Evening star., 1924-03-31
BATTLE FOR M 'ADO0.
SUPPORT IS KEEN.
Six Candidates Wage Hot
Fight to Inherit 500
Delegate Votes.
RY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

With Coolidge's nomination for
President by the republicans prac-
tically foregone conclusion, politi-
cal interest in April and May will be
concentrated on the bitter fight for
the democratic nomination. That
contest has virtually narrowed down
TO one question-who will inherit the
400 or 500 votes with which McAdoo
expects to enter the convention?
Friends and foes alike concede the
Californian n first ballot strength
approYimatinS those figures. But
-ftw impartial observers honestly be-
Iieye that McAdoo can make the
grade" of the tWo-thirdS vote of 73o
which will be necessary to Il choice
at New York. Hence the paramount
issue has become that of determining
the man most likely to inherit the
McAdOo strength. Undoubtedly the
candidate who wins it will be the
conventions choice. The next sixty
days Will witness the most intense
planning. plotting and maneuvering
to THAI end which cotemporary politics
has ever known.
NcAdoO hackers to Fight.
McAdoo'S hackers have by no
means thrown up the sponge. In
deed, they are almost as confident of
nominating their man as they were
before he was despatched with oil in
acknow lodged that McAdoo's fortunes
have experienced rebirth. Primary
results in Missouri. Georgia, North
Dakota and South Dakota were each
and all achieved after McAdoo was
supposed to have been picked III
ell. Even his rivals admit that the
Californian is entitled to read ceI-
tain sort of vindication into the votes
OF those four StateS-a significant in
diCation that their democratic cleo
tors to not think 'Dohenys lawyer"
has ceased to be presidential timber.
Tabulating the entire west of the
United States beyond the MISSISSIPPI,
with the exception of Texas, Okla
homa, Nebraska and Arkansas as
certain for MCAdoo,' and claiming
the south for him, with the exception
Of West Virginia, Virginia. Alabama,
Florida and Mississippi, the McAuoo
managers see 400 dependable dele
gates for him. y total of $50 is de-
scribed as the more probable" anc
500 is set down as more than
possible agSre gate In addition TO
the western and southern delegations
that are claimed for McAdoo, he ex-
poets to get at least half the New
England delegates. those from Ken
lucky, some from even Ohio and
Pennsylvania, and half of Illinois.
Still short 235 Votes.
But awarding the Californian his
highest claimed vote. 500. he will be
g$5 shy of the. required two-thirds.
How difficult of attainment they are
NcAdoos friends learned at San
Francisco in 1920. Champ C1ark's ex-
perience at Baltimore in 1912 stares
all democratic presidential aspirants
IN the face as perennial proof that
p candidate can even hold a majority
of the convention for ballot after bal
lot. only to face certain defeat event
ually. In their inner consciousness
the McAdooites know that is the sit
patton confronting them. 1t con-
fronted them long before oil Smeared
their hopes. They know that il
looms now more menacingly than
ever.
apparent and the competition for that
place have now set in. There will
be no let-up in the McAdoo cam
paign. But the many battle SCARED
veterans in command of it-men like
Daniel c. Roper-are understood to
be in no real doubt of the hopeless
ness Of the McAdoo ambition. 1t
was dashed on the eve of what near
fy everybody in the democratic party
considered sure triumph.
Cummines' Position Strong.
Homer Cummings of Connecticut.
former democratic national chairman,
is talked about more and more as
NIS%f0OO lOStCdl uelT. AT Ine
McAdoo ''cheer-up' convention in
Chicago Cummings endeared himself
with strong pronouncement of loyalty
TO the Californian's cause. In the
jockeying for place that will ensue
after the McAdoo phalanx has shot it's
full bolt at New York, Cummings will
pc in a strategic position enjoyed by
hardly any of his rivals. E1e is known
TO the rank and file of democratic
leaders in every congressional district
Of the United States. He has been a
member of the democratic national
committee for nearly twenty-five years
His great speech at the San Francisco
convention in 1920, as temporary chair
man, has ranked ever since as a
democratic classic. Woodrow Wilson
acclaimed it as master presentation
OF party doctrine. particularly in the
realm of world affairs.
Cummings is not incumbreed by any
of the enmities within the democratic
ranks, such as McAdoo suffers from.