THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1928, Page 7

THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

SIDELIGHTS OX CAMPAIGN. PROSPECTS OF CANDIDATES. The date of the Republican national convention for the selection of a Presidential nominee is June 12, and that of the Democrats has been fixed for June 2fi. In discussing the political situation the New York correspondent of the Manchester Guardian stated that in consequence of Mr. Coolidge's decision not to stand again there was the greatest political excitement for many year s both among the Republicans and among the opposing Democrats, the latter of whom felt they had a much better chance opposing anyone else than Mr. Coolidge. The correspondent continued: The President’s own choice for Republican nominee is Secretary Hoover, who is a “receptive candidate,” and has a nationwide organisation of his admirers already hard at work. The Secretary of Commerce, however, is not popular with the politicians. He has too much the engineer’s point of view for them, and they fear, justifiably, that he would make appointments on the basis of efficiency and not of political expediency. Mr. Coolidge by declining to stand again has already destroyed much of his political influence, and his endorsement, While, of course, useful to Mr. Hoover, is not conclusively so.

The Vice-President, Mr. C. G. Dawes, is, on the whole, the strongest of the Republican candidates for nomination now in the field. He has the support of the banking fraternity, and particularly of that element in it which takes a broad view of international affairs and regards the high tariff policy of the United States as interfering with repayment of foreign loans and the free flow of foreign trade.

Frank 0. Lowden, former Governor of Illinois, is seeking the Republican nomination as the friend of the farmers. One difficulty is his age; he would be 68 at the time of the next inauguration. Another is the fact that the agricultural districts do not control enough votes to be a decisive factor in the selection of a candidate, and Mr. Lowden has little strength in the populous east. Still another objection is the fact that the farmers’ radicalism is only on the surface; a single year of good prices would cause them to drop all interest in having a candidate of their own.

Mr. Nicholas Longworth, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, is a candidate, but his chances seem inferior to those of the men already nominated. A desperate attempt is also being made to persuade Mr. C. E. Hughes, former Secretary of State (who resigned from the United States Supreme Court to stand in 1916 and lost to Mr. Wilson by a small number of votes), to become a candidate. Mr. Hughes has said that he will not be a candidate for nomination, but it is, of course, the privilege of men in political life to change their minds. He is 65, but is in excellent health, and still has a gluttonous appetite for work. -

The Democrats are in a state of uncertainty like that of the Republicans. Their strongest potential candidate is the Governor of New York, Mr. A. Smith. If he should decline to stand, his perennial opponent, Mr. William G. McAdoo, would still be in the ring. While Mr. McAdoo has lost ground heavily since 1924 he continues to be popular in the “dry” Protestant south, and has the friendship of some elements in organised labour.

The other Democrat candidates of whom one hears are Senator “Jim” Reed, of Missouri, Mr. A. E. Ritehie, Governor of Maryland, and Senator T. J. Walsh, of Montana. Mr. Reed is an almost fanatical anti-prohibitionist, which is a grave handicap in the Democrat Convention and a less serious one in the election. Mr. Ritehie is young, handsome, a brilliant orator, but not well known to the country as a whole, and is accused to listening too closely to the voice of political expediency in changing his views on prohibition. Mr. Walsh, who made himself famous (in his own party) by his brilliant work in uncovering the oil scandals of the Harding regime, is a “dry” and a Catholic.

Some talk has been heard of another progressive third partv nibyement like that headed by Senator R. M. La Follette. senr., in 1924. The candidate mentioned this time is Senator George W. Norris, of Nebraska. While Senior Norris is a prominent Liberal, he has given no evidence of any desire to undertake this hopeless. task, fore doomed to certain defeat': and no organisation exists which could be expected to give him any reasonable degree of support.