It is the plan of New York dry leaders to draw Senator Borah into the prohibition war in New York state. For there the issues are more clear cut than elsewhere and demand the services of experienced war horses. The issues which portend confusion for the next presidential campaign have, in the Empire state, been drawn to a head. Whereas the present concern with prohibition has been accentuated in all states by the Coolidge order bringing state officials into Federal revenue service, in New York there are two definite questions confronting the combatants. The one involves the popular referendum contemplated in that state. The other is the Senatorial campaign. And here the wets seem to have the master hand. For the leading Democrats are with them: while the present Republican incumbent, Senator Wadsworth, leans toward them. To turn their unpromising battle in an unpromising state into a crusade, the drys are seeking a champion.
In Senator Borah, they now hope to have found him. On Sunday Mr. Borah delivered a militantly dry address before the Presbyterian General Assembly in Baltimore. This circumstance, which seems to unite in him the sentiments of orthodoxy and reform, joins with his heritage from the west where the anti-saloon league did its systematic best, to make the Idaho Senator a man marked for the cause. Indeed, Mr. Borah possesses a Bryanesque build and the same loud sympathies which gave the commoner his crusading character. And both won fame from the power of invective. One cannot call the New York drys backward in recognizing the resemblance. They hope to find in Borah one who as gained note as Bryan gained it, but has not yet reaped the unpopularity that Bryan, rightly or wrongly, came to bear.
The stroke is a rather clever one, but there are considerations which lead one to expect that it may be ineffectual. The salient difference between the western independent and his Nebraska predecessor, stands in the way. Bryan knew only the politics of a presidential campaign. Otherwise his agitation was rather academic. He could mount a chatauqua platform without bothering political compeers. But Borah, now so much of a figure in the Senate, cannot enter New York politics without prudence; and prudence rather devitalizes a crusader. One is inclined to believe that Mr. Borah will value his independent reputation in the Senate, as the firm and incorruptible, to the uncertain glamour of an approach to evangelism.
These are but speculations. If they are right, the New York drys will be left to their own resources to fight the battles so clearly looming. The methods of the conflict will be of interest as are the methods of all political struggles. The results will, however, be fraught with greater significance. It is the guess of many that Prohibition will force its way into party strie in 1928 1926 in New York will help to answer the question.
