sense Of practical politics irrespec.
tive Of the fact that in recent ex-
periences he has had very little to
do with politics. This observation
has nothing at all to do one way or
the other with the merits Of his
policies and ideas.
Has Keen Insight.
Right or wrong as those policies
and ideas may be the fact seems to
remain that Mr.. Davis as a politician
has an insight and a knowledge re-.
garding the nature and the necessi-
| ties OF political practice which il
had not been supposed that he pos
sessed. In discussing the La Fol.
lette candidacy today he remarked
with a completely perfect discrimina.
| ton that the great handicap of the
La Toilette candidacy is that it. is
not backed UP by La Toilette can
didates for sheriff and for county
treasurer and for constable in the
counties and township and other
centers OF really immediate local
human interest in the United States.
He remarked that there are more
people interested in the office of
constable than in the Office of Pres.
Ioent. This remark showed humor,
Tor he did not intend it to be taken
entirely literally and yet 1t also
showed realism. He perceived with
truth and with accuracy that the
voters do not act solely upon issues
out also and perhaps even more
emphatically upon their local neces.
! sites and prejudices and alliances.
This newly discovered trait in Mr..
Davis is responsible for the fact
that in the organization Of the
machine for his campaign he is
allowing q certain place for every
personal fractional element in the
whole Democratic party. It can
safely be stated that in the plans
which Mr.. Davis has authorized
Tor the formation Of the Democratic
campaign machine there will be no
ostracizing of any Democratic ele.
ment, but on the contrary an in
clusion OF such elements on the
basic understanding Of the fact that
only through local support for local
/ reasons does anybody ever arrive
at national place or national pur.
poses.
Not a Visionary.
In other words John W. Davis
has suddenly displayed himself to
be a person with an insight into
politics as well as a person with
| certain upsoaring and, as they are
designated and denounced by his
critics, certain rapturouS and theor.
etical visions into such things as
the League Of Nations and inter.
national permanent world peace
through international cooperation
and idealism. This writer does not
hesitate to assert as a fact after
observation of Mr.. John w. Davis
that for the Republicans he has
all the danger Of theoretical ideal.
ism of Woodrow Wilson plus an
Intimately deeper and more real.
istic realization of practical pol.
itics and of the ordinary nature OF
the ordinary man than Woodrow
Wilson ever had.
That is the danger in so far as
it exists OF John W. Davis to the
Republicans. He is an idealist after
the manner OF Woodrow Wilson,
and he INDUCES himself in the same
sort OF grandiose human dreams
and world dreams which were
characteristic of Woodrow Wilson,
land yet at the same time he has a
deeply humorous and even cynical
realization Of the little local petty
jealousies and struggles and acri.
monies out of which these dreams
may come. If they ever do come
Into the world Of facts. Woodrow
! Wilson was q school man, schooled
in past history. John w. Davis is
a lawyer, schooled in contacts with
the conflicts OF man against man
before the law In the present mo.
ment.
! That is the difference between
them. both Of them Southern, both
them full Of the perhaps vague
certainly persistent ideAlistic
lotions of Jeffersonian democracy.
One of them, Woodrow Wilson, was
a man Of the literary, the other Of
them. John w. Davis, is a man Of
the legal forum OF immediate pres.
ent human squabbles.
COnciliates Foes.
Full OF this sort of knowledge
Mr.. Davis Is planning his campaign
management and his campaign &C.
tivity accordingly. He IL including
within his campaign management
his Democratic former foes as well
as his Democratic former friends.
he Is arranging his campaign plans
In such a way as to do his best
toward being aggressive and com.
bative. while at the same time not
putting himself into what he might
regard as the same class with a
ferrous.
He Is going to rty to sturNo the
country from end to end in Ger.
tain number of carefully composed
speeches at carefully selected places
from which he can reach by local
radio the other adjoining places at
which he may not personally ap.
pear He will traVel but he will
travel to given central spots and