The chief interest in the present presidential campaign, now really in its inception, lies not so much in the personalities involved as in the threatened party disintegration. The activity of the candidates is at present in quite in verse proportion to the publicity they are receiving. The leaders, Smith, Hoover, and Dawes, although supported by popular favour and influential backing, have authorized no movement, and are still quietly at work. Yesterday, however. Ex-Governor Lowden of Illinois announced his intention of carrying the wheat belt in the interests of farm relief. Governor Ritchie's speech making tours have carried him from Maryland. Senators Reed and Curtis have made known their aspirations. But on the whole, the campaigns are still in the hands of party leaders, and recent speeches of Messrs. McAdoo and Roosevelt have called attention to the difficulties that are to ensue.

Senator Heflin's threat of deserting the Democratic party with a million of his stout henchmen, still hangs in abeyance. But if such a multitude are not ready to name that mountebank for their leader, there are enough whose sentiments concur with his, to form a very considerable block against the election of Governor Smith. The women's branch of the Democratic party has stated an equally strong determination against the nomination of an avowed wet. And it was for this wetness that Mr. McAdoo assailed the New York governor in an important address in Virginia that belied the harmony of the Jackson Day dinner, and promised much strength to the southerners who will support Senator Reed of Missouri. With this formidable entente arrayed against the eastern leaders who have fixed on Smith, it is more than likely that a party separation will occur.

True, all is not tranquil within Republican ranks. Hoover, although the popular choice, and backed by skillful politicians, is essentially a party man. Lowden's willingness not to interfere in favorite son movements indicates an attempt to draw votes from Hoover by these local choices, votes that may later be given to Dawes or Lowden. Young Mr. Roosevelt with his attacks on Smith is doing much to damage Republican prestige. Disrupting are Borah's attempts to force a plank on Prohibition. But on the whole, the Republicans' present prosperous administration gives them an inestimable advantage. And with the parties representing, as they do now, two nearly equal, mighty, and issueless machines for the nomination for president by political bosses, a split in the Democratic party would be inevitably fatal.