Evening star., 1925-07-08
Politics at Large
By G.. Could Lincoln

Inc OBVIOUS tntng is always SAID,
sooner or later. 1t was only a ques
tfon of time when some one would
seek to shy President Coolidge's hat
into the ring for the 1928 presidential
nomination, and Republican National
Committeeman MulYane of Kansas,
while visiting Swampscott, declared
the Middle West was for Coolidge
first, last and all. the time. II is to be
expected that others will now leap
on the band wagon, Notwithstanding
the desire on the part of the Presi-
dent himself and many of the Repub-
ncan leaders that little be said now
three years before the next presiden-
tial campaign-about nominees for
1925
If you had gone out into the byways
and hedges and asked the first man
you met who would be the Republican
nominee for President three years
hence 1t is almost a million -to-one
shot he. would have answered Calvin
Coolidge. IT has been tacitly under
stood for some time that the Repub-
lfcans would seek to continue him in
ofhce- another four years--previded,- of
course, the present administration Is
successful.
Some of the Democrats profess to
be entirely satisfied now that Mr.
Mulvane. and others have announced
their intention of supporting Coolidge
for the Republican nomination But
while they smile. on one side of their
mouths, if you look closely you may
find them crying on the other. The
prospect OF going up against Mr.. Cool
idge in '28 does not stir them ia. any
great inner enthusiasm.
Another matter over which the Dem
ocrats are making gestures of joy is
the fact that President Coolidge is
INCLINED to give his personal support
to William NJ. Butler in the Massa-
chusetts senatorial race next year.
Did any one suppose that Mr.. Cool
ldge was not going to be for Mr..
Butler? Mr.. Butler, who managed
the Coolidge campaign so successfully
last year. and who Is at present, and
likely to remain indefinitely, chairman
of the Republican national commit
tee? "Ha," they say, ''if the Presi-
dent indorses Butler, will he not be
called upon TO indorse Wadsworth in
New York, Weller in Maryland, Wat
son in Indiana, and all the others
who are. up for. reelection? And If he
does, will he not get himself into the
same fix that Woodrow Wilson found
himself in 1918, when he wrote a
letter urging the election of a Demo
cratic administration, then engaged
in war?'
The case of President Wilson, how
ever, was vastly different from that
of Mr.. Coolidge. The country in 1918
had been at war, and the Republi-
cans, according to their lights, had
given the best support they could to
the administration in the prosecution
a. u
in partisan way, for a partisan Con-
gress, the Republicans felt affronted,
even those who wear the party har-
ness very lightly-like Senator Nor
ris of Nebraska, for example-and
they turned and smote Mr.. Wilson
and his Democratic candidates for the
Senate and House hip and thigh.
There is no foreign war in which the
United States is now engaged. 1t Is
to be expected that the President will
be anxious to see a Republican Sen
ate and a Republican House returned
in 1926. If-he gives his support to
Mr.. Butler in Massachusetts, there is
no reason to suppose that he will at
tempt to meddle with the Republican
State politics of New York, Indiana,
Maryland or any of the other States.
Massachusetts is the Presidents own
State. and it has generally been con-
States can go as far as he likes in the
politics of his own particular State.
x x =
Senator Norris has disaYowed any
intention of "a ssuming'' the leadership.
of a new third political party. This
does not mean that the Senator from
Nebraska will not continue to fight, as
he has always fought, for progressive
measures in Congress. or that he will
not continue to support progressive
candidates for Office. He made no
secret of the fact that he was for La
Toilette in the last campaign, though.
he did not get out and campaign for
him in Nebra ska. There seems to be
no one in public life today to fill the
unique position that was occupied by
Senator La Toilette.
While the loss of La Toilette and
Ladd is a serious blow to the progress
sive wing of the Republican party, it
does not necessarily mean that this
wing is permanently crippled. The
fight will continue, as it has for years,
between the conservatives, on the one
hand, and the liberals in the party, on
the other. Environment, birth and
teaching make men conservatives and
liberals, but they also make them Re
publicans and Democrats, and neither
party has a monopoly of progressivism
the hope of La Toilette that the lib.
erals of the country all would unite in
one party, with the conservatives in
the other, seems still far distant. His
death has done more to hamstring the
proposed third party movement than
any other event could do.
X x y
The late Senator Lodge had a large
numher of friends and followers in
the Bay State who We're not at all
enamored of the treatment accorded
the veteran statesman by Senator
Butler and the Republican committee
at the last Republican national con-
vention, when Mr.. Lodge was denied
the honors which had. been so fire.
cuently heaped uDon him at such
gatherings. The effort now is to get
the Lodge followers into line for Mr..
Butler in the next campaign. A har-
mony meeting has. been planned for
Saturday, which President Coolidge
himself will attend. SThe hope is that
out of this meeting will grow a united
republicanism of Massachusetts, which
will support Mr.. Butler when he has
to make the run next year against
former Senator David I. Walsh, whose
popularity is proverbfa1
During his leng service i'm the SEN
ate Mr.. Lodge naturally filled many
positions in the Government service
with his friends. Some of them are
still in those positions. Should there
be an attempt to oust these Lodge fol-
lowers and substitute the friends of
Mr.. Butler and President Coolidge,
the likelihood of harmony in Massa-
chusetts Republicanism would grow
distinctly less. But it is not expected
that such :blunder will be made. The
collector of the port of Boston comes
up for reappointment soon. Collector
Iufkir. il is understood is q candi.