The Beaver Man

The progress last week of Candidate Hoover, busy beaver-man of the present Administration, towards theRepublican nomination, was as follows:

P: Ohio held a primary and Hooverized 31 of the state's 51 convention votes, a far larger majority than had been expected. Women's votes were heavily pro-Hoover. The balance of 20 delegates, technically instructed for the late Candidate Willis, were mostly committed to Candidate Lowden as second choice and Non-Candidate Dawes for third. An embarrassing feature was the defeat of Senator Simeon D. Fess as a delegate-at-large. The G. O. P. had already picked him as convention keynoter. But his admission to the convention, it was thought, could be arranged by obtaining for him the proxy of some elected delegate. Though he had formally stood for Candidate Willis, the Hooverites cogitated the gesture of offering Keynoter Fess the proxy of one of their own men.

P: Pennsylvania held a primary and though no candidate had filed his name, the voters wrote Candidate Hoover's name on the ballots in such numbers as to justify the Hooverites' claim to all 79 Pennsylvania delegates.

P: Massachusetts held a primary and, though Massachusetts delegates arenot legally bound, the writing-in of names gave Candidate Hoover the state's solid backing, 39 strong.

P: Rollin Kirby, acute cartoonist of the astute New York World, drew a picture of the Primary School, a one-room structure flying the U. S. flag. Out into the road, in sailor hat, buster brown collar, short trousers and socks, came a fattish cherub waving his report card at an old gentleman labelled G. 0. P. The cartoon was entitled: "Look, Daddy!" The cherub was labelled Hoover. The report card said:

"Deportment ....................................................................... ............100

"Attendance ....................................................................... ............ 100

"Reading ....................................................................... ..................100

"Arithmetic ....................................................................... ................100

"Home Work ....................................................................... ............100

"Neatness.............................................................. ..........................100

(Signed) "Very good, Herbert. "Teacher."

P: Party conventions elsewhere during the week strengthened other candidates only sparingly. Oklahoma Republicans urged their 20 delegates to vote first for Curtis, then for Lowden. Nevada Republicans decided not to instruct their nine delegates. Arizona's nine were reported to favor Candidate Lowden, but were not instructed. Alaska Republicans did not instruct their two delegates. The standing of delegates instructed or fairly claimed for all G. O. P. candidates as of last weekend was: Hoover, 359; Lowden, 211; Curtis, 24; Norris, 11; Borah, 11.

P: Hooverites said that the Ohio Victory "clinched the nomination." The only danger they could foresee was some anti-Hoover move by Non-Candidate Dawes so upsetting as to precipitate a Coolidge stampede. If Ohio had not "clinched" the thing, said the Hooverites, then Indiana would clinch it, next week. There the local champion to be defeated is Candidate Watson, large of stomach, small of eye, a smooth political mechanic. Watsonism in Indiana was considered even harder to beat than was the Willis phenomenon in Ohio. But two things, besides the Hooverizing of Ohio, happened last week to weaken Watsonism:

1) Clyde A. Walb, Klannish henchman of Candidate Watson's 1926 campaign for the Senate, was sent to Leavenworth Penitentiary for four years for conspiracy to violate the U. S. banking laws.

2) Ogden Livingston Mills, Undersecretary of the Treasury, let it be known that he would go to Indiana to speak for Candidate Hoover. When Candidate Watson heard this he was furious. He lumbered over to the Treasury Department to see Secretary Mellon. It was reported that during the interview he asked Mr. Mellon if this was what Mr. Mellon called "straight shooting." Mr. Mellon, powerfully, persistently neutral, did not agree with Mr. Watson's definition of a "straight shooter." Mr. Watson left the Treasury promising to war on the Administration from then until June if Mr. Mills was allowed to help Hooverize Indiana. It was not reported that Mr. Mills would change his plan.

P: The Springfield, Mass. Republican, daily Bible of many a Coolidge-type Republican, said in an editorial last week: "Perhaps no candidate could save the Republican party this year. It has sins to answer for--and crimes. There is terrible force in the contention that the Republican party deserves punishment, if it is impossible.to put the Falls, Dohenys and Sinclairs into jail. How can it escape punishment if it rejects a candidate with the qualifications of Mr. Hoover, unless there is a candidate with higher qualifications? And where is he?"