Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-23
Southern Drys.


er, general counsel of the Anti-Saloon
League Of America. that if the Demo
Gratis should nominate Gov. Al Smith
Of New York. who Is a wet, dry Demo
Gratis would be given an opportunity
to VOTE for an independent dry Demo-
crat. seems to have struck a sour note
in the South. So sour, indeed, that
two prominent officials OF the Anti
Saloon League. both from the South.
have issued statements denying that
Mr.. Wheeler spoke for the league.
Bishop James Cannon, chairman of
the legislative committee Of the league
and chairman of the Board of Tenn
perance Of the Methodist Episcopal
Church South, and DR.. Arthur Barton,
chairman Of the leagues executive
committee and chairman of the com.
nittee on temperance of the Southern
Baptist Convention, are those who now
undertake to wipe out the impression
gained from Mr.. Wheeler's statement
that the league would sponsor an in.
dependent Democratic ticket in the
South If the Democrats OF the North
and East should bring about the nomi.
and DR.. Barton, in addition to being
drys, are Southern Democrats.
The charge has been made by wet
Democrats that the Anti-Saloon
League Of America is in many States
merely an adjunct of the Republican
party. The implied threat by Mr..
Wheeler to see that an independent
Democratic ticket was placed in the
field if Smith were nominated has been
seized upon as proof that the league
will play into the hands Of the Repub.
iicans. Senator Edwards, dripping wet
Democrat from New Jersey. after the
Wheeler statement, sought to drive
home this charge, which he has made
many times in the past.
1t requires no soothsayer to predict
that two Democratic tickets in the
field, one wet and the other dry, spell
crushing defeat for the Democrats. It
requires no seer to predict that such
a split might keep the Democrats out
IF power for many. many years; might,
indeed. so disrupt the party as to make
its demise only a question of time.
The Democratic party put two tickets
IN the field the last time in 1895. thirty
one years ago. Bryan, the silver.
tongued silver Democrat, was the reg
ular nominee of the party and Senator
Palmer Of Illinois, a gold Democrat,
ran as an independent Democrat for
President. Mckinley was triumphant.
" elected by the Republicans, although
many silver Republicans in the West
split from their party and followed
the Bryan banner. Palmer polled only
131 900 votes, it is true, but his noni.
nation as a gold Democrat served to
emphasize the wide divergence of
views in his party. Many gold Demo.
Gratis went the whole route and voted
for Mckinley. But those who could not
stomach the idea of voting a Republi-
can ticket cast their ballots for Pal
mer.
The Democrats learned the futility
Of placing more than one ticket in
the field in 1860, too, when Abraham
Lincoln carried the country for the
Republicans. Indeed, it has been fatal
for any political party to divide its
strength at the polls in this country.
The Republicans discovered this in
1912, when Theodore Roosevelt led
the Progressive wing Of the G. o. P.
into the Bull Moose pasture.
Mr.. Wheeler's suggestion that the
South might put up dry, independent
Democrat, therefore, has fallen upon
Democratic ears in the South as a
discordant note. The Democrats Of the
South do not relish the idea that the
Anti-Saloon League shall nominate or
undertake to nominate presidential
candidates for them, at least in SO
0nan a manner