San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-11-08


FIGHT SIXTEEN HOURS. :
At the time the committee was ap
pointed the papers published a plat
form which was described as the plat
form agreed upon by the leaders of tn,
party. 1t was not strange that i hau
not seen the platform for / was not
counted among the leaders by thost
in control Of the convention, and il
was not supposed that ! would have
any influence in the writing of the
platform.
had gone over this platform and
marked the planks to which l object
ed and had this copy with me wheu
the full committee met to consider the
work Of the subcommittee. took my
place at the table not far from Sen
ator Daniels. and we began the most
memorable contest through which
have ever. passed. From 8 o'clock III
the evening until noon the next day
sixteen hours-the battle ragged over
the wording Of that platform.
VIRTUALLY WRITES PLAT
FORM. ,-..
As we took up plank after plank,
/ moved to strike out and to substi'
tute. and as fortune would have it,
l succeeded in securing a majority for
each proposition so that when the
platform was through, / had written a
great deal more of it than / did Of
the Chicago platform upon which
myself ran. l did not get into the
platform all that / wanted, but wirh
the help of a majority. of the com
mittee, 1 kept out of the platform
everything l objected to.
The fight over the gold plank at
tracted the most attention although
the majority against the gold plank
was larger than the majority against
any other plank stricken out. The
vote, as / recall it. was 80 or 80 to
10. Nearly all of the Southern mem
bers voted against this plank.
While l voted against it, 1 did not
take much part in the argument, be-
cause there were plenty of Parker men
TO talk against it. At one time Sena
tor Daniels, who was urging the
plank, asked if any Democrat thought
the adoption of the plank would weak
en- the party in his state. More than
half of the committee arose, among
them some of Mr.. Parker's staunchest
supporters. r. ..
FIGHT GOLD PLANK. sf- -
During the course of the discussion
| asked Senator Hill when he had
decided that the gold plank should be
inserted in the platform. He replied
that he had reached that decision only
few days before the convention.
In asking the question 1 thought
that he might answer that he had be-.
lieved so for months. and 1 then in
tended TO ask him why it was not in
serted in the New York platform
that platform having been silent upon
the subject.
His answer. however. showed that
it was n newly conceived purpose. /
also asked him what Judge Parker's
views were on the subject and he said
that he did not know.
asked him if he had ever talked
with Judge Parker on the subject and
he said he had not. This seemed re-
markable to me and it struck the con-
vention in the same way when the
conversation was reported to the con-
vention.
MONEY ISSUE IGNORED.
I saw that it was impossible to Sc
cure the insertion of any money plank,
and did not, therefore, spend much
time in urging it. consented to a
plank suggested by Senator Carmack
which stated that the cumulative
theory of money had been established
and that the increase in the volume Of
money had removed the money from
the arena of politics. But that plank
was objected to by Senator Hill, and
seeing that the best we could do was
to prevent any expression on the sub
Ject, we contented ourselves with leav-
ing out the money question entirely.
l urged plank in favor of the in
come tax, but while nearly every men,
Der of the committee. excepting Sen
ator Hill, expressed himself as in ia
vor of the income tax. a considerable
majority opposed the insertion of the