Political Notes

Woodrow Wilson's life, according to Washington correspondents, has of late consisted largely of refusing offers to lecture for Chautauqua. One Chautauqua manager declared that the ex-President would be the greatest attraction in the country-- could name his own price. But Mr. Wilson is obdurate.

Senator Pat Harrison, of the virulent tongue, able Democratic whip from Mississippi, is getting $100 a speech on the Chautauqua circuit. His opponents comment: " At last he has found a market for his wares."

The Chicago Tribune presented a Presidential ticket for 1924:

President, Ford; Vice President, Voliva (leader of a religious sect that runs Zion City, in northern Illinois. He and the city are noted 1) for arresting automobilists; 2) for making women wear high-necked dresses and long skirts; 3) for believing that the world is flat); Secretary of State, Upton Sinclair; Secretary of Commerce, La Follette; Secretary of the Treasury, Wildman Brookhart; Secretary of the Navy, Arthur Brisbane; Secretary of War, W. J. Bryan.

The benefits of this administration were thus summarized by the Tribune:

"The world was made in six days from sun to sun. It is flat. Benedict Arnold was the father of his country and first president of the United States. The American navy will be of ships carrying one big gun in time of war and cargoes of Fords in time of peace. The American army will be used in suppressing the liquor traffic and the teaching of evolution in Great Britain, Japan, France, Italy and Germany."

Said The San Francisco Chronicle, apropos of Senators who go abroad: "The average length of a Senatorial trip to Europe is about six weeks. If the Senator spends even that time in a small district in a country whose language he can speak and mingles with all classes of people, he will return with considerable information about that particular district and the attitude of its people toward European problems which most directly concern them. He may learn less about Europe as a Continent than if he had remained at home, installed himself in the editorial rooms of some important journal, and diligently read the exchanges."

More significant than the Collier's straw vote is a poll just taken by The Literary Digest. Granting (with most political vaticinations) that President Harding will be renominated by the Republicans, The Digest took a poll of leading Democratic politicians to see whom they favored for the Democratic nominations. They were asked to pick a first, second and third choice.

Results:

First Second Third

McAdoo 706 437 236

Ford 231 243 181

Underwood 204 209 176

Smith 128 150 121

Cox 125 192 184

Wilson 111 31 29

Among the long list of Presidential possibilities picked by Democratic politicians appeared (with one or two votes each) many unknowns and not a few Republicans. Among the Republicans were: Frank O. Lowden, Elihu Root, Hiram Johnson, R. M. La Follette, William E. Borah, Arthur Capper, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Albert J. Beveridge, James C. Couzens.

Others near the foot of the list were Col. E. M. House, James W. Gerard, Pierce Butler, Jerome K. Jerome, Louis D. Brandeis, Came Chapman Catt, Charles M. Schwab.

William R. Hearst and John F. Hylan each received one second and one third choice.