The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1936-07-30
Republican Nominee Declared To
Be Much Smarter Than Aver
age POliticO And Seeing His
Chance AS Catalyzer Of New
Deal Disgust
By H. L. MENCKEN, In The BaIti.
more Sunday Sun

By H. L. MENCKEN, In The BaIti.
more Sunday Sun
Topeka, Kan, July 25.-Now that he
has got through the ordeal of his
speech of acceptance, the truth about
the Hon. Mr.. Landon begins to emerge.
He is by no means the Collidgean
vacuum that he looked to be at first
sight. Nor is he the mere stooge of the
Kansas Gang that he looked to be at
second sight. st.
The man, in fact, is much smarter
than most of his supporters, and a
great deal smarter than the common
run of American politicoes. He smart
enough to see clearly that his chief
asset in the campaign won't be his
profundity but his character, and he
will resist stoutly every effort, how
ever well intended, to take him out of
that character, whether by making a
naster-mind of him, or an uplifter, or
a rhetorician, or what not. ......
How He'll Get There
It is impossible to listen to him for
fifteen minutes without realizing that,
in the midst of all the fever and hula
baloo, he has been devoting himself to
some quiet and realistic cogitation. His
fundamental belief, as gather it, is
that he will have to get to the White
House, if ever he gets there at all, not
because the American people are
greatly enamored of ALI Landon but
because they begin to sicken of the
Hon. Mr.. Roosevelt.
He sees himself, in brief, as at once
the catalyzer of an augmenting dis
gust, and its symbol. To the dizzy in
tellectual prancing of the wizards he
opposes the hard common sense of a
plain man. He will make no immortal
phrases in. his campaign, and he will
promise no miracles. The one thing he
will engage to do will be his level
damndest, and he is apparently conf
dent that, after they have had a
chance to think it over, a majority of
voters will conclude judiciously that
angels could no no more.
A Touch of Dialect?
1t is rather curious that here in Kan
sas many people think of him, not as a
Kansan nor even as a Westerner, but
as a Pennsylvania Dutchman. After
the public orgies of Thursday night I
encountered a local man, certainly
far from intelligent, who actually
professed to find a touch of the Penn
sylvania dialect in his speech.
But this concept of him as kind Of
foreigner carries no hostile connota-
tions, for the Pennsylvania Dutch, in
Kansas, are highly esteemed. No one
has much to say for their beauty, and
they seldom think of any new way to
improve humanity and get rid of mon
ey, but they are solid and reliable peo-
pie, and when anything has to be done
that requires hard diligence and an
impeccable rectitude there is a feel
ing of satisfaction when one of them
is put in charge of it.
Dependable Wheelhorse
1t is as just such a dependable
wheelhorse that the Hon. Mr.. Landon
appears to have impressed himself
upon his neighbors. He has done well
for himself in his oil business, and no
one seems to begrudge him the fact,
for though they loathe and execrate
the Money Power out here, only few
admitted maniacs are really opposed
to money itself. He has kept his head
as Governor in the midst of a saturna-
liza of highfalutin hooey, and whether
he clears out for Washington next jan
uary or returns to his office in the lit
tie town of Independence, he will leave
the State solvent and reasonably at
peace.
Finally, he has pushed ahead stead
lily in politics in a region where office
holding is almost the major industry
that it is on the Eastern Shore of
Maryland. There are politicians all
around him who started before he did,
and with much better chances, but to-
day it is manifest that he has gone i'm
mensely further than any of them, and
has left much less wreckage and bit
terness behind him.
Respected And Admired
Thus he is respected and admired at
home, but it would be an exaggertion
to say that he boils the blood. Some of
the men closest to him, and most re-
sponsible for his recent apothesis, are
the freest in pointing out his limita-
lions. He is a bit slow, they say, in
picking up facts, and has yet to ex-