Evening star., 1924-07-05
SECTIONAL ISSUE
RAISED 3 TIMES
Bitterness of Present Situa-
ton Promises to Preclude
Harmony,
KLAN INJECTION FATAL
Underwood, Davis, Baker and Rob.
I inson Are Likeliest Com
promises.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

NEW YORK, July 5.-East is east
and west is west, and apparently
never the twain shall meet in Demo-
cratic politics. The age-old fight for
control waged by Tammany Hall and
it's affiliated organizations of boss
leadership in New Jersey. Massachu-
setts and Illinois came to a head in
the Clark Wilson fight of 1912 and
again in the San Francisco conven-
tion of 1920. and today it is the un-
derlying reason for the deadlock
which has prevented the Democratic
national convention from making a
presidential nomination after two weeks
of acrimonious sessions.
Bitterness, however, is of unprece-
dented intensity. Discourtesy to each
other almost to the point of contempt.
anger and wrath, which has at times
almost resulted in fist fights, has CIV
en- the convention plenty OF excite
ment, but little promise of harmony
even when nominations shall have
been made.
Khan Issue Fatal.
The alibis and excuses are numerous.
He who would be impartial cannot
but recognize that in many respects
the leaders have acted like lot of
schoolboys. The injection of the Ku
k1ux klan issue has been fatal Try
as they might. the McAdoo delegates
cannot erase the impression that they
have been supported by the Klan.
Try as they might, the Smith dele
gates cannot conceal the fact that
they believe most of the anti-Smith
sentiment is nothing more nor less
than an anti-Catholic feeling. 1t has
gone to such a point that many lead
ers openly say the Democratic ticket
will be deserted by Catholics general
McAdoo. To this William Jennings
Bryan answers that he sees no reason
why a man should be nominated.
meaning smith, because of his church.
and he says that is how the situation
is rapidly developing.
Sectional Feeling Evident.
The stubbornness that has been
keeping the deadlock tight and tends
to make it tighter is, however, not
altogether the Protestant-Catholic
feeling which has been engendered
here. The McAdoo delegates from
western and southern states insist
that they have been furnishing cleo
toral votes to the Democratic ticket
more often than have New York.
Pennsylvania. New Jersey, Connecti-
cut, Illinois and Massachusetts, which
Smiths nomination.
Certainly Pennsylvania never goes
Democratic and Illinois almost never.
But to this hte Smith men make reply
that the reason the big states do not
go Democratic is that they never
have a candidate who appeals to- the
eastern states, whereupon the Nc
Adoo leaders retort that the east
would not support even Woodrow
Wilson in 1916 and that the states
which contributed to the Democratic
victory that .year-namely, the west
and south-skculd have the right to
name the party leader here.
AS if the Klan issue and the sec
tional feeling were not enough. the
attitude of the convention toward
party has been hardly one of cour-
tesy. The Smith men Kissed and jeer-
ed and booed William Jennings
Bryan, three times the nominee of
his party, and then when the Smith
people wanted the New York gov
ernor to address the convention the
McAdoo delegates did the titfor-tat
stunt and refused to vote for the in
vitation. so it was lost.
Smiths Friends Bar Speech.
Even Mr.. McAdoo wrote a letter to
the convention urging that Smith be
permitted to speak. but the gov
ernor's friends were so angry they
oOJecteQ TO a recOnS1deratlOn. Inc
truth is, the McAdoo delegates
thought the invitation to have the
governor speak was unfair.
The convention had Just voted
down a proposal to have all the can
didates speak and the Smith men,
for some reason or other. not yet
explained. then put in another reso-
luton, inviting Gov. Smith alone. Il
was freely remarked by Smith men
that the object of the move was to
put the McAdoo men 'in a hole,
since they couldn't, it was believed.
refuse to hear, the governor of the
state in which the convention was
being held, particularly when it was
his own home town. But they did.
And they said that if the governors s
friends wanted to have him address
the convention in his capacity as
governor, and not as a candidate, he
should have been put on the program
at the outset with Mayor Hylan, and
that the issue should not have been
raised after a week of speechmaking
and sixty or more ballots.
And so the quarrel has run, and
no matter who made the mistakes
of strategy, the result is the same.
There is no spirit of conciliation, no
u