A Harmonizer For The Leaders

The Washtenaw Republicans Hunting for a Moses

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POURING ON OIL

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By the Republican StateOrgan Which May Not Calm Troubled Waters of Republican Politics

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The republican situation in Washtenaw is thus sized up by the Detroit Journal, the republican organ of Michigan:

The recent death of Wm. Judson, who for some years had been the foremost figure in Washtenaw county politics, directs towards that county the slight interest in politics which may be expected on a date more than a year before the next general election. The factional fight in the republican party in that county has been notorious throughout the state for years, but as the conflict centered about Judson, it was the opinion of man leaders that his death would be followed by a restoration of harmony in that county.

It appears, however, that there is a long road to be traveled, before the jarring factions will consent to wave the olive branch. While there is a plentiful desire for peace among the rank and file, a harmonizer is needed for the leaders. There are many who are looking to Congressman Townsend of Jackson to act as mediator, probably indirectly through the chairman of his congressional committee, H. G. Prettyman, of Ann Arbor.

It looks at the present date as though the ambition of Frank P. Glazier, of Chelsea, would precipitate the next factional fight in Washtenaw. It is predicted freely by republicans that he will have abundant trouble at home in landing delegates for state treasurership, for which position he is a prominent candidate.

At present Glazier is politically not popular in Ann Arbor, and has a big recalcitrant faction on his hands among the republicans of Sylvan township, in which Chelsea is located. It is by no means certain that he can land his own county delegation to the next state convention, according to some of the leading republicans of the county seat.

The severest criticism of Glazier is based on his record in the last legislature and on his home fight. Glazier received the nomination to the state senate from a convention that pronounced emphatically in favor of primary election reform, and his campaign was made on that platform. Not only did the republicans of Washtenaw adopt strong resolutions, but they meant what they said, and wanted their representatives in he legislature to labor in that cause. Senator Glazier executed a flip-flop into the camp of the antis very soon after his arrival in Lansing, and there are republicans who claim that his agile acrobatics were inspired by a hint from the Moriarty-Doherty-Baird faction that Glazier looked to them like a wonderfully satisfactory candidate for state treasurer.

Glazier was considered by many republicans in Washtenaw the power behind the throne for the late William Judson. It is also said that when Judson was no longer useful, Glazier paved the way for his downfall by directing the spectacular and strategic evolution of William Wedemeyer and Fred Green, whereby those youthful and brilliant leaders announced that they would flock with Silent Bill no more. This proclamation on their part had a decidedly reactive effect, and brought Judson many new friends and thoroughly angered his old ones. These friends of the late Judson are said to look upon Glazier as the inspiring cause of the defection, and they have it in for him in consequence.

Still, the republicans of Washtenaw are not so bitter that harmony may not be restored under proper leadership. H. G. Prettyman is in a position to do much. Besides being personally popular, and a recognized leader in Washtenaw politics, he has never been mixed in any of the Washtenaw county fights in a way to make himself personal enemies. He has been abused for not taking sides sometimes, but his very policy of not mixing in fights places him in a position to enact the role of peacemaker. He was chairman of Glazier's senatorial committee and of the Ann Arbor city committee.

It is said that if Glazier can make terms and restore peace in his own home district of Sylvan, it will be an easy matter to bring Washtenaw county into line for him for state treasurer. One of the charges urged against Glazier is that he intervened in the supervisorship fight the last time, and when the republicans nominated a man named Bacon for supervisor in spite of him, turned out all his forces and delivered the office to the democrats.

It is said now that Glazier's first step to the state treasurership is to permit the republicans of Sylvan to nominate and elect whom they please for local offices. Thereafter, if he will be a good private in the ranks in the nomination and election of county and legislative tickets, the republicans may let him have the couny delegation to the state convention.

The primary election reform members of the party propose to fight another campaign on that issue in Washtenaw, and announce that if Glazier opposes that program they will also fight him to finish all along the line clear to the state convention. Furthermore, if he attempts to carry the county convention by he old-time Judson methods, they promise him a contesting delegation and the warmest time of his life.

In this fashion is the situation in Washtenaw described in these piping times of political peace. Congressman Townsend and his chief lieutenant, Prettyman, may, however, bring about a restoration of good feeling, if Glazier will be a little comfortable.