Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-11-09
WASHINGTONA
LETTER N
.AG3

WASHINGTON The presidential
candidacy of the Hon. Charles Cur
! tbs, senator from Kansas, either
means that the Apis Bombus Praesi-
dens, commonly known as the presi-
dental humble bee, is an insect of
/ hitherto unsupported virulence and
potence or that Senator Charlie has
something up his sleeve.
The senate's republican leader is a
man with as few illusions as a chorus
girl in her late forties. Bic Bill
Borah may believe that it is possible
| to change colleagues vote by
passionate, logical speech; George
Norris may suspect that the ordinary
citizen ought to be represented here:
Tom Walsh and Jim Reed NAV think
the country will some day get ex-
cited about official corruption; Tom
Heflin may be convinced that the
pope's guns are trained on the capi-
tol; someone somewhere may hope
that the senate as a whole will some
day show some horse sense and stop
playing politics for an instant-but
Curtis has been here SO years and
he knows better.
Thus, it seems most unlikely that
Senator Curtis suspects that he may
become president unless someone has.
whispered something in his ear. There
are altogether too many reasons why
he isn't likely to be nominated and
Curtis knows them as well as any,
one He's old; he's westerner: he
doesn't make an especially good
speech; he has no popular following
outside Kansas and so on.
But although he insisted that he
wouldn't be stalking horse" for
any other candidate, there is no rea-
son to suppose that Curtis isn't Just
as willing to be good old work
horse for the party as he has always
BEEN. The outstanding fact about his
candidacy is that it will make the
going just a little easier for the
party regulars who expect to nomi-
nate their man in the end.
1t seems to me that any hopes for
a united farm state bloc of delegates
at the next convention have gone
blooey and that the farm state dele
gates will be split three ways-among
Lowden, Norris and Curtis. Previ-
ously we had Lowden, a middle
ground sort of politician, and Norris,
a radical progressive.
Now we also have Senator Charlie,
the regular, and the regular repubIi-
cans in the west who don't want
Norris or Lowden and can't deliver
delegation to an eastern reaction
ary doubtless will assemble under his
totem pole. In other words, it looks
as if the farmers and western pro-
greSsives will be as impotent in the
next convention as ever. Which is
to say that Faithful Charlie is again
carrying the hod for his party.
1t must be admitted, however, that
one can't read Senator Charles mind
with any definite assurance. He may
have his eye on the vice presidency
or cabinet job as reward for his
services before and at the conven-
tion-or> it may be that the poison
of Apis BombuS PraesidenS is actually
spreading through his system.
What those who point to Curtis as
possibility do say is: Look what
happened to Harding!"
What happened to Harding is a
rare thing in republican conven-
ton Given even similar conditions
in the next convention, there doesn't
seem to be any board of strategy
such as Harry Daugherty and his
wrecking crew lined up behind Sena-
tor Charlie What happened to
Harding put new life into Apis
Bombus Praesidens, but it finally
proved quite so much as that the
republican party couldn't afford to
have the same thing happen again.