Evening star., 1924-06-15
BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.

Special Dispatch 70 The Star
| NEW YORK, June 14.-Seen in the
perspective OF forty eight hours after
| the adjournment, the Republican ma
tional convention looms up as proud as
a plug hat and as futile. II is highly
respected, but no more important than
| its ticket and candidates, together one
| and inseparable. The candidates run the
gamut from frigid New England con-
/ servatism to hard boiled mid western
reaction. The platform is nondescript
where it should be definite, and definite
where it will do no good to be cocksure.
| For instance. to illustrate the plank on
/ the tariff probably means that the Tariff
Commission shall investigate schedules
! and increase or decrease tariff rates in
accordance with the fact. The platform
! as read by the chairman in the conven-
ton spoke of decreasing the rates If
| Invesu cation warranted IL, but the
! printed platform only speaks of ncreas-
ing the rates, and nothing is said about
| the Tariff Commission doing the in
vestigating Yet the plank follows the
general lines OF those drafted by the
! liberal members of the Tariff Commits
sion. On transportation nothing definite
is outlined. Senator Capper or Senator
Brookhart could stand on the Repub
| lican transportation plank and defy the
east.
Other planks Indefinite.
| A whole agricultural bloc could be
organized on the railroad plank. 1t
! seems to mean something, but it is
just words The convention went wild
over Mr.. Mellon, author of the Mel
| Ions income tax plan. But the plat
form left the western insurgents free
to vote against any Mellon plan as
often as they please. The child labor
amendment is merely submitted to
| the states for consideration" 1t is not
indorsed. Any one can take any po
sition upon child labor and be a Re-
| publican, as he may take any position
on the labor question, and be a Re
publican. The most definite stand
taken on any question is taken upon
the question OF foreign relations.
There the Republicans are rather def
nitely put back to the position of the
reServationists of 1919. We are told
that America will not join the league.
and no sane American desires America
to join the league as it is now consti-
tuted. but no prohibition from joining
the league if it mends its ways and
| its constitution is held in the Repub-
| lican platform. More than that we
are recommended to join the world
court, which is being organized by
the league. Still more than that we
/ the next four years as Harding has
been recognizing it in the last three
years by cooperating with its vari-
Gus commissions, and considering its
| reports.
Definite in SiIences.
! The league plank is definite in its
! silence, in what il does not say. 1t
! leaves little room for the irreconcil-
able to function in Congress as
! Republican. He will have to organize
| his own little bloc.
But there again the one absolute
| ly definite plank in tho platform pro-
hibits blocS. And much good it will
| do. 1t seems TO be aimed at the
westerners who sailed out and join
| ed with the Democrats to secure legis-
| lation demanded by their constituents.
| That plank was the prize plug hat in
| the stock. When the platform makers
and written that plank they felt they
had said something. As a matter of fact
| that is the least stable of their dec
| larations. The kind of men it is
aimed at will laugh at it. Imagine
Brookhart of Iowa for instance pay
ing the slightest attention to that
plank. He wants his job. He will do
what he thinks his constituents want
/ him to do that he may keep his JOB,
! and all the planks aimed against
| blocs in the world will not affecI him.
| He will be a Republican and u radical
| in spite of the conservative ticket and
| the nondescript platform.
There is no way to keep western
| Republicans from voting for men on
| the Republican ticket IL they ike
| the men. And there Is no way to
keep those men when they get hack
| to Congress, from voting as they