POLITICAL NOTES: Primaries

Local issues befog national auguries.

They did, at least, in last week’s outstanding primary election, in Wisconsin. There, the so-called Progressive Republicans, led by boyish Senator Robert Marion (“Young Bob”) La Follette, amiable son of a fiery father, won all the important nominations—including the Youngest Senator’s renomination—except for the Governorship. That was won by Walter Jodok Kohler, affluent maker of plumbing fixtures, builder of a “model” village (Kohler, Wis.), father of grown sons, flyer of a speedy airplane, regent of the State University, adherent of Nominee Hoover. The La Follette candidate, U. S. Representative Joseph D. Beck, ran a Wet second by some 20,000 votes. A Dry third ran Fred R. Zimmerman, Wisconsin’s present Governor.

Perhaps Governor Zimmerman’s endorsement by the W. C. T. U. and Anti-Saloon League helped ruin him. Wisconsin is an oldtime Wet. Perhaps the Hon. Zimmerman’s former membership in the La Follette contingent helped split Candidate Beck’s vote. Perhaps the La Follette grasp on Wisconsin is slipping in the second generation. Or, perhaps Nominee Walter Jodok Kohler is a wealthy manufacturer with a real flair for politics, a convincing program.

The equivocal upshot of a Kohler beside a La Follette on the Republican ticket left people wondering where the balance of Wisconsin power lay for the Presidential election. Senator John James Elaine, the La Follette colleague, had said: “All my friends will vote for Governor Smith.” On the other hand, all good Kohlerites are Hooverites.

“Perhaps,” said a Midwestern Hooverizer, “Perhaps it is just as well President Coolidge chose to go trout fishing in Wisconsin last summer.” President Coolidge’s presence in the northwestern corner of the State has made a lot of converts to Republican regularity in Wisconsin; also in neighboring Minnesota.

¶ In Michigan, Republican Governor Fred W. Green acquired a majority of more than 216,000 votes over George W. Welsh of Grand Rapids and was renominated. Democrats also nominated.

¶ In Delaware, a Democratic convention acclaimed Thomas Francis Bayard, Senator and scion of Senators., and renominated him for a third term. For Governor they chose Dr. Charles M. (“Buck”) Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania’s football coach.*

*Another famed footballer-politician is Head-Coach William W. Roper of Princeton University, since 1920 a member of Philadelphia’s city council with mayoral aspirations.