Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1920 — SEN. NEW IS GIVEN ADVANTAGE [ARTICLE]

SEN. NEW IS GIVEN ADVANTAGE

Over Watson In Summoning Him Among “Best Minds.” Indianapolis, Ind., Dec. 17. —Presi-dent-elect Warren G. Harding has struck a sore blow to a combination of Republican politicians in Indiana by including Senator Harry S. New among the “best minds in America” called to confer with him at Marion, Ohio. It is not that they resent the fact that Harding has sought counsel from New, but they feel that the apparent favoritism displayed 1 by the president-elect for the senior senator gives him an unfair advantage over Senator James E. Watson. The latter has long been held up by his partisans as having been the staunch friend and confidante of Mr. (JHarding, yet so far as known he has not been summoned to confer with the« president-elect on matters of state like his colleague, Senator New. The fact that New, and not Watson, is closer Jo the throne wilPhave far-reaching effect on Republican affairs in Indiana after March 4. It means that New, who will come up for re-nomination and re-election, will be given the advantage in dispensing federal patronage in Indiana in order to build up his fences. Perhaps it is an adroit maneuver on the part of the senatorial oligarchy to see that their ranks remain unbroken during the Harding regime, but it is difficult to make the Watson supporters see 'the justice of the move, if remark% dropped

here may be taken as a criterion of their sentiments. New, as the dispenser of "federal patronage in this state, and backed by an intimate personal friendship with the president, will come perilously near having the Republican organization in the hollow of his hand. If th*l works out, as many leaders believe, it will thwart the plans of Senator Watson and Governor-elect Warren T. McCray to control the organization during the next two years. It will mean that Watson after all his ambitious years to guide the destinies of his. party, will again follow the leadership of another man. Senator Harding’s public protestation of friendship for Senator New is particularly galling to the Watsonites at this time, too. It was the Watson camp that took unto itself the duties of guiding the feeble Harding organization through the primary in Indiana last spring, and no senator jgot more publicity for bringing about the nomination of Harding than did Watson. After all of these heroic endeavors to curry favor with the man who was destined to become president of the United States, it is mighty difficult for the Watson men to look on with complacency while Senator New steps in as the court favorite.