Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-12
By MARK SULLIVAN.
.HE idea this article means to put
forward Is bigger and calls for
II Vpaopn da1ira0xy nf frao I'm an =

TINE idea this article means to put
forward is bigger and calls for
more delicacy of treatment
l. than either the article or the
writer at this moment can
provide. The idea, therefore, is pre-
sented to any writer sufficiently expe-
rienced in fantasy to be able to work
| Winkle"-with materials more timely
and more interesting and concrete than
| Washington Irving had.
The story can be called by some quite
| commonplace title: 1.-TWO Candidates
| for the Senate" or "a Father and a
| Daughter" The facts upon which the
fantasy can be based are familiar de-
| tails of political history:
| Just a little over IS years ago Mark
Hanna was o United States Senator
Che died in 1904. Today his daughter,
Ruth Hanna Mccormick, Is a candi-
date for the United States Senate-the
| first woman, think, who ever chal-
] lenged q male Republican senator about
| his right to continue to hold his seat
| mrs. McCormick's competitor being the
present senator from Illinois, Charles S.
| Deneen).
Those two facts compose the suff-
| cient framework. Any one with SUM-
! Gent fancy can imagine the details
imagine Mark Hanna, after IS years,
| feeling some psychic summons that his
| daughter needs his advice and aid about
something or other; imagine him ap-
| pearing in her presence and imagine
the conversation that would take place
Hannas f1rst establishment would
arise upon his daughter saying: ct am
! running for the United States Senate"
1t would take, one feels sure, a full
| hour OF explanation to convince Hanna
! that his daughter had not fallen into
some mental alteration, to persuade
| him to believe that 1t is an actval and
| familiar possibility for a woman to sit
In the Senate. To make him believe
That several women Including his
daughter) have actually sat in the
| House, he would need to be told with
painstaking detail, how 1t came about
that women have been given In 1920
| the right to vote, that they actually
| do vote, that they have held several Inn
portant ofaces, have been governors in
two States.
Social Aspect Surprising.
Hanna would be astonished not onlv
by the political aspect of it. but by
| the social. 1t would take q long time
| Tor him to grasp the idea that a woman
! should care to sit in the Senate: that
| woman could be and has been a Gov
| ernor OF Texas or Of Wyoming and a
member Of Congress from each of eight
States-without being regarded as a
! unseemly.
In all this explanation of political
ana social change, doubtless one detail
| tnat would interest Hanna would be
the fact that his old political enemy
| William Jennings Bryan, whom he. ss
McKinley's manager, defeated In 1895
mad daughter, that the daughter grew
up as Ruth Bryan Owen; that less thar
20 years after Hanna's death and less
tnan five years after Bryan's death the
daughter sat In Congress, from the STATE
OF Flor1da, and strange for Hanna tc
bill. 'A 'oi III
| Hanna would want to know about
the phrase running for the Senate .
You don't run for the Senate" he
would say, you are sent to the Senate
Dy State Legislature and that does
not involve "running'-you need only 10
see the hundred or two hundred mem
bers OF the Legislature"
| Inereupon, Mrs. Mccormick, having
already explained the coming of the
nineteenth amendment in 1920. would
oe Obliged now to explain the conninr
OF the seventeenth amendment in 1913
PIovloing Tor the direct election of
United States Senators.
Hanna's remarks upon this nhenor,.
enon would be worth hearing. There
Is good deal of current discussion
about whether the Senate now is as
able as 1t was when Hanna sat in IL
ana whether the deterioration. IL anv'
Is due to the change in the manner of
eiect1ng them. Hanna's Judgment on
that point would be as valuable as any
world.
Once Hanna got over the idea that
a woman could go to the Senate and
That any woman should want to: once
ne realized that his daughter really
wanted to 60 to the Senate-he would
be fruitful in help, we may be sure,
! for he had enormous affection for her.
| he used to have her IN his office a good
zeal ana when he got temporarily tired
Of politics and business he would take
ner with him to a farm he had Il
think the family still owns it,, near
| Ravenna, Ohio, where he would sit
| silent on the porch. soaking in the
! gentle Autumn sunshine, a quiet smile
| OF happiness on his face as he watched
Ruth ride pony UP and down the
| lane.
Hanna would want to help his daueh-
ter win her Senate fight. or realize any
other ambition she might have. But
he would be sadly handicapped for
/ knowing how to help her. The arts Of
| politics that he knew have been modi-
| ned by q score Of innovations and
| changed conditions.
Getting the Soldier Vote.
Doubtless, Mrs. Mccormick would
tell him that she wants to get the
! votes Of the war veterans. Instantly,
Hanna would say, ST know all about the
| old soldier vote, can get that for you.
Ill see Gen. - and Gen. -"
Then 1t would occur to him to say,
The old soldier vote can't be very
important; most of those old boys In
the G. A. r. must be dead by this time
the old soldier vote was becoming I'M
important even when I was In the
Senate"
Then his daughter would explain
that the meaning of the Grand Army
Of the Republic in American politics
| and in American life has been sup
planted. that . generation has grown
up which does not even know what the
| letters &c. A. r." mean, and that the
veteran vote" means now the vote of
the veterans Of the Great War. How
many hours would be consumed in tell
| ing Hanna about the Great War the
part America played In 1t. and how we
came to enter it, one can hardly
| guess.
! Mccormick would tell her father that
an important part Of her technique and
| of the technique of every candidate for
important ONCE now Is her speeches
over, the radio. How long would it take
| for Hanna to grasp what the radio Is.
and how novel to him would be the
part 1t plays In politics.
Yet the period In which these changes
have come Is very brief. Hanna'S death
was only little while ago, as genera
lions 60, just over a quarter century
he died IN 1904. There are still In the