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Show League Fight May Project Itself Into 1920 Campaign; Issue Very Muddled One President's Disclaimer of Political Ambition Strengthens His Support of Treaty-Covenant; Politicians Kept Guessing-. 1 ' By DAVID LAWRENCE. (Copyright, lyiy. by The Salt Luke Tribune. This ts t lie second of a scries of thro articles Hiving an mm lysis of conditions as observed ou President Wilsim's trHtiscontiuentul tour. WASinXGTOX, Sept. 29. residential res-idential primaries are six months away tlicy have the first vote in Oregon and there is today neither a crystalli.at ion of stn.Micth behind any candidate in i either party nor any certainty that the two old parties the Democratic and Republican will draw their support from the samo elements which have contributed to their alternative successes, suc-cesses, in. the past. President Wilson disclaimed any political ambition on his tour and denounced any man who looks at t lie peace treaty and league of nations with an eye to the elections. of ihjo. f That . made t it possil.de for Republicans Republi-cans everywhere1 who favored the lea 'lie i o ya tj'ie r a round t he president without giving the local Democrats the opportunity to trarner advantage to their parly out of the presence of activity activ-ity of Mr. Wilson. Candidacy Notion Persists. Hut much as Air. Wilson tried to destroy de-stroy it. t lie notion persis'od in man v places that just as the president made a non-partisan tour for preparedness just before he ran for a second term, so mi-ht the league tour be a feeling out process lqokiug toward a third term. So everywhere I made inquiries of Democrats as well as Republicans as to whether they would support, Wilson if he ran for a third term nnd the universal uni-versal answer was that they would not. That is why every time M r. Wilson cave the impression in his "speeches ; that he had nothing political or per- , son al in view wit 1. respect to the pa s- ' sa.L-f' of the treaty he got. a most en- ! k (Continued on if age 0, Column -A.) - ... LEAGUE FIGHT W GOT0 1920 CAMPAIGN (Cuntfmiod J'roni Vntio Om.) llmsiustii rr-,jMriso. h IicsI. fri.-n.lH do nut u ii nt hi in In run. Ami hi.s own 'trMri', I Unuw im.sitivcly, is absolutely in mviii-tl with that lulvicc. J Jut if this in mi why humi 't nuiimi fuuiouin'o-m. fuuiouin'o-m. iit hf.-ii mmlt f It ih triic that ninny I'i'lil ii-iil mtm)Iim nuoi the 1 )i,rnoc rn trt thouKht it wi.'.t to withhold any Htuto-nu-iit ni tin' point, liflitivii) tlmt nulii-iiijf nulii-iiijf wnuM hit calc u la t to mako 1 hn l'imljlican leaih'rs wat fh their step mumh than the crcatifia uf a nt-t of rir-i-tiiMMtaiitTM cinnpcllin Mr. AVilmm to t a Kr t ho Iniim to I la1 fuiin t ry a.i an ifsMio in u presidential fanipnin. Wilson Would Hcncfit. An between tlie preecdent of a tliird term and the rejeetinn of a bano of nations many voters would find it hard to deeide, but admittedly Mr. WiUun would eet a bier vote than lie would if ho had only t lie isMio of perHonal I'aparity and not thojiroad question of interiiatioiial affairs to arue. Many b'epublieans ludicve that tho tronj..st obstaele to Jejiuldiean huc-i'i'sh huc-i'i'sh - Woodi'itw W ihsoii wo u hi bo removed re-moved if the treaty of peace wire acted upon and put out of the wav. Indeed, many who expect to be supporting the Republican national and Matt. tickets net time, took part in welcoming Mr. WilM'ii and even announced their nup-pnrt nup-pnrt of the IraLii'-1 becauo they bidii-vrd tlicre would be tin.' enough after tho league issue were disposed of to net thenlelve4 baek into partisan ranks on domestic, affairs w it Imtit net.-ssarily absorbing aav moru WH-onian jdiilos-oi-liy. As fur the Democrats, tlicv take pride in the president 's popularity, for the Icau'iie has certainiy made liiai popular i n t he w l'.M era M a i. Sources of Strength. T!io N.eirceH of Mr. WiNon'fl utrentrth a re worth nut in lie dir i es povr 1 v reason of the confidence of tlie people in his honesty ami in! e;ri,y and bv rea.Min of Die fact that tin oppo-M'ion oppo-M'ion on tho b-aeam has been largely I destructive and no subsMtute plan to ! usr.re p a-e has bi. n offered. As be-I be-I t w-en the ti- atv and l-'auo of nations as now dra fled and ii'me at all, the p V-p!e of the wi-st would vot o over-w;, over-w;, hiiinly to sustain tlie prtibnt. i 1 fn!i ." re not as important as is-'sues. is-'sues. Ii anything tho liepjblican b-ad-. rhip in enures can le- sanl to have ot much of t iieir confidence which the rank nnd file of the party had in it last Ma v when roiiL'rcis convened. It is an interest in; t h inL' that while, many people in tlie west do not ai,'ree with Ii:ram Johnson 's vi- ws tl;cy have much more respect fT hi m because of ii,.. -1. ,. i, tion I han t t.ov have- for the Ki-publi-can liaders who have waverel betw. en : remes ami have not seemed certain what eon rse to pursue. As the West Sees It. In t he w est the i.ssue of reservation has not le-n as easy ,i one for Ke-; Ke-; mi Mica to clin; to as in t tie ca.-t. The people are t'xprctinj; the isue of a league to be (Ifiined clenriy. A man who iives hi" reasons for re f living to I ee the l"n;.t.-l Stnros join any Kaiv lis much more likely to be listened to I than a mart who says lie is for a league 'with tuali I'irat ions or reservations that ' amount to a uesire to revet the treaty ami b airne which lie seems to hesitate j to say direct iv. .So if the p.-iec treaty is defeated 1 it i Hiram .Tohn-snn who will (jet the i credit or diseredii. If he wins his 1 fjL'ht many Republicans will regard ! him as the most likely ricure tor . resident res-ident on the Republican ticket haru'elv , bee;. use of The sheer force of Ids ability i to swine; the senate in his favor. On, the o:hcr hand it the tron'y is pn sed and the lenu'tw.1 set up manv of Senator Sen-ator Johnson's own supporters fear his president ial chances will be adversely affected. Talk of Candidates. Talk of candidates persists everywhere, but no undercurrent of sentiment in favor of any one man has come to the surface In anv consid.