The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-10
COP. HOSTS MAIN AIN PLACID AIR Gavel Falls Today On Greatest Conclave In
 History ONLY FIGHT LOOMS FOR SECOND PLACE Platform Shaped With out Slightest Degree
 Of Friction KHAN CHIEF DENIES WATSON RUMORS Lodge Quietly Showed Aside By His Massachusetts
 Delegation
KHAN CHIEF DENIES
 WATSON RUMORS
(By Associated Press.)

CLEVELAND, Ohio, June g. The first class contest over, the vice presidency has given the re- publican national convention its first smell of the smoke of battle.
 The fall of, the gayel at the open ing session tomorrow morning will find President Coolidge's nomina- tion virtually an accomplished fact, and the major tenets of the party platform as good as agreed upon but the race for second place on the ticket will still be anybody's.
 Almost a score of full-fledged vice presidential booms were active ly under way tonight and the pass ing of the hours appeared to com plicate rather than clarity the sit- uation. The name of Secretary Hoover was heard more and more often in the swirl of convention eve speculation, but no one seemed to know whether the tide really was turning to him or whether 1t was only one of those of unorganized drifts of opinion that get nowhere.
 Frank O. Lowden, despite his reit- erated refusal to be candidate still was declared in the running by those who are insisting that the party should put him on the ticket hy an exercise Of the draft. z
 Wait Tn Vain
 Mir. Hoover is said by his supporters, who include some of those high in the councils of the administrations, to be one of the candidates eminently accept able to President Coolidge. But the same Is being said of others and the delegates waited throughout today in vain for any word from the Coolidge managers definitely indicating a prefer ence.
 The list of those whose names were linked with the vice presidency in the day's discussion and gossip reached large proportions. There was a revival of talk for Senator Borah of Idaho, al- though his fri1Eds said definitely he would not accept. Senator Curtis was strongly indorsed by some scattered groups, although delegates from his own state of Kansas voted 9 to for Brig. Gen. Charles c. Dawes with the odd vote going to Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana. There was much intangible talk of Dr. Marion Leroy Burton of Michigan, but it was conceded that his strength probably could not be accur- ately assessed until after he appears before the convention Thursday to make the nominating speech for Coolidge.
 Iowans talked of three possible cam didates from their state, Judge w. s. Kenyon, Representative l.. J. Dickin- son and former Representative John W. Goode. Minnesota indorsed Charles H. March and the California delegation pushed their boom for c, c. Chapman. Others whose partisans continued at work among the delegations included Governor Hyde of Missouri, Charles B. Warren of Michigan, ambassador to Mexico Senator Jones of Washington, Governor Dixon of Montana, Maj. Gen. James G. Harbord, former deputy chief of staff of the army, and Maj. Gen. Frank T. Hines, director of the Vet erans' bureau.
 Quickly Denied
 For the most part the discussion of vice presidential candidates proceeded with that calm which has been the characterizing feature of the pre-con- vention period, but it provided one sen sation in the form of a statement given out and quickly denied, indorsing Sen ator Watson of Indiana for second place on the ticket on behalf of Dr. H. W. Evans, imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The pronouncement was made by Milton Elrod, a former
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