Burgeoning

Any botanist knows that if the topmost bud of a tree is blighted, lower buds at once begin to develop to take its place. Many members of the Democratic Party arrived at the opinion that the topmost Presidential bud, William G. McAdoo, had suffered from oil. Thereupon several other buds began to expand on their own merits, and, flushed with hope, to burgeon.

Senator James A. Reed of Missouri, Democratic irreconcilable, whose boom is being fostered by the Hearst press, lifted his voice at P'eoria, Ill., exclaiming: "On the heels of the War . . . there was a flood of resignations by every sort of Government employee, from department clerks to Cabinet officers. . . .

"They were possessed of inside information or they had gained great influence through the public honors that had been conferred upon them. . . . Accordingly they went into the open market to sell that information and that influence to those who were contending against the Government. Most of them disguised their transactions under the term 'legal services.' With that mask before them, they expected to escape detection, and even now have the effrontery to pretend that their action was ethical because it was performed in the capacity of attorneys at law.

"I deny and repudiate such a doctrine. It is contrary to the ethics of the legal profession . . . and contrary to the spirit of the law."

Senator Samuel M. Ralston of Indiana received a bit of modest commendation from Tom Taggart, Democratic boss of his state:

"I don't see anything that can beat Ralston for the nomination. Things are getting into a jam for the other men discussed for the head of the ticket, and it looks like they will use each other up."

John Barton Payne, Secretary of the Interior under Woodrow Wilson, and immediate predecessor of Albert B. Fall, would be, it was intimated, the choice of George E. Brennan, Democratic boss of Illinois.

Alfred E. Smith, Governor of New York, declared proudly: "I am a candidate for nothing." Reports from Wall Street asserted, however, that the odds were now the same, one to twelve, that either Smith or McAdoo will be the next President.

James M. Cox, onetime Governor of Ohio, formally marched his cohorts into the field. It has been known for long that he has been hanging on the outskirts of the Democratic struggle waiting for an opporunity to enter.

His official business since his defeat by Mr. Harding in 1920 has been the publishing of his newspaper, the Dayton News.* But he has expressed himself publicly at frequent intervals. In May, 1921, he declined to criticise Harding. By January of the next year, he assailed the Administration's Limitation of Armaments Conference as a "resort to the noisy methods of a circus" and added that the Administration had "profaned Republican history ... by forsaking the soul of Abraham Lincoln for the spleen of Henry Cabot Lodge." Two months later he attacked the Administration for refusing to participate in the Genoa Economic Conference. In succeeding speeches he advocated the League of Nations, which, amon? issues, is his great and good friend. He spent two months abroad. Since returning, he has seized several occasions to speak against the Administration and for the League.

Last week, on vacation in Florida, Mr. Cox, perhaps regarding the moment as opportune, consented to a request from his Ohio followers that he make a contest for delegates:

"You are well aware that I have had no inclination to enter into any contest for delegates anywhere. If, however, it is the belief of the Democracy of the State that the principles for which I stand can be promoted by your suggestion, then I most happily acquiesce."

Mr. Cox's "principles" are principally one--entrance into the League of Nations. In that respect he is absolutely Wilsonian--not, of course, that Mr. Cox has the other attributes of the late President. Samuel G. Blythe put well the contrast between Cox and Wilson by asking each what was the outstanding feature of the President's office. Said Wilson: "The power of decisions." Said Cox: "The power to take a situation by the nape of the neck and the seat of the trousers and shake a result out of it." If William G. McAdoo is out of the race, then Cox and Reed are prepared to take the League issue-- the one by the nape of the neck and the other, the seat of the trousers --and shake out a result.

But is Mr. McAdoo out of the race? From his home in Los Angeles he assailed the "continued effort to make my private law practice a political issue." He admitted that his firm, which received $100,000 for services to Mr. Doheny in regard to Mexican oil interests, would have received $1,000,000 all told if its efforts had been successful in getting what Mr. Doheny wanted. He also declared:

"The shocking revelations at Washington of betrayal of public interest must give profound concern to every lover of our institutions and to every patriotic American regardless of party . . . The duty of the Government is no less to punish those who are guilty than to protect those who are innocent. No attempt to divert attention from the guilty should be permitted."

* See page 21.