Evening star., 1924-06-24
M'ADO0 FORCES
CONSIDER B0LT|NC
1t Given Unfair Deal They
Might Go to La Toilette,
Enthusiast Declares.
KLAN ISSUE RUNS HIGH
Other Questions Falling Into
Eclipse for Time Being as
Bigotry Blazes Away.
BY FREDERICK WILLIAM VILE.

BY FREDERICK WILLIAM VILE.
NEW YORK, June 24.-Amid ex-
ternal calm and limitless enthusiasm,
OUT saturated through and through
with strife and enmity, the Demo-
cratic national convention at length
Is unoer way. If it ends as 1t has be-
, sun' IN apparent harmony, it will
mean that the age of miracles is not
past. Few conclaves of any great
party ever swung into action amid an
atmosphere so heavily charged with
'ne dynamite of discord. From the
principal storm center, the besieged
McAdoo camp, there already ema-
mates the warning of a bolt if its
leader is worsted in an unfair fight.
MGAdoo.s friends say he is ready to
Ldke licking, administered by hon
loes IN an honest combat. But il
cAooo Is slaughtered" his parti-
revenge.
Ihey would not shrink. under GER
,,aina ain ctrcumstances that may be i'm
ttiLlnent at New York, from turning
aneir packs on the Democratic party
ana marching en- bloc into the lines
Wnere Robert NJ. La Follette's forces
are armlng for battle. Assurances
10 the writer by one of McAdoo's clos
est Ihough most fanatical supporters.
Drive Against McAdoo.
Inc drive against McAdoo and the
hu kluX Khan dominates the OPEN
ing hourS of the convention. They
are the twin paramount issues. There
are other issues of prime Importance,
IKE the league of nations and prohi-
bltion. But until McAdoo and the
hian are disposed of, nothing else
they are a pair of birds which the
massed opposition thinks it can kill
with one stroke.
Prohibition links UP with them, too.
Tor McAdoo is acclaimed by his ad
IS of the situation-pro gressivism.
Protestantism and prohibition. The
California representatives platform
committee will fight like lions to
keep the Democratic magma charta
liberal, not specifically anti -klan and
dry. William Jennings Bryan sees
eye to eye with McAdoo on that
trinity of propositions. He will sup
port them with fire and fervor in the
resolutions committee and renew his
crusade, if necessary, on the conven-
tion floor
Democratic leaders don't know
whether to rejoice or regret that the
religious issue has been permitted to
become the F'rankenStein monster Of
the convention. 1t has been the fash
ion to wish that it should be thrash
ed out here and now. once and for
ALL but in the presence of the sharp
ened knives and the bolomen and the
rumble and roar Of clashing ideas. the
more sagacious chieftainS wonder
whether the Klan should, after all,
have been allowed to achieve sky
scraper dimensions.
Effect on Irish
They wonder. for instance, where
IL is going to lease the Irish Democ-
racy,'' which Gov. Al Smith persona
fieS.
They wonder if the vast voting
population represented by Tom
Walsh of Montana and Dave Walsh
of Massachusetts and the other big
loins may not quit Madison Square
Garden next week Cor the week after)
embittered and enraged. They Won
der if Smith is turned down for the
presidential nomination and. with
him a definite anti-klan plank, if the
Democrats of the Catholic faith may
not consider themselves rebuked and
rebuffed and turn to Coolidge and
ton and revenge. If a great party
ever was perched on the horns of a
dilemma, that shaky pinnacle is to-
day occupied by the Democra ats in
convention here assembled
The league Of nations forces, which
are marching almost exclusively un-
der an Ohio banner, are now in the
field in the full panoply of battle
Their candidate is James NJ. Cox, in
trepid crusader in the lost cause of
1920. Their spokesman is Newton D.
Baker, former Secretary of War, who
will place Cox in nomination for the
presidency. Their chief of staff is
John Hessin Clarke, former associate
Judge and president of the League of
Nations Nom Partisan Association.
Their alder and abettor-though far
from the scene of conflicts Col.
Edward NJ. House, Woodrow Wilson's
right bower at Paris and Versailles.
House Prepares Plank.
Col House has placed in the ma
tional committees hands, for presen-
ing for the entry of America into
the league of nations as an 'asso-
ciate member" on terms which shall
"in no way commit the country to the
covenant"
Thus, in Col. Houses words, 1.-The
fears of the timid could be dispelled
regarding a Super-state and an en-
tangling alliance" The Democratic
convention is full of timid souls,
though not of the kind House en-
vfsages Their timidity has less to
do with super-states and entangling
alliances than with 1924 political ex-
pediency. They are men who don't
believe in any unnecessary fooling
WIFI explosives lhCS lne
league demonstrated its vote losing
capacity so effectively in 1920 that its
friends ought not to ask the Demo-
cratic party this year to do anything
but damn it with faint praise. In
the widely divergent views prevalent
in Madison Square Garden on the
league are the seeds of strife almost
as violent as the klan controversy.
Again, 1t is contest between the
pussyfooters and the straight-from-
the soulderites. AS this is likely
to be a convention Of compromises,
they probably will begin with the
league and the Klan.
Davis Looks Best.
Presidential fortunes huctuate from
here to here, almost from minute to
minute. This observer has no reason to
alter his conviction, previously expressed.
that John w. Davis of West Virginia
will be the nominee. The writer has no
monopoly of this belief. 1t is almost the
one bit of crystal-gazing that is more
or less universally INDUCED in at New
York Down the homeStretch OF the con-
yention, when present-hour leaders and
fayorite sons have run their respective
courses, most authorities at Madison
Square Garden see dashing toward the
winning post two outstanding figures.
One is John w. Davis and the other
Samuel M Ralston of Indiana. One is
almost the youngest entry in the race.
the other nearly the eldest Youth has a
habit of being served. 1t Is expected to