Evening star., 1936-03-16

IuSttty Us H tHc Otu uuy5 UfIeU Dig
Bill Thompson used to spear the
King OF England nightly, and, in
cidentdlly, the sweep has epen
blotDn Big Bill out of the Downtown
hotel room, in tUtich he has been
in retirement for years and brought
him forth again as a political fig
ure, ii only in tavor OF an attorney
general tDllo tDiu guarantee clean
elections" Imagine that after all
these years.
Note-Bill still rides down to the
foreign quarters occasionally and calls
the men and women voters of the
stoop for q chat. He always calls
them by any first name which hap
pens to be most common in that par
ticular district and he never fails to
get a response from more than one
of the perpetual stoop sitters. He has
friends, but no organization. He prob
ably will not be a figure in presiden-
tial politics. being interested only in
his candidate for clean elections"
Kelly and Horner at Outs.
More indicative Of the guSty swirl
Of politics Is the increasingly painful
disagreement of Democratic Mayor
Kelly and Democratic Gov. Horner
Said Mr.. Kelly Of Mr.. Homer the
other day: las a Governor he Is a
good hod carrier" Said Mr.. Horner
Of Mr.. Kelly: IT will carry Boss
Kelly's Cook County by 25o,Oo0. even
If they steal another 250.00O." The
here is that Gov. Horner over-esti-
mated his own ability and under
estimated Mayor Kelly's. All seem to
suspect that Horner cannot roll UP
enough downstate to Offset what the
efficient Kelly-Nash Chicago roller
will roll up against him up here.
Note-The Kelly-Nash roller COM
pany is still closed corporation and,
ultra efficient: it will roll along with
President Roosevelt in the election,
which does not augur well for the Re-
publicans.
Borah-Knox Fight to Flare.
The Borah-Knox contest for Repuo-
lican presidential delegates has been
all under the surface so far. It will
not be long. Senator Borah is COM
ing here for a couple of speeches. Col
Frank Knox will take a swing down.
State next week. He will cover the
State thoroughly before primary day,
April IA, but the SubSurface arrange
ments for delegates have developed a
situation equally as interesting as the
Democratic one.
For instance, Borlh leader has
tDithdrlwn as candidate in one
important district, apparently on
the assumption that the opposing
delegate ioould also be for Bordh.
The opposing candidate, whose
election notu is unconteSted, Gp-
parently has different idea. At
least, his spokesmen hdDe indicated
that Bor1h Uill be the last man he
wiI Uote for Dhen he goes to
Cleveland.
Not only from this incident, out
from others it is evident that some of
the candidates are going to be fooled
when the roll call starts at Cleveland.
Dual Allegiance Widespread.
The truth is this matter of dual al
legiance among prospective delegates
is so widespread through the Middle
West that the primaries may not mean
what the tabulations will seem to in
dicate.
For instance, one of the popular
county leaders down-State has an
nounced that he will support any one
his people want. He knows his par
ticular section is for Borah. He will,
therefore, 60 to the Cleveland con-
vention as a Borah delegate, but,
every one knows he is not
a Borah man. How long he will stick
to Senator Borah depends largely on
his conscience. 1t will certainly not
be more than two or three ballots.