-rah'e area of our political map. In April and May the west seemed to think verv highly of Leonard Wood. Todav there is still much talk of him for president, but other candidates seem to have taken the stage and split up what was nt one time fairly uniform sentiment. senti-ment. The Idea that no military man should be nominated has been fostered by the friends of Candida tea who are rivals of General Wood, and when General Gen-eral Pershing came home he, too, got a little at ten tion ns a presidential possibility possi-bility for tlie same reason. Without attempting to say what sentiment senti-ment will be six weeks or" a month from now, 1 should say that Herbert Hoover's unostentatious return from abroad, coupled cou-pled with his straightforward statement that lie was not a candidate for president and would not be one, made a hit with western folks, who promptly set about thinking about him for president, .lust as they used to every time Justice H ughes told some state that Intended to put his name on the ballot that he was not a candidate and did not wish to be voted for in the primaries. Hoover Has Favor. So, of all the returning candidates, Mr. "Hoover's returning remarks have set political po-litical gossips, pemoerats nnd Republicans. Republi-cans. ta!king of the former food administrator, adminis-trator, but they don't know to what political po-litical party he belongs. He is a business man type, ' which ma lies It appear probable prob-able that he Is n Republican, but he supported sup-ported the president in his anpoal for a Democratic eongn-ss and Is enthusiastically enthusiastical-ly for the league of nations. Thus he has nt least made of himself a nonpartisan figure. He is a California Progressive, vith a tendency to b as radical as the Hints demand. n the other hand, he Is not a good speaker or campaigner, and. so far as tho party politicians go. h.e knows nothing the art of political m!x-Iric m!x-Iric and hates the processes by which men get deacations to support them at po-;it;-al eomoutior.s. The Iiomocrats talk of former Secretary William McAdoo and A. Mitchell ra'.mor with varying opinion and an inclination in-clination to support pilrner if President Wilson says so. Talk of Lowden. On the Republican side. Governor Lowden Low-den of Illinois continues to be talked of favorably by bankers and business men, hut nearly every discussion of candidates that I heard wound up in a state of doubt concerning the vote of labor, organized or-ganized and unorganized, in the next presidential campaign. 1 1 seems to he admitted that a large part of the Irish vo'.e which has been the backbone of the Democratic aprty in many states has been lost bv iTesidTit Wilson's refusal to commit com-mit himself wholeheartedly to the cause of Ireland. Also, the Italian vote is counted count-ed on to he largely Republican on account of the Flume controversy. Large bodies of Czecho-Slovaks and Poles are likely to support the Democratic ticket In appreciation of Mr. Wilson's efforts ef-forts In behalf of their former homes. Rut votes of antagonism are much more apt to remain than votes of appreciation, and the Czecho-Slovaks and Poles may become part, after all. of the general tide of the labor vote, while the Irish voters, who have a grievance against the Democratic Demo-cratic partv. mav wreak vengeance for the accusations of hyphenatism tossed their wav bv the president. The danger to the Democrats is that many of their party workers are Irish sympathizers and many Repuhlieans with whom I talked rejoiced at what they thought was a body blow to the Democratic party. Things Are Uncertain. Rut. while there Is much talk of the next election, editors, business men, politicians, poli-ticians, male and female, whose opinions opin-ions were obtained seemed to be absolutely abso-lutely unable to say what their respective regions would do in the primary or electoral elec-toral campaigns. Tvo big uncertain qualities loom un labor and the woman vote and movements inside the parties, rather than the rise and fall of candidates, candi-dates, are interesting now. The women of the west unquestionably are for the league of nations and presidential presi-dential candidates who cannot show a good record on that subject will find difficult dif-ficult sledding. Labor is articulate now in strikes nnd industrial warfare, but any candidate whose attitude on industrial questions Is suspected of being friendly to, a reduction of excess profits taxes, or to big business generally, mav make a hit m the manufacturing centers of the east but In the west, and among the rank and file o' the workers of tlie country lie might as well expect defeat My observations and analysis on this trip lead me to believe that the west not onlv mav decide our next presidential election acain, but that it may mako deep inroads upon the east. West to Decide. The desire for a third party Is encountered encoun-tered here and there, but it is not pronounced pro-nounced because no leader appears who ran start or organize such a movement. : On the other hand, western Republicans think thev can reform the Republican partv on the inside better than they can on the outside. The important thing to bear In mind is that the leadership of western Republicans In the senate .has made the west much more of a doubtful quantitv than it was three months ago. The Republican party still has the greater opportunity, provided it becomes the truly progressive party of the country, coun-try, but the Democrats.- with their inclination in-clination to radicalism, have the same chance to win tlie liberal strength beyond the Mississippi. The west is waiting the outcome of the next months of strife over social and industrial and moral questions to determine whirh if the two old parties par-ties will be the lesser of two evils by November, No-vember, 19-0. |