Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-07-05
DEMOCRATS DOUBT
SOUTH WILL BOLT
Leaders Encouraged by Ac-
ton of Leaders in Cling
ing to Party.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

By FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
BY far the most encouraging develop.
ments from the Democratic standpoint
since Smith and Robinson were nomi.
mated, are authoritative assurances
from the South that Dixie will not bolt
the ticket. They come from the two
States where revolt seemed most prob.
ahle-Senator Tom Helms Alabama
and Senator Cole BleaSe'S South Caro-.
lima. In both cases, it was Gov. Smiths
fiat-footed advocacy of modified prohi-
bition, sprung upon the Houston con-
vention in its expiring moments, which
filled Democratic leaders with alarm
If either Alabama or South Carolina
Democrats were to lead third party
movement against Smith and Robinson
or organize q Stay-at-home vote as a
protest against their nomination, Dem
ocratic confidence of a solid South on
election day would be seriously under
mined The decision of JoSephuS DAN
iels of North Carolina and Gov Dan
Moody of Texas to boycott the rump
prohihitioniSt conference in Ashertlle
is in line with the word that comes
from Alabama and South Carolina,
Message from Alabama
From Alabama there reaches the
Democratic management message en-
titled we Predict" from the Montgom-
cry Advertiser, of which Frank P. Glass
former president of the American
Newspaper Publishers Association, is
the presiding genius. The Advertiser
prophesies. to quote its own words, that;
THE Governor of no Southern DEM
ocratic State will bolt Al Smith.
mo Senator from Southern DEM
ocratic State will bolt-with the pos
~st~ sNF
mo Congressman from Southern
Democratic State will bolt.
mo consequential Southern politician,
In Office or out, will bolt Smith.
No daily newspaper from the Demo-
cratic South-thcugh majority OF the
daily papers of the South are advocates
of prphibition-will bolt.
Not one weekly paper in hundred,
# that many, viii bolt.
only a few irreconcilable, highly
en1otionalized Protestant ministers will
call for a bolt and they will not get
far"
From South Carolina comes the in
fiuential voice of its leading newspaper.
the Charleston News and Courier, and
says that Southern prohibitioniStS, on
reflection, can and viii bring them
selves TO vote for Smith just because
they are conscientious prohibitionistS."
The News and Courier then proceeds
to show how South Carolina Democrats
have no other alternative, unless they
wish to blow up their own fort" by
turning the South Carolina Democracy
into an outright wet organization.
South Carolina Situation.
It says:
''voting against Smith. South Carolina
prohihitionists leave the Democratic
party. They leave it wet party, a
wet organization. They leave it under
absolute control of men and women
wig would repeal the prohibition laws
national and State. If the prohibit
tionists get out of the party, the vets
wiz be the State Democratic party
That win hardly be disputed AS long
as the State constitution of 1895 stands.
saloons cannot be restored in South
Carolina. Repeal or modification of the
Volstead law Cor Of the eighteenth
amendment1 would leave the State wide
prohibition laws of South Carolina I'M
touched. Gov. Smiths position is that
each and every State should be allowed
70 deal with the whisky traffic in its
own way. He Is the last man who would
interfere with the State laws
IF the protibitionisfs get out. of the
South Carolina Democratic party they
win thereby make the South Carolina
Democratic organization wet and start
night for the repeal of South Carolina
prohibition. VIII they do that? Not If
they are level-headed prohibitionists.
Though they persuade themselves that
they are majority and can control
south Carolina, they win not forget
that an organized wet party would
make the maintenance of prohibition
infinitely mole difficult than it is"
Conditions practically identical with
those prevailing in South Carolina exist
throughout all the Southern States A
DEMOCRATIC prohibitionist revolt against
the. Smith and Robinson ticket would
Undoubtedly lead to the foundation of
what Dixie Democrats call "a second
political party" in the South. They do
not acknowledge that the Republican
party constitutes "a second political
party In any tangible sense, at least as
far as its voting strength is concerned
BY whatever name boiling Democrats
might cal their organization, old-line
which stood by the national ticket
wouh be the regular Democratic or
gani1atton and be SO recognized. Pro-
hibitionist Democrats are being warned
that II there should ever be rival wet
and dry. Democratic parties In the
South, hterate and property-owning
colored voters would be solicited to Join
both organizations. Let prohibitionists
ask themselves whether coIored
voters, for the most part, would be wet
or dry" the Charleston News and
Courier suggests.
Summary Of Conditions.
The Charleston newspaper sumna-
rizes Southern conditions as follows:
Democratic prohibitionists have
everything TO lose. and nothing to gain.
by Voting against Smith. So doing.
they would blow up the fort in which
they are now intrenched and surrender
the site and the remaining foundations
Of It 10 their wet opponents. Only those
who are fanatical vets would be
delighted"
fCopyriaht. 1921
-
Life in isolated lighthouses Ia now
varied by radio, which brings in news
and music. Automatic lights, however,
are gradually causing the disappear
snce Of the picturesque figure Of the
lonely lighthouse keeper.