The Wheeling Intelligencer

COX HANDICAPPED IN COMING
ATTEMPT TO TAKE AGGRESSIVE
Character of the Democratic
Leaders and Forces That
Wrought His Nomination
Does Not Strengthen His
Candidacy
By MARK SULLIVAN
(Copyright, 1920, by N Y Evening Post)
Washington, July 31--Next Saturday,
August 7, when Mr. Cox makes his acceptance speech, will be the next opportunity we shall have of getting light on
what are to be the issues of the campaign.
That those issues are not yet
formulated, in the public mind is clear.
But with the delivery of Mr Cox's acceptance speech, we shall have the last
of those formal public utterances--the
platforms, the notification speeches and
the acceptance speeches -which are supposed to set out the issues of the campaign
It may be that even after Cox's
speech next Saturday the issues will
still be unformed, and that it will still
be impossible to forecast just what issues the voter will have in mind when
he casts his ballot in November. It is
conceivable that the election may turn
on issues not yet foreseen, or on events
that may occur during the coming
weeks It is even possible that the election may turn on more the personalities of the two men
One possibility that strikes us as easy to happen would be
for the presidential election to ignore
great national issues and to be decided
by the aggregate of the activities of the
local candidates for congress in the 435
districts of the country.
Democrats Uncertain Too
For the lack of crystallization so far
there are several reasons For one, the
Republican party was taken by surprise
when Cox was nominated, and has not
yet adjusted itself as to how best to
meet that particular nomination
The
Republicans expected that McAdoo
would be the nominee, and were fully
prepared and eager to tie McAdoo up to
Wilson and then make "Wilson and Wilsonism" the issue.
The Republicans
have not yet recovered from the surprise the Democrats gave them by failing to name McAdoo and naming Cox.
The Republicans seem even now, at
the end of nearly a month, a little
staggered and disorganized In a half-hearted way the Republican managers
and the Republican papers are still
talking Wilson
It is clear, however,
that that issue of a personality about
to pass from public life cannot possibly afford enough vitality to last out
the campaign
The Republicans will
have to find another issue
Another reason for the uncertainty
in that the Democrats are, so far, a
little uncertain about exploiting and
capitalizing that issue which was most
responsible for Cox's nomination and
was definitely in the minds of those
who nominated him
The nomination of Cox was brought
about chiefly those anti-League
(Continued on Page Four.)