DAVIS, COOLIDGE OR LA FOLLETTE
BY FRANK R. KENT, OF THE Baltimore Sun.
TT is hard 'to conceive a greater contrast than is pre- -IL sented by the three men, one of whom the American people expect to select as their President this fall. Calvin Coolidge. Republican ; John W. Davis, Democrat ; Robert M. La Follette, Independent—there is literally nothing in common among them. Politically, personally, mentally, physically—they are as wide apart as men well can be, as different as an oyster from an egg plant. It is not only their personalities that so strikingly diverge, but there is not the least parallel in the forces back of them, the things for which they stand, or the conventions whence came their nominations. It promises to be a campaign of extraordinary interest and unprecedented possibilities.
As things stand now, the least colourful of the candi- dates, the one concededly smallest in intellectual stature—Mr. Coolidge—appears to have the best chance of election. This may, and undoubtedly will, disappear before November, if the voters at the close of the cam- paign have a clear comprehension of the relative size of the candidates. The trouble in this country, however, with its Hearst newspapers, high-priced Press agents, propagandists and political publicity experts, is that there are so many ways of muddying the political waters that it is rare indeed for the masses of the people to see the real picture of the men they put into office. Intelligent and informed voting is the exception, not the rule, in the United States.
This fight is really between Mr. Coolidge and Mr. Davis, with the La Follette candidacy hovering like a black cloud above both. Senator La Follette has no chance to be elected and no such expectation. There is a double purpose in his mind—first, to establish a permanent third party, and second, by carrying enough States in the North-west, where the farmer is in distress, and radicalism rampant, to prevent either of the old parties from obtaining a majority of the electoral votes. In that event, the election, for the first time in a hundred years, would be thrown into Congress, where La Follette holds the balance of power, and there would ensue a deadlock out of which • one of the vice-presidential candidates might emerge as the White House occupant. It is a distinct possibility. La Follette, militantly radical, able, magnetic, courageous, sincere, is the unknown quantity in this election. Backed by the great railroad brotherhoods, endorsed generally by organized labour, approved by the Socialists, welcomed by the discontented of both sides and sexes, this remark- able man, with his remarkable record, may make a wholly futile and foolish fight, or he may be the pivot upon which the Presidency turns. A little, virile, flaming, fighting fellow with his pompadoured hair, his French blood, his implacable hatred of " Privilege " and the " Money power," this sixty-nine-year-old man has a personal following no other individual in politics possesses. He stands for the nationalization of railroads and coal mines, for governmental aid for the farmer, for the tearing down of the tariff wall, the smashing of " capitalistic control." Volumes could be written about him and his career. He will never be President himself, but it is not at all impossible he may be in a position to say who shall be.
This is, however, a possibility, not a probability, and there are two obvious reasons why Mr. Coolidge is in the strongest position of the three. One- is that normally this is a Republican country. There have been but two Democratic Presidents—Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson—since the Civil War. The other is the prestige of the Presidency itself. Undoubtedly the glamour of the White House is an aid to the occupant in a fight for election. In the first place, it makes it unnecessary for him to assume the aggressive. The dignity of the office, plus the screen behind which Presidents are pro- tected, makes a big man seem heroie and a small man appear big. Mr. Coolidge is not a big man. Not his most intimate friends nor the strongest Republican partisans contend he is. He is an accidental President who has become the candidate of his party against the desire of the party leaders, and because the power of the Presidency is such that any President can with ridiculous ease bring about his own nomination. The docile product of the Massachusetts Republican machine, Mr. Coolidge went from one small office to another, until four years ago he was named as Vice-President in considerable haste and to avoid a fight. Death made him President, but the six months he had Congress on his hands demonstrated his incapacity for party leadership. Bonus Bills, Pension Bills and Japanese EXclusion Acts were passed over his veto by over- whelming votes, and his own party leaders rejected every administration measure and nullified every policy he proposed. The Cleveland Convention that nominated him was a cold storage, reactionary affair, completely dominated by the stand-pat New England interests. Not a progressive note was struck. The platform and the candidates are as conservative as it is possible to be. Colonel Dawes is regarded as stronger—although of the same general type—than Mr. Coolidge, but he is at the tail of the ticket where he does not Much count.
Pale, thin, tight lipped, conservative, silent and concededly the weakest of the three Presidential aspirants, Mr. Coolidge yet has the strongest party at his back,. and the Republican machine is the best organized and highest geared. No man of his type could possibly be elected on the Democratic ticket ; nor could such a man be a factor as an Independent candidate. Only the Republican party in America is big enough to win with mediocre men. The opposition has either to split Republican ranks with dissensions or nominate a giant against it. Had the Democrats in New York in July nominated a Democratic Coolidge—and there are many such—this fight would have been over. The election of the Republican Coolidge would have been assured, regardless of the La Follette movement. The dead weight of numerical strength and financial power would have " put him over." For days last month it did look as if Fate and the folly of the Democrats would grease the ways for Mr. Coolidge. Republican managers were buoyed with hope and full of confidence—but it did not work out that way. The miracle happened. Out of the wildest, longest, most turbulent political convention in history there came the supremely intelli- gent result. After one hundred and three bitter ballots and a fight of unprecedented ferocity over the religious issue, which threatened the complete wreck of the party, the strongest possible ticket was named. In John W. Davis, former Ambassador to Great Britain, the Demo- crats found a candidate big enough and broad enough to lift the party high above the poisonous clouds engen- dered by the battle between the Ku Klux Klan delegates and the Irish Catholic bosses, which at one time changed the gathering from a convention to a convulsion and turned the party into a panic. Upon Mr. Davis all elements of the Democrats have apparently united. In him they have concededly found the man in their party best qualified to be President. Sane, serene, and sound, of the highest character and transcendent ability, cultured, seasoned, liberal, progressive and poised, he has the respect of his opponents and the devoted admiration and affection of his friends. He would be a President to be proud of, but he has a hard fight ahead.
Not only must he overcome the Republican party, but the whole weight of the Hearst press is thrown against him. The fact that he is an ardent advocate of the League of Nations, that he is a friend of England, the. American president of the English-Speaking. Union, formerly Ambassador to the Court of St. James, and that among his clients is the firm of J. P. Morgan and Company—all these things are being used in an effort to array against him the labour element by spreading the idea that he is a " tool of Wall Street," and to alienate the Irish and German voters by depicting him in knickerbockers as the puppet of the English king.
It will be a hard fight—but Mr. Davis's friends believe him big enough to win it—with the aid of La Follette, who will pull more from the Republicans than from the Democrats, and by reason of the somewhat damaged condition of the Republican party, resulting from the oil scandals and other exposures of corruption in the last administration. It all depends upon whether the people get a clear view of the actual facts, or whether they can be deceived and bewildered by the clatter and din of the partisan publicity machines, already going at full speed.
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