Third Term Talk

Besides functioning officially as President of Columbia Univesity, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler is a Wet Republican and, on occasion, political dogmatist. Last week he strode into a small routine meeting of the Riverside Republican Club in Manhattan, said that President Coolidge will "declare his unwillingness" to accept the Republican 1928 nomination, that Republicans who try to force a third term on the President are looking for fatal trouble, that only a Wet Republican can carry necessary New York State against Governor Smith or Governor Ritchie, that Prohibition ought to be the issue in 1928.

Democrats, tickled, cheered for more speeches by Dr. Butler, pointed to the fact that he had recently visited President Coolidge. Republicans chided meddlesome Dr. Butler for hinting at his own 1928 "availability." Senator Borah offered to quell him in a debate on Prohibition. Leslie M. Shaw, Secretary of the Treasury under Roosevelt, did some constitutional hairsplitting* to show that Calvin

Coolidge is now serving his first term as President.

Meanwhile, President Coolidge carefully ignored all third term questions which Washington correspondents presented to his Official Spokesman. Out of the silence, however, rises one strong, widely held feeling--that if Calvin Coolidge wants the 1928 nomination he can have it.

*Mr. Shaw's argument is that Mr. Coolidge continued to be Vice President with the added duties of President when Mr. Harding died. Said he: "The framers of the Constitution made clear provision that no man shall be President of the United States of America unless and until he is elected to that particular office in the manner provided in the Constitution. The duties of that office, under certain circumstances, but not the office, may fall upon the Vice President."