National Affairs: ' I Charge

Pinchot v. Pepper v. Vare for the Republican nomination for Senator from Pennsylvania heads the list of spring political battles. Pinchot has the most ideas — some of them considered a little loose. Pepper has the most dignity — now and again a little heavy. Both Pinchot and Pepper are considered much more respectable than Vare, but Boss Vare is credited with knowing most about how votes are got into ballot boxes. Pinchot is conceded to be the hardest fighter. Last week he let out as follows: "I charge that perjury and forgery are now added to ballot-box stuffing, falsification of election returns and the city-wide sticker scandal of the Vare gang of Philadelphia. . . . "The Vare penmen not only forged names but invented persons. Two Vare penmen in the Sixth Division of the 32nd ward turned out a full sheet of forgeries. One wrote 29 signatures and the other 15 all copied from the street list. But instead of signing the names as any ordinary man or woman would sign, all of the names were written with the family name first, just as they appeared in the street list supplied by the Registration Commission."