Evening star., 1928-04-11

We have with us now the quadren-
NAL pre-convention season OF tall claims
and smiling confidence. II Is the glad
some springtime OF presidential politics,
when all In over but the shouting.
Neither party and no candidate has a
monopoly of the rose-strewn path. Mid
April finds both Herbert Hooyerites and
Al Smithites treading 1t. The Repnhli-
can convention at Kansas City is nine
weeks away: the Democratic conciave
at Houston is eleven weeks on. But
chickens are being counted In both
laenneries with gay abandon. DIR. Work,
chief optimist OF the Hoover camp, no"
has STA delegates safely tucked away
for the Secretary of Commerce, when
Is 20 more than the majority OF oaa
necessary to nominate. Hence work
sees Hoover victor on Ballot NO. J..
AL Smiths star~gazers haven't as yet
nominated the governor on the first
ballot. but they claim there will be no
more than three bailots~-if that many.
before the 734 two-thirds vote Is rolled
up for the idol of Manhattan.
~
AS the storm before the battle grows
I'm intensity. two eminent names inquire
prominently In Republican calculations
Coolidge and Mellon. Though there
isn't fragment Of evidence 10 support
ii funless Ii be that the President has
resumed handshaking with children AZ
MONDAY reception, 10 the proletariatl
draft Coolidge talk Is again rife and
irrepressible. Perhaps Senator FeSs'
selection as Kansas City keynoter
started IT, At any rate. It's going on
once more The rising tide OF pre-con :
vention Smith favor is undoubtedly
contributing It's share TO the draft-Cool~
idQe recrudescence. Republicans recog~
nlze the indispensability Of New York
in their November electoral column,
Coolidge -drafters have always used as
their most potent argument the con-
tentton that the President Is the only
Republican who can nnquestionably
stop" Smith in his own state.
So
Secretary Mellon has bounded into
the pre-Kanaas City picture as the deus
ex machina who IL 10 name the Repub~
llcan nominee. The ''machina" Is the
Pennsylvania MACHINE, which Uncle
Andy" bestrides Talk Is persistent that
the keystone god" viii al psychology
cal moment step out Of hts machine
and bestoW Pennsy'g 10 votes for this OF
that candidate, whereupon deadlock
convention viii proceed 10 choose as
standard bearer the man OF Mellon y
choice. As 10 all this, the Treasury
chief out-sphinxes the Sphinx. He has
a "preferenee," but, though Hoover
leaders, i0Wden leaders, Dawes leaders,
Watson leaders and Con leaders would
give their respective shirts to know
who 1t Is. the secret cannot be PRED
loose. Some say Mellon IL for Hoover,
others aIlege he has long been Y1ealous"
of his cabinet colleague and resented
uooyer's alleged poaching or other de-
partmental preserves. still others de"
clare Mellon is incurably anti~iOWden
and anti Dawes on the McNary~ Haugen
heresy. BE these things as they may,
pogaiu Of the moment assigns him the
0mnip0tent role al Kansas CITY. II was
that other Pennsylvania boss" bnies
penrose, who decided the issue aa CHI
cag0 IN 1870.
AL Smiths royal progress through the
dry. Protestant, antieTammany, anti~
urban West In the Washington Mnnn~
ment Of the political situation Within
week the New Yorker boWled over n
dry Catholic native son tWalshl In the
wisconsin primaries and q dry protess
tant fav0rite son tMeredithl In Iowa,
THE impreRaiveness Of these victories
ID not underestimated by Smiths Dem~
oDralle rivals. Their belief all along
has been lhat while the governor would
easily win thc wei East and North, esne-
oiAlly where the Catholic element IA
atrong, his troubles would set IN nul
where the West begins. walt Illl you
hear from the corn belt the alfalfa
bell, The wheat belt and ths other rural ,,
belts remote from the anDplng sidewalks
of New York. cr0nned ths anti
smilhilea, "and We shall see what va
hall seei" What they lave seen II
| states like Minnesota, Wlheanstn, Town
49, la ana al1.ilIL IaaL aIa AAlnlaaaLna Al.