Washington, May 29.
'The Republican National Convention which will assemble in Chicago on June 8 for the purpose choosing the Republican candidate for the presidency at the election on November 2 next, and tke Democratic National' Convention which will be held at San Francisco on June 98 and following days for the selection of the Democratic candidate, will both be strikingly differentiated from all previous political conventions, In neither case is there the slightest possibility of forecasting the result of the assembly's deliberations. There not even the proverbial straw to show which way the wind blows, and the most sagacious politician is in no better a position to judge who will lead the two great parties—the one to victory and the other to defeat—than the man in the street.
But this is not in itself a matter for serious concern, either from a public or a_ partisan standpoint. Neither is it, except that it ap. plies equally to both assemblies, a situation entirely without. precedent, The outstanding featu of the situation and the one fraught with the most serious possibil is the fact that both parties contain elements, numerous, power ful and aggressive, tending towards disruption, and the adoption the "platforms" or declarations of principles on which the two candidates must' stand will inevitably lead to bitterness and not im possibly to the nomination of a thir candidate. perhaps both an independent Republican and independent Democrat.
How tre Treaty Stanps, So far as can be determined without a referendum, a large majority of the Republicans of "he country are in favour of the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, including the League Nations, but only with reservations that would entirely free the Unite! States from even a moral obliga tion in connexion with it. As was shown in the—Senate, a powerful and—_ aggressive minority of the party are opposed to the treaty in any form whatever, modified or unmodified, and these have the support of the Irish, the Germans and the pacifists, the last-mentioned being only another name for pro-Germans. Lastly there is that small section of the party, high in character but ncinerically unimportant, who would accept the treaty just as it is and who uphold President Wilson notwithstanding the mistakes he has made.
There is not the remotest _possibility of a single good word being said for the Treaty of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.