A SOLDIER HERO

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 146, 18 December 1919, Page 5

A SOLDIER HERO

PEKSHfNG AS PRESIDENT

POSSIBLE CANDIDATURE.

The aftermath of the parade of the First Division has been a round of talk on thei streets and in the lobbies about Pershing for President, said the New York Evening Post on 17th September. There were some in the gigantic throng that welcomed the first fighters who went so far as to wear buttons indicating that General Pershing was their ' candidate. Who originated the buttons,, whether, some enterprising faker, or a constituted Pershing contingent from whom may be expected an .announcement in the open, no one seemed to know Anything more non-partisan than the wave of. popularity which has welcomed General Pershing in Washington could not be imagined. If one party or. the other is looking for a. candidate by popular acclaim, it may find him in the General.

A General for President has been a' precedent in American history which maybe due for a recurrence now. ' As scientists look for physiological and psychological recurrences, there may. be this political turn on the schedule of human affairs. The war has done far stranger things than send a General to the White House, dragging a mere party after him. Keen politicians a-dmit cautiously ■ that when Presidential candidates are vague personalities to a tense public; when one seems to stand for as near, nothing as the next; when the list is so replete that it'seems in fair way never to- bo complete without some precipitous outside pressure—the nation, suddenly released from a great war; may he said to 'be primed for a war hero for President.

Six months ago, before the return of General Pershing began to be heralded, the word was passed-, around among students of political conditions that the formulation of a platform and a list of issues for success.in 1920 would be far more difficult than in many a year. Reconstruction had brought to the surfaco vital questions hardly amenable to the regular political remedies and the old issues. Tariff sounded small in the faca of high cost of living; strong ceritral Government faded into.indefiniteness in tha light of labour; in- fact, the old party lines had been so confused .iriV'.tlie,.war issues that a revival '.''of'prirfely partisan platforms seemed not to meet the' general trend of public demand. Into such, a condition of national polities-- experimenters have mentally , projected the name of a candidate "Who..■j«:puld;.;4iide on the crest of a popular wave,- without the c necessity of a platform .which-would attempt to solve all. t-he'''re Jc'onstructiou difficulties, and reestablish, p^arty lines in every direction. Such a-candidate would be General Pershing; .b'iv perhaps, .in somewhat less measure, General. Wood. A world figure, such as Pershing, wo#ld be. persuaded to-base. his. political campaign upon his -war record. What he thought about the future condition- of the. railroads, about Asiatic exclusion, about tariff and taxation, would be interesting to Washington and New' York, but would not be the issues that- would seal his fate in the hearts, of. his countrymen. No national campaign phrase would have to be found. "Lafayette, we are here," has already goii§ to the back country more thoroughly than many other successful political slogans. But even though some, politicians are talking like tliis. the public would like to ltnow which side of the peace programme he is on, and where he stands. He has consistently refused to answer questions of a political nature since he arrived. He has said less in answer to political queries and as to his opinion of the League of Nations, since he has been in Washington, than the Sphinx iii its most taciturn moments. ■