Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-07-15
LABOR WING SEXES
CONVENTION RE|NS;
LAND TAKERS BOLT
New Platform Is Being
Drafted to Suit Senator
La Toilette, Probable
Presidential Nominee

CHICAGO, July Ex-senator Ii
Toilette does not "deem himself
avaiiab1s as candidate for the new
party presidential nominee" He sent
word to the convention that he dc
not want the nomination.
CHICAGO, July 1.-THE amalga-
mated liberal convention, after a
morning Of parliamentary jockeying
by its leaders to hold delegates in
check while the platform committee
worked fevertshly in an eleventh-hour
effort to write a new platform to sat
isfy Senator Robert NJ. La Toilette
adjourned at 1850 o'clock today to
2 o'clock when the platform was ex-
pected to be reported.
The convention decided to adjourn
following an announcement from the
conference committee that complete
new draft was being prepared.
Frank j. Esper, secretary of the
Labor party, said the platform would
be agreeable to all groups.
The Labor party, it was said, de-
cided to make concessions on the
platform to the Committee Of Forty
Eight, when Gilbert Roe, represent
ing La Toilette, told them the SEN
ator would not stand On the one pro-
posed.
Robert NJ Buck, member of the
executive committee Of the Labor
party, who is leading the laborites
in their fight for naturalization of
mines and railroads with Democratic
control, it was said, made the peace
offer to the Forty Fighters. He ap-
peared at a meeting Of Forty Eight
leaders at the Hotel Morrison and
told them he was ready to accept
amendments to the draft as prepared
overnight.
Convention Strikes snag
Hopes for the survival of the new
fusion party were at ebb tide as the
all-night conference of the new
body's resolution committee dragged
along today in an effort to get to-
gether on a platform acceptable to
Senator La Toilette.
The extreme left, which yesterday
controlled the amalgamation and
forced its platform desires on the
convention, struck snag when it
met the veto power of the probable
presidential nominee of the new
party. Forty-eighters. who consti-
tute the right wing group Of the
fusion movement, are bitterly op-
posed to the more socialistic ideas of
the radical labor faction. In this
stand, they have the support not only
Of La Folltte, but of several minori-
ty organizations subscribing to the
political combination.
The first evidence of possible
breaking up of the Gew party move
ment followed last nights session
when the single takers withdrew,
adopted their one plank platform
and nominated presidential candi-
dates. For president, they chose
Robert c. MacAuley, of Philadelphia,
and for vice president they selected
r. C. Barnum, of Cleveland. They
quit the new party, Jerome c. Refs,
a single tax leader, said, because it
was not only apparent they could
not obtain their platform desires
and a candidate committed to them,
but also because they could not
stand. the socialistic ideas" Of the
dominant labor group.
Laborites Take Control
The birth of the new party yester-
day, after five days Of conferences,
was attended by tumultuous scenes
in which more than once the fledg-
ling movement faced shipwreck on
the rocks of Jealousies and group
antagonisms. In the very begin
ming, the Labor party organization
grabbed the rudder and steered the
course until consideration of the plat
form resolutions was begun. Several
planks had been read and approved
when Forty-eighters began to inter-
pose strenuous objections to their
relegation to the background.
a There followed quickly demands
for revision of the procedure by
which the resolutions were being
passed. Leaders Of the Forty-eight
delegation insisted on a more prom
i-Hnt position in the proceedings. In
s~a effort to placate the angry dele
Gates, the Labor leaders surrendered
r-e Craftsmanship to Farley Christen-
sen, of Utah, who presided over the
original Forty-eight convention.
The concession failed utterly, how
ever, to iron out the widely divergent
views on platform planks. AS a re-
suit, the fusion movement was again
placed in practically the same posi-
ton in which it had been during
more than fifty hours Of backing and
pulling in conference committees.
Forty-eighters then played their
trump card when they brought Sen
ator La Follette's influence to bear
and demanded platform concessions
before their presidential candidate
would consent to make the race.
Questions of naturalization of es-
sential industries and plank dealing
with foreign relations were the prin-
cipal stumbling blocks. La Follette's
representatives held out strongly
against inclusion of these planks as
dictated by the Labor party.
Two possibilities, therefore, stood
out today: First, that for the sake
of harmony the Labor leaders may
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