Life — October 20, 1910 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“ While there is Life there's Hope.” VOL.LVI. OCTOBER 2, 1910 No, 1460 Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY JA MITCHRLL, Prett A MILLER, Sey emt Treas, 17 West Thirty-first Street, New York. S a vote for Stimson for Governor of New York a vote for Roosevelt for Presi- dent in 1912? Is a vote for Dix a vote for Murphy and ‘Tammany con- trol of New York State? The second query looks easy, and is not making disturbance in minds dis- posed towards Dix. The business or- ganization called Tammany Hall is the misfortune of the New York State Democracy. There is no political vir- tue in that organization, though there is some brains in it. But unwilling- ness to vote for a good Democratic candidate for Governor because Tam- many Hall is: willing to support him would merely mean unwillingness to have New York State go Democratic until Tammany has been destroyed. That won't happen for some time yet, and meanwhile the anti-Tammany Democrats and the Independents in New York State will choose their time for voting against Democratic candi- dates whom Tammany is willing to support. Very few of them will do so this year, for the Vote-Against-Mur- phy argument has very little force as applied to Dix. Not so with the Vote-Against-Roose- velt argument as applied to Stimson. How much Stimson's election would increase the chance that Roosevelt will tun for President in 1912, we do not know. We cling to the theory that Roosevelt will not run again for Presi- dent no matter what happens. We still believe that he does not wish to return to the White House, and will never do so. But that belief is a good deal a matter of faith, and the Colonel’s re- “LIFE: cent operations in the West have not done much to certify or strengthen it. it is argued that if he is again the Re- publican nominee it will be because the West insists on having him, and that if the West is bound to have him, it will not be stopped by the prospect that he will iose New York. If Roosevelt runs in 1912 his candidacy will not be based on nice calculations about the probable votes of individual States, but will be in the nature of an epidemic. If he runs he will run as the candidate of the Insurgents, and of Collier's, The Outlook and the fifteen-cent maga- zines, and as the man who is to make all their political yearniags come true. They will run him, if they run him, to carry the West, and New York may go hang. But such considerations and fore- casts go for little in this New York . campaign. The Colonel has got a lot of people scared, including many New York Republicans, They think the way to check him is to vote for Dix, and that is what many of them propose Ph so far a3 any one may guess, New York State is out of the run- ning for the honor of providing the Democrats with their next Presidential candidate. It counts for a great deal to be able to speak from a platform and win votes. Mayor Gaynor’s recent wound forbids for the present that exercise to him, and Mr. Dix has not yet developed the gift of oral dis- course. The rising Democrat here- abouts is Woodrow Wilson, who is talking freely and ably up an-1 down New Jersey, and saying a great deal wherever he talks, What the voters need everywhere is sound political in- struction. Dr. Wilson is qualified to give it, and he has a great gift of im- parting it acceptably. His speeches are excellent to read and highly acceptable to the audiences who sit under them. The voters hereabouts want to know, and will listen gladly to any one in whom they find sound doctrine and the capacity to impart it. As they listened to Hughes in New York, so they seem to be listening to Wilson in New Jer- sey. The merit of his talk is that it is based on thorough knowledge of po- litical history and on matured thought. He has not got up some convictions for use in a campaign, but speaks out of a full mind, conversant with what has been, closely observant of what is, and clearly and definitely apprized of what must come to be. He is clear in his analyses and definite in the remedies which he proposes. And with all that, he is no closet politician, but an engag- ing man, used to dealing with men and with affairs, always ready ‘o face an audience, and delighted with the give- and-take of political polemics. Dr. Wilson has been so valuable in the field of education that it would have been a sin to drag him into poli- tics unless his gifts and bent had warranted the diversion. There is every sign that they do warrant it, and that his incursion into New Jersey politics means that the Democrats have got a new leader who can think straight, shape sound policies and make them acceptable to the voters. T is to regret the disturbance in Por- tugal attending the termination of the engagement of King Manuel. To release a King is still an awkward busi- ness, and though in this case disturb- ance has been minimized, there has been more fighting and more loss of life than the change seemed ready to warrant. Manuel has been frivolous and expensive, without capacity for good work or any prospect of attain- ing such capacity; with an allowance, and an automobile he will be happier in Paris than in Lisbon, and make less trouble for the police. If he tires of Paris he is welcome to come over here and try Pittsburg. The Republican experiment seems to be in the hands of sober and competent men, who know what they want, and want what Portugal needs. The coun- try in general seems to be ready in its feelings for the change. Whether it is ready in its capacity is another ques- tion, but President Braga’s government seems likely to have a fair chance to show what it can do. comicbooks.com