Evening star., 1924-07-08
M'AOO0 TACTICS
MASTERFUL TO END
Ruthless Strategy Will Be Ad-
mired When Wounds Heal,
White Declares.
PREDICTS EARLY BREAK
Editor Sees Definite Action by Con-
vention Shortly, With Compro-
mise Named.
PREDICTS EARLY BREAK
BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.

NE" 1ohN, July o'-rHil "ds
Monday. the eleventh day of the
great Democratic convention. it went
through the second phase of its life!
The death grapple between. Smith
and McAdoo. which characterized the
first phase, ceased early in the second
McAdoo as potential candidates
passed out during the middle of last
week. They remain as potential vic
tors. either of whom, or both, might
name a winner. 1t has been obvious
since Friday that McAdoo did not
care to name winner and that,
despite the fact that his friends had
cess. he was holding on grimly. a
deadhead upon the convention, which
paralyaed it's motion
When the history Of this conven-
tion is written it will be written
chiefly about Mr.. McAdoo. No other
man in the politics Of the past ten
years has put such splendid mana
gerial brains into convention STRAIT
egy as Mr.. McAdoo has put into this
contest in the last two weeks.
Beat Senators at Game.
Beside him the senators in the
Democratic party have been a bunch
of butterfingered outfielders from
the bush trying to play in the big
league game. Their game was to
beat Smith. because he could not win
at the polls and would carry them
down to defeat. Also. they wished
10 defeat McAdoo for somewhat the
same reason, but chiefly because they
feared his domination. distrusted him
and could not do teamwork with him.
SO they started out early in the con-
Vention to eliminate him. He had
$50 votes and he handled them with
Napoleonic daring and insight into
the heart of the game ne has used
enectively every strategy known to
polltics Never has he waved in his
falth in himself. Never has he per-
m1tted the psychology of defeat to
touch his followers.
When his enemy made a noise in
the newspapers he made a move on
the checker board to confuse them
he called his reserves. deployed his
iorces, went up and down the ballot
ing ladder with ease. whenever going
up or down helped his cause His
managers were mere window Dress
ing; McAdoo himself had the goods
and delivered it.
Cnder the tremendous handicap of
the Doheny revelations. under the
pressure or an organized campaign
against him. in the face of a hostile
and implacabfe press, in a community
that Missed and booed him from its
galleries. he has fought fight which
must call for the respect of his ad-
Versary. when the pain of the blows
at the beginning of what seems to be
the last phase of the convention,
defeated man. he is holding the dead
lock by the sheer force of his ruth
less will.
When McAdoo gives the signal. or
when his will breaks. the deadlock
will crash in a few ballots 1t was
after the eightieth ballot when the
band in one of those moments of
devilish prescience which have char
Once in Blue Moon" to signalize
the fact that no major political con-
vention on this continent has ever
cast eighty ballots for anything.
Soon afterward the omnibus first
signs of the cracking of the deadlock
were manifest. Time and again dur
ing the morning the leaders offered
various resolutions which would
break the deadlock. and the resolu-
tions were defeated Obviously
every delegate in the convention
wanted to break the deadlock, yet
when a resolution was put up which
surely would break it, the delegates
en- masse said no. 1t was because
each delegate had to decide with his
own wisdom how to vote. He had no
leaders to follow. So he voted for
the status quo during four long hours
whenever a resolution came up that
would break it,
Even Galleries DaAed.
The convention sat dazed, glass
eyed. spellbound, in front of the prob
lem which its madness had made. The
galleries also were tanned. All day
long they sat without a boo or a hiss