OPENING BIDS

Now that William M. Butler of Boston, second only to Frank W. Stearns as an intimate friend of President Coolidge, has been appointed presidential campaign manager the hue and cry is on. Mr. Coolidge, true to his reputation, has acted the part of the silent, hard-working, deliberate executive forced almost against his will into the maelstrom of pre-convention politics. But when once he has arrived at his decision he has acted with the firmness which is traditionally his greatest claim to fame. He has mentioned Cleveland and the Republican National Committee has bowed to his will. He has mentioned Butler and crowds of party leaders have thronged the latter's suite at his Washington hotel.

Meanwhile, like young Lochinvar, Senator Hiram Johnson, namesake but not relative of Magnavox, has ridden out from the West. As his steed he has chosen Frank H. Hitchcock--"astute broker of delegates" and conductor for Taft in 1908, for Hughes in 1916, and for Leonard Wood in 1920. Mr. Hitchcock's greatest strength lies, so it is whispered, in his control over southern delegates. But in the unusual task of pledging these "rotten horough" representatives to Johnson, the progressive candidate, Mr. Hitchcock will meet the redoubtable Mr. C. Bascem Slemp, who, although he has not been appointed campaign manager, presumably still retains the full measure of loyalty to his chief.

Political wiseacres, at least in the East, are convinced that unless some "untoward incident" occurs, Mr. Coolidge will win the nomination. They grant the Johnson boom plenty of publicity, fire-works, and financial backing, but in the end, they believe, the California forces will be scattered before the trained legions of Butler and Slemp.

Senator Johnson's campaign pronouncements have been noticeably mild and have had more the ring of astute politics than of reforming zeal. It is significant, perhaps, that Mr. Hitchcock has replaced Senator Borah and that the latter is almost partial to Coolidge. Certainly there is nothing very inspiring in more denunciation of the League of Nations and a lukewarm domestic policy.

Mr. Coolidge apparently holds most of the trumps in the bidding for the nomination. But even if he outbids his rival Senator Johnson, there is always the possibility that the Democrats will call a higher suit. Mr. Coolidge represents the solid conservatism of the country; Senator Johnson has apparently espoused a flabby liberalism; in the background may lurk the man--Democrat more likely than Republican--who will ride the rising tide of radicalism and reform into the presidency.