Evening star., 1924-04-07
EXPLAIN SM|TH'9}
WISCONSIN VICTORY
McAdoo Backers Declare
Cause Was Shift of Railroad
Men to G. O. P. Ranks.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

The bobbing up of Gov. Al Smith
in the Wisconsin contest for dele
gates as victor over William G. Nc
Adoo has brought forth from the
latter's headquarters the explanation
that Senator La Toilette and not the
New York governor was responsible
for the victory.
The railroad workers, it is ex-
planned. who originally were to 60
into the democratic primary were
suddenly urged to enter the repubIi-
can primaries in support of Senator
La Toilette.
Out of the total number of districts.
the McAdoo men claim they won At
least five outright and that they
have a chance in the final tally Of
getting a sixth, and out of possible
twenty-six delegates they will have
at least ten and maybe twelve.
There is, however, a significance iR
what the Wisconsin railroad men did
Heretofore one of the principal ar
guments of the McAdoo campaign has
been that their leader would capture
the railroad vote if he were the
presidential nominee. With the Ger
tainty that Senator La Toilette will
be a candidate, the question now is
whether much of the radical Strength
and labor vote which Mr.. McAdoo
might get would swing TO the Wis
consin senator running on third
party ticket.
Happy Over Progress.
The McAdoo generals are happy
however. over the progress they have
made thus far ard are not concerned
yet over what will happen after the
nominating conventions The most
striking victory won by the McAdoo
forces was that in which Wilbur
Marsh, national committee man, friend
of Charlie Murphy, Tom Taggart.
George Brennan and the organization
leaders in the democratic party, was
defeated by the McAdoo manager in
Iowa, Clyde Herring of Des Moines.
Edward T. Meredith, former Secretary
of Agriculture and a McAdoo leade-.
was elected elegate-at-large and
will be chairman of the delegation
Marsh won only one and one-half
out of the eleven congressional dis
however, and this gives McAdoo
Iowa'S twenty-six votes.
The fight in Iowa goes back to the
San Francisco convention of 1920.
when Wilbur Marsh, using the unit
rule, prevented several men in the
Iowa delegation from voting their
state for McAdoo. The delegation
was swung for Cox.
Claims $50 Delegates.
Wilbur Marsh has always been i
conspicuous figure at meetings of the
democratic national committee. AS
treasurer of the party, he played an
important part in financing the re-
cent campaigns
The McAdoo forces now claim they
have at least $50 Delegates total
larger thar any other candidate has
pledged.
This, of course, is a long way from
two-thirds, But the primaries are by
no means over. The McAdoo men are
hsin heihPE PE1en haTd for on 9a9Fy p1I in tie ] di
Brennan has slate Of .-uninstructed''
delegates and the McAdoo men are
not very hopeful of doing better than
a few delegates in the down-state
districts. McAdoo is not entered in
Nebraska out of Difference to Gov.
Charles Bryan, but the delegation
pected to swing to McAdoo after the
first few ballots.
The fight being waged by the Nc
Adoo forces in nearly every state
where the old organization men have
been in control is very much like that
which preceded the Baltimore conven-
tion in 1912. 1t begins to look more
and more as if the struggle, while
ostensibly in favor of individuals, is
really a fundamental controversy as
between the organization 'ibosses-
and the so called progreSsiyeS
which, however, is only another way
of referring in most cases to the Will
son and anti-Wilson wings in the
democratic party.
Copyright, 1924