Evening star., 1927-12-06

| The election of the two new mem
hers of the national committee from
! Wisconsin today gave that state rep
rasentation in the national committee
! for the first time SINCE 1924. In tha'
wear the two Wisconsin members ol
! the committee were ardent supporters
! of the late Senator La Toilette. TheN
| resigned from the committee to follo"
the fortunes OF Senator La Toilette
who ran as an independent canuidate
| for President. AS vacancies could bt
| filled only hy the Republican state
| COMMITTEES and that committee was II
| the hands of the La Toilette group
| the vacancies were not filled. Recently
| the Republican State committee ol
| Wisconsin chose Mr.. Wits ana Mrs
| Thomas to represent the state on tht
committee. and today's action OF the
committee ratified those selections.
| proponents of the various cities
seeking the convention buSily can
vassed members Of the national COM
mittee TODAY. MIR. Crocker, repre-
senting the interest of San Francisco,
declared that he would never quit the
fight and that he still hopes to be
able to swing the committee TO that
city.
Many members OF the committee,
| however were agreed that Kansas
CITY, as the heart of the Middle West
and The disgruntled farming section.
was the best selection from polltl-
cal point of view. Several members
| of the committee also took the view
that San Francisco was too far from
the center of the country and would
| require too great sacrifices to he feast
BILE and practicable for the national
convention.
Butler Action Denounced.
The fight in the committee against
| Chairman Butler because he declared
publicly that he favored Kansas City
| for the convention broke out in the
open today as the committeeman be-
| gan to hear formal arguments from
| those cities seeking the convention.
Two committeeman issued state
ments to the effect that it was not
in the province of the chairman to
attempt 10 swing the convention to
| any one city, While headquarters of
Cleveland. Chicago. San Francisco and
other cities in the race expressed sur
prise and some anger that the chair
man had not remained neutral.
| Harrison Garnett. committeeman
from North Dakota. an advocate OF
Detroit for the convention, declared
| that it was not necessary for any
committeeman to follow the sugges
ton of Butler. and that he was greatly
displeased that the chairman had
shown a preference. James f. Da
| wilson, national committeeman fol
Michigan. asserted that Buffers state
| ment was "provoking." He added thai
Michigan would resent the chairman n
| interference. especially since he had
pledged earlier that he would not take
part in the contest.
Continuing the fight which he
started last night after Mr.. Butler :
| preference had been made known
| Mr.. Crocker mingled among the mem
bets of fhe committee with any
thing but complimentary references
! to Mr.. Buffers action. He told
| the committeeman that the chair
mans preference for Kansas City was
in direct violation of an earlier pledge
that he would remain neutral and
insisted that the Butler statement
was not occasioned by any interces
sion from the White House.
Sounds Call to Battle.
Chairman Butler in his opening ad-
!
sued a call to battle. 'The Repub'
,ican party, he said, must base its
expectation of success in the next gen
eral elections not upon weakness or
| a division in the ranks of the oppOsi-
tion. but upon party unity and sound
policies aggressively presented by its
own organiZa ton"
| The achievements of the Coolidge
administration. Chairman Butler said
present record with which the party
may go to the country with every
hope of success in the campaign OF
1928. The great prosperity of the
people and the country under the Re
publican rule. he predicted, would
make strong appeal to the voters.
| He warned the party leaders, how
ever, against too great relian on the
strength shown in 1924. He referred
to President Coolidge's recent address
before the Union League of Phiadel
phia in which the President declared
that the test of the nation is in its
ability to stand prosperity.
Il would like to say" continued Mr.
| Butler, that the ability to stand pros
perty Is also the greatest possible
test of strength of a political organi
| zation."
The chairman appealed to the part,
chieftains to do their utmost to ge
out the vote, after he had voiced hi.
thanks for the loyal support which ha!
been given him by all the members
| of the committee.
THE Republican party" said Mr.
Butler, has never suffered from
stirring up of public interest in th'
affairs of our Government.
Plea for Organization.
There has not been a time whel
the people became really aroused owe
national issues, when they began seri
ousiy to discuss public policies, whel
parties and their leaders were tosse'
into the arena of public debate ant
made to defend themselves that tn
Republican party has suffered. tn
experiences of past national and stat
campaigns point very clearly TO tn
conclusion that we cannot afford Il
enter a campaign unprepared. pOorl.
organized, overconfdent indiiferen
| to the issues, relying upon the ex
pectation Of division of the opposition
rather than upon the militant SOL
darity of our own organization an
the logic and wisdom of our owl
policies.
I'VE have before lis a problem o
pub!ic Indifference to the affairs o
government. with civi. lethare'
that Is steadily increasing the per
centage of the stay-at-home vote
Taking the total voting population &C
cording TO each Federal census, be
ginning with 1880. and the official re
turns Of the vote east in the presiden
tial elections in census-taking years
or the presidential elections neares
TO demonstrating years, we find tha
in 1850 70.7 per cent of the toia
eligible vote was polled; in 1888, g..
per cent; in 1900, 65.7 per cent: II
1912, s6 per cent; in 1920, AL pc
, cent This slump in participating cit
Zenship was checked in the preside