Candidates' Row

Mr. Lowden. While Hooverites counted their chickens and hoped they would hatch (see "The Beaver-Man"), Lowdenites did likewise. They counted up as high as 200 delegates, "sure" on the first ballot. Candidate Lowden's prospects were brighter for carrying his home

State, Illinois, where the "Coolidge-anyway" movement of Governor Small and Mayor William Hale ("Big Bill") Thompson grew daily in transparency and disrepute.

Mr. Coolidge. A report from Washington that President Coolidge had decided to run again, sent the New York stock market zooming aloft. Polite amazement was professed at the White House, but no statement came forth, con or pro. Observers judged that amazement of another sort was felt privately at the White House when Mayor Thompson's "Coolidge-anyway" movement in Chicago came out last week with a platform which included the plank: "Repeal the Volstead Act."

Mr. Watson. In Indiana, Candidate Watson & friends found a kettle as black as their pot. They found, or said they found, Will H. Hays & friends behind the Hoover candidacy there. No denial coming direct from Candidate Hoover, the Watson-Hoover battle in Indiana temporarily assumed the aspect of local gang war.

Mr. Smith. Up to the end of last week, 74 delegates had been chosen for the Democratic convention, including Idaho's eight, Louisiana's 20, Minnesota's 24, New Hampshire's eight, Alaska's six, six from the Philippines, two from the Virgin Islands. Each and everyone was to vote for Candidate Smith. In Manhattan it became known that Candidate Smith would formalize his candidacy the week following Easter. Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City is the Smith campaign manager. He will run for Congress, hoping to be White House spokesman in the House of Representatives.

Mr. Meredith. Edwin Thomas Meredith of Iowa, who was President Wilson's Secretary of Agriculture (1920-21), refused months ago to let his name be used as a foil. But someone--perhaps William Gibbs McAdoo--has been talking to him. Last week he announced that, after all, "I do ... covet the confidence and goodwill of my fellow citizens here in Iowa." He allowed his name to be entered locally as a "Stop Smith" candidate.

G. O. P. Funds. Treasurer William V. Hodges of the Republican National Committee denied a report that he would retire as a result of the Oil Scandal inquiry (see p. 12). He stated that G. 0. P. funds in 1928 would be plentiful for "a proper campaign"; that the 90,000 contributors of 1924 would this year be swelled to 150,000.