(See front cover)
Of the 13 good Presidents & bad the U S has had since the Civil War Ohio has mothered seven, all Republican — Last week the busy buxom State of Ohio was again pregnant with presidential possibility, this time Democratic.
From Ashtabula to Cincinnati, from Toledo to Marietta good Democrats everywhere marched to the primary polls to pick delegates to cast Ohio's 52 pivotal votes in next month's national convention. No native son of theirs had ever got closer to the White House than James Middletn Cox in 1920, who missed it by seven million votes. But now there was a distinct chance that the "Mother of Presidents — would not only give the Democratic party another nominee but also put him, the first of his kind, into the Presidency.
Favorite Son. Quirky politics kept Ohio Democrats from giving their suffrage directly to such a possible winner. By prearrangement they voted, for Governor George White as Ohio's favorite (but not native) son. Born in New York George White went gold-rushing in the Klondike before settling , down in Ohio. An active, useful citizen, he served six years in Congress managed the Cox campaign in 1920 as national chairman, was elected Governor two years ago. But no one realized the futility of his presidential candidacy better than Governor White himself. He took the political precaution in last week's voting to get himself renominated for his present job.
At Chicago, Ohio's delegation will cast a courtesy ballot or two for Favorite Son White ' When he fails to make headway, the delegates' obligation to him will have been discharged. Then they will be free to switch to some more likely candidate from Ohio Mr. Cox or Senator Robert Johns Bulkley may be given a short complimentary tryout. Finally, depending on how the convention breaks, the delegation will turn to its real choice for the Presidency, the one man from Ohio who could lay serious claim to the nomination and who once nominated, could give Herbert Hoover a hot race in November—Newton Diehl Baker.
Cozl Bin's Son. Newton Baker is no more a native son of Ohio than Governor White. Sired by a country doctor who rode in "Jeb" Stuart's Confederate cavalry, he was born 61 years ago at Martinsburg in what has been called "Ohio's Coal Bin," West Virginia.
Democrats did not vote for Mr. Baker last week. He would not let his name go on the ballot. He had declared he did not want to be President, would not be a candidate for the nomination. Two years ago he wrote of the Presidency as the final sacrifice," adding: "The restraint, artificiality and loneliness in the White House . . . seems the life of a pet in a gilded cage." But Baker-for-President sentiment does not easily down. Last December a South Carolina friend wrote to urge candidacy upon him. Mr. Baker sidestepped thus: "The times clearly present a great opportunity for service. . . .The situation of the world changes from day to day. Nobody can safely forecast what his duty may be when June comes around but my earnest hope is that the party will be able to find a leader whom we can all follow without presenting to me the heavy question of a personal duty."
Banner or Ranks— The same month in a letter to a North Carolina editor, Mr. Baker was out for "a revived Liberalism and a refreshed Idealism," a cause he wanted to fight for "whether carrying a banner or marching in the ranks.
But when ambitious Martin Davey, Ohio tree surgeon and onetime Congressman, tried to draft Woodrow Wilsons Secretary of War for the primary, Mr. Baker sat down hard on the idea. He would not let his name go on the ballot. He insisted that "all hands" favored Governor White. He went on about his Cleveland law practice as if he had never heard of the Presidency. Mr. Davey, no friend of Governor White, was accused of promoting the Baker boom more to hurt White than to nominate Baker.
"How to Become President." By such behavior Mr. Baker, deliberately or not, was making himself more available than if he had got out and grubbed for convention votes as he grubs for weeds in his garden. Besides, he was following most of the rules of "How to Become President (TIME, Nov. 24, 1930). He had a Press (Rule No. 5) in & out of Ohio. He moved about the country (Rule No. 6) showing himself, making speeches. Except for a mild touch of pneumonia in 1930, he seemed full of health (Rule No. 7). He was on good terms with his party leaders (Rule No. 3) giving generously of his time & money to their united efforts. For a political alter ego (Rule No. 1) he had no need because he was always ready and able to speak for himself.
Only on Rule No. 4 (Identify yourself early and firmly with a national issue} had Mr Baker tripped and fallen. From Wilson he had inherited the League of Nations issue on which he hammered away at every possible opportunity. Last winter he made a particularly fervent plea for U S action. Editors began to tut-tut him as a presidential possibility. Soon Mr Baker dropped his League issue like a hot cake assured the country that he would not take the U. S. in even if he had the power to do so, advised Democrats to discard the question as a partisan issue. Most people were convinced that this about-face meant that Newton Baker was a real, if inactive, candidate for the Presidency.
Lock & Logic— The speculative logic of a Baker nomination at Chicago rests squarely upon a convention deadlock such as seemed to be in the making last week. Franklin Delano Roosevelt still lacked a majority of first-ballot votes which has clinched the nomination at every convention since 1848.— Bitterly leagued against him were the Smith and Garner forces, which, with "favorite son" votes, might yet constitute a veto of Governor Roosevelt's ambition. Groggy from such a factional fight, the convention would, as it did in 1924, turn to some outsider who had not figured in the fray. At Madison Square Garden the tired delegates went to West Virginia for their man, John William Davis. At the Chicago Stadium this year they might go, via Ohio, to the same State for a compromise native son.