Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-03-22
BY JOHN S. COHEN
(Copyright. 1921

l. (COpyflSnt, lJ-3.
David Lawrence some days ago
likened the McAdoo candidacy to
the life of feline and added, in ef
feet, that unless the trend changed
McAdoos friends would control their
party's next national convention.
The result of the Democratic
presidential preference primary in
Georgia yesterday again confirms
Mr.. Lawrence's famous prescience.
McAdoo has swept the state and the
Georgia delegation to the New York
convention will be instructed to sup
port him first, last and all the time.
What is the national significance
of the remarkable McAdoo victory
in Georgia?
In the first place, it eliminates
Senator Underwood IS serious con-
tender for the nomination. Further,
it so enhances McAdoos prospects
that one may fairly predict that he
will go into the convention not only
son received on the first ballot in
1912, but probably with as many
votes as Champ Clark mustered at
the peak Of his majority.
To say that Senator Underwood is
eliminated does not imply the faint
est reflection upon his ability, his
oI, n h I, inlo II
ness. On all these counts, he is
heartily esteemed in Georgia, whose
people are the best Of neighbors to
the Albanian.
UnderwOOd's Status
In the Baltimore convention, Mr..
Underwood had III IL votes on the
first ballot. The Georgia and Florida
preferential primaries in 1912 were
held almost concurrently, and Mr..
Underwood carried both states, not
withstanding Woodrow Wilson's
vigorous canvass of Georgia, assist.
ed by his friend, William G. Nc
Adoo, now himself a candidate. Mr..
Wilson's loss of Georgia at that
juncture was considered a serious
! reversal to his cause, while it SO
raised the prestige Of Senator Under.
wood as to swing him the support of
other southern states. If his victory
in Georgia in 1912 sufficed to make
his political fortunes then, just as
certainly does his defeat in Georgia
today suffice to break them in so far
as the presidential nomination is
concerned.
BY the same token, Mr.. McAdoo's
sweeping victory in Georgia indicates
that he either will carry the solid
south himself, or will have the ulti-
mate support of the delegates there
from, even though they be instructed
to cast complimentary ballot for
'favorite sons"
Besides vouchsafing Mr.. McAdoo %
additional votes in that convention
and thus Strengthening the probable
lty of his having the entire south's
support, Georgia's overwhelming in
dorsement of his candidacy serves
once for all to eliminate the Doheny
matter as campaign issue, in SO far
as McAdoo is concerned. His OPP
ponents in the Georgia contest made
the most they could of his names
having been gratuitously lugged into
the Doheny affair, but the Democrats
of this state were neither deceived
nor misled. Nor, in my opinion, will
the American people be deceived or
miSled.
Majority on First Ballot
Ii those interested in the outcome
Of the Democratic national conven-
ton and particularly those eastern
Democrats who have appeared to
deem Mr.. Mead unavailable, will
take out their pencils and, emitting
the east and the middle west, add to-
gether the south and the far west,
they will readily understand how Nc
Adoo will enter the convention as the
leading candidate and how in all like
lihood he will have {, majority on the
first ballot.
Representing as he does the anti
thesis Of the fore9one Republican
nominee, holding a record Of states
manly and historic service to his
country, and being a two-fisted tena-
cious fighter, as we'll as heart-win-
ming personality, William G. McAdoo
will prove in the other states. as he
has proved in Georgia. that Democ-
racy's rank and file look upon him
as their foremost Progressive. If
there be party leaders who do net
realize this now, they assuredly will
realize it later