Candidates' Row

On Candidates Row last week there were several minor gestures, one major motion.

Mr. Hoover. To Colonel Thad H. Brown of Columbus, Ohio, and anyone else who cared to read it, Candidate Hoover wrote a letter. The language was clumsy here and there but the meaning was clear. Wrote Candidate Hoover:

"My dear Colonel Brown: I have received through you and others requests from very many Republicans of Ohio that I permit my name to be entered in the Presidential primaries of that state. I do so.

"I shall be deeply honored by whatever support the people of Ohio may decide to give me at the Republican National Convention. I shall be glad to serve the American people through the Republican party in any way that I can in finding constructive solutions to the many problems which confront our country.

"My conviction that I should not strive for the nomination, and my obligations as Secretary of Commerce preclude me from making any personal campaign. I must rely wholly upon my friends in Ohio to conduct it, and to conduct it in a fair manner and with steadfast regard for Republican success in the state and the nation. It is my special desire that expenditure of money shall be strictly limited and rigidly accounted for.

"If the greatest trust which can be given by our people should come to me, I should consider it my duty to carry forward the principles of the Republican party and the great objectives of President Coolidge's policies--all of which have brought to our country such a high degree of happiness, progress and security.

"Yours faithfully, (Signed) Herbert Hoover."

Having boomed at last, Candidate Hoover prepared openly to boom again and again, at primaries in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Michigan, California, Oregon.

Confident of his friends, careful of his health. Candidate Hoover prepared for the Ohio and other primaries by journeying southward to fish for amber jacks, baracuda, sailfish, groupers, kingfish and Florida delegates.

Mr. Willis. When he had read the Hoover declaration, Candidate Willis, who wants all Ohio's delegates for himself, blustered:

"Oh, very well. He's perfectly welcome to come in. ... Personally, I am in no fear of the results. . . .* When the primary is over, Mr. Hoover will know then whether these self-appointed friends of his who have dragged him into this contest apparently against his wishes, have advised him correctly."

It was Candidate Willis' turn last week to answer Senator Borah's questionnaire on Prohibition. The purpose of this questionnaire, which is to be passed to each Candidate, is to force a lever of logic with which Senator Borah may be able to pry the political lid off a subject in which citizens are actually interested. It contains three questions of a political nature (party plank, law enforcement, modification by states) and a fourth question aimed directly at the Candidates' liquor views. It was upon this fourth question that Candidate Willis, a boom-booming champion of the Anti-Saloon League, was expected to become magnificently resonant.

But Candidate Willis disappointed. In fact, he came as near as he could to "weaseling" the whole business. Blowing out his lungs to the full on the sacredness of the Constitution, including a long quotation from George Washington's Farewell Address, condemning State-determinism as a threat to Federal sovereignty which he supposed the Civil War had ended forever, Candidate Willis floated over the fourth question on his initial impetus, omitting all economic and moral considerations that attach specifically to Prohibition. He said:

"I do not favor the repeal of the Volstead Act, nor do I favor repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. I believe the Eighteenth Amendment is here to stay and that citizens and officials would better put in their time considering how they may observe the laws of their country and respect its Constitution rather than to give their efforts to plans whereby the law may be evaded and the Constitution broken down."

Mr. Watson. No one knows better than James E. Watson of Indiana how absurd it is to think that James E. Watson of Indiana could ever become President of the U. S. But politics is like baseball. Getting men on bases is what counts. A base on balls is as good as a clean single if there is a home-run slugger in the lineup. The total runs, not the hits, win the game. In the Republican league, James E. Watson plays on the anti-Hoover team, whose hardest hitter in June may well be James E. Watson's good friend, Charles Gates Dawes. Therefore, James E. Watson, small of eye, large of stomach, quick of mind, comfortable of conscience, who can always get and has often accepted a political base on balls in Indiana, last week announced his Presidential candidacy. As he went to bat he made all the motions of a player who is going to knock it into the Presidential bleachers, making perfectly clear he was not just a Favorite Son.

Mr. Coolidge. Rhymed Colyumist George Rothwell Brown in the Washington Post:

That famous phrase, "I do not choose," Is once more headlined in the news; La Follette thinks it's much more fun To make it read "you shall not run."*

Odds. Bets placed last week in Wall Street against the Hoover nomination, 9 to 5; against the Dawes or Lowden, 10 to 4; against the Curtis, 10 to 1; against the Smith, 3 to 1.

"Dry" Conventions. Prohibition Commissioner James M. Doran and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Seymour Lowman gave out a portentous announcement: "The conventions shall be Dry!" That is, undercover agents, already at work, will try to intimidate such liquor operators as have not already gotten their shipments through to Houston and Kansas City from Mexico, Cuba, Canada. Naturally enough, the Houston convention will receive the most attention, not solely because it is Democratic but because it is so near a border and because Texas has always out-thirsted Kansas. It is not likely, however, that the persons, baggage or hotel rooms of delegates themselves will be searched.

*Senator Willis had never lost in an Ohio primary. *See THE CONGRESS.