Booms

The new moon has waxed to the first quarter. Presidential candidacies now definitely pass into a new phase. Congress opens; the President's message is delivered. All those afflicted with the midwinter's madness of political ambition must soon speak or hold their peace for four years more-- all at least accept the occupant of the White House, who has the privilege of intimating that he has forgotten even such a matter as a Presidential year in the press of official duties.

Calvin Coolidge has a candidacy. Nonetheless, the question now arises: how soon will he step out of the cocoon of work to unfold the glittering wings of an active candidate? There was a press report abroad which said in so many words that by the middle of December 'Mr. Coolidge's boom would be loud in every state; his preconvention campaign manager and submanagers would be picked; their headquarters would dot the country.

There was equally reliable information that the White House candidate would play a waiting game. Allow a host of favorite son candidates each to bring his own small band of rooters to the Convention. There, above them all, would boom the figure of a hardworking, businesslike executive; the only great figure who could carry off the majority of the delegates and win a majority of the votes.

This contrast is of extremes. The Coolidge candidacy will not be too modest a flower, as is evident already. Neither is it likely to be as boisterous as that of Hiram Johnson threatens to be. It has good financial backing and there will be much judicious publicity.

Secretary C. Bascom Slemp is not campaign manager. But he is a capable man to undertake the business of negotiation and maneuvering for position. There was a report of his activities in Alabama, where the friends of Senator Underwood have arranged a regulation that all candidates in that state's Presidential primaries must be state residents. Mr. Slemp was said to have arranged that Aubrey Thomas, formerly a Congressman from Ohio but now a resident of Alabama, will run in the primaries and deliver his delegates to Coolidge at the Convention.

Hiram Johnson's candidacy advanced with the delivery of his first important speech in Chicago and by the appointment of his campaign manager.

The Chicago utterance was heralded as a "keynote speech." Senator Johnson denied it afterwards. The principal points of his speech were:

1) That foreign affairs are "at the forefront as a national issue."

2) That the League of Nations, the World Court, a reparations conference are "preposterous and futile . . . transparent subterfuge."

3) That the Administration has no foreign policy except to get us into "undiscovered European adventure."

4) That our real foreign policy should be to offer "with equal generosity" to "clothe the naked and feed the hungry," but that other U. S. action should be confined to cases "where American interests are involved and where the remedy which America can seek is clearly to be seen and is capable of clear statement and of American execution."

In domestic matters Mr. Johnson favored:

1) A soldier bonus because "we must keep faith with the ex-service men. . . . If we had not intended to pass the so-called bonus law we should have said so."

2) Tax reduction for the 13,600,000 tax payers with incomes under $10,000 a year.

3) Lower railroad freight rates and cooperative marketing to help the farmers but not Government price fixing or entry into the grain business.

4) A Constitutional amendment to enable Congress to prevent child labor.

5) Minimum wage laws for women.

"Very mild," commented Washington on Mr. Johnson's speech, "unexpectedly mild."

But Mr. Johnson's choice of a campaign manager was not unexpectedly mild. He chose Frank H. Hitchcock, who belongs to the tooth-and-nail school of campaign management. He conducted Taft in 1908 (and was Postmaster General in Taft's Cabinet) ; he conducted Hughes in 1916; and he conducted Leonard Wood on an expensive trip to the Convention in 1920. He is known as a specialist in Southern delegates, and there should be a keen duel between him and C. Bascom Slemp for the delegations from the South-- although there will not be so much to quarrel over since the Southern delegations have been cut (TIME, Sept. 24). Not in idle fun was he called an "astute broker of delegates."

His choice as campaign manager is a sign that the Johnson campaign will be a thoroughly professional affair and that it will be well financed. Frank R. Kent, one of the ablest of political correspondents, estimates that every one of the active candidates--Coolidge, Johnson, Underwood, McAdoo, will have from $100,000 to $500,000 spent in his behalf before the Convention. With William Wrigley and A. D. Lasker as backers, Mr. Johnson's fund may go well beyond that figure. William Randolph Hearst is also in Mr. Johnson's background.

All the other candidates have wealthy friends or relatives and several are themselves very wealthy-- Underwood, McAdoo, Pinchot, for example. But with Mr. Hitchcock in command Mr. Johnson's campaign should be notable for the flying of fur and money, wherever it can advantageously and quietly be spent.