Evening star., 1928-06-07
THIRD PARTY SEEN
AS FARM PROTEST
Norris and PinChot Mention
ed as Nominees-WiSCon-
sin as Origin.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

,
AS Republican and Democratic hosts
! are mobilizing for and converging, re-
spectively. upon Kansas City and Hous-
! ton, definite word blows in on a West
ern breeze that a third party may be
! looked upon as a certainty. 1t VIII be
| essentially and almost exclusively
f! farmers party.
! The recent Chicago indignation meet
| ing. attended by corn belt spokesman
| in the white heat that followed Presl-
| dent CoolidgeS almost savage veto OF
! the McNary- -Haugen bill, is said def
/ nitely to have determined upon that
| course. Senator George w. Norris of
! Nebraska. or former Gov Clifford
! Pinchot of Pennsylvania-both Republi-
can progressives-are named as the
! likeliest candidates for President to be
nut in the field by the third partyites.
1t is described as within the range of
possibilities that the ticket might be
Norris and Pinchot.'
McMullen Is Pivot.
Gov. Adam McNIullen of Nebraska
appears to be the pivot around which
the agrarian political revolt is ranging.
His Office at the State Capitol, in Lin
coin, is 'deluged," according to the
writer's Western informantS, with writ
ten and tel 'aphed appeals from all
over the rural region. Whether Gov.
McNIullen'S cohorts actually carry out
their plans to storm" the Kansas City
convention in a mighty crusade of pro-
test against the Republicans farm pol
icy, or whether that spectacular project
is abandoned, the embittered West is
depicted as about to become an embat-
tied West
It seems to have been decided that no
Zip service" tributes or pledges to agri-
culture in either the Kansas City or
Houston platforms shall be held capa-
BILE of placating the farm community.
Proponents of the third party have
convinced themselves that If Hoover and
Smith are the rival nominees for PreSi-
dent they WILL in fact, be their own
platforms, on agriculture no less than
on prohibition The thought that ami
mates the group girding for an inde-
pendent presidential ticket is "a plague
on both the Republican and Democratic
houses" Hoover as the G. 0. P. cam
didate. will be accounted no less un-
acceptable to the agrarianS than Al
Smith, whom their spokesmer are CALI
ing "a Broadway farmer"-a shot at the
governors reputed purpose shortly TO
blossom out as a farm -reliever on near
NASCNdI y-f1duSSH l1IlSS.
Wisconsin Sentiment.
Tidings from Milwaukee indicate that
Wisconsin will be the incubator of the
third party. The Badger delegation at
Kansas City is pledged to Senator Nor
ris. the Nebraskans only support out
side of his own State The suggestion
is that President Coolidge, even though
not candidate for reelection, had ad-
vance reports of the Norris wisconsin
third party rumblings through former
Senator Lenroot. He thereupon chose
to go to the Lake Superior region with
the Summer White House principally in
order to discourage Wisconsin Repub-
licanS from organizing for mptinous po-
ltical action this year.
A Correlated reason was a desire, at
tributed to Mr.. Coolidge, to stem an
Al Smith tide in a Republican State
that is wet and extensively Roman
Catholic. The serious theory is now put
forth, on Milwaukee authority, that If
Calvin Coolidge is Summer vacationist
on Wisconsin soil, no worthwhile ele-
ment of Wisconsin Republicanism will
feel it meet and proper to foment a
third party move designed to Illustrate
G. O. P. success in the country at large
While the third-party proposition
hereinbefore discussed has its main
spring entirely in the farm country
certain Southern Democratic-Protes-
tant-dry elements have long been think
ing in similar terms. Former Repre-
sentative UpShaw, Democrat, of Georgia,
an ardent dry, is restlessly active along
those lines. He also represents the ele-
ment that sees cardinal-red at the
mere thought that Dixie Democrats
should be asked to vote for an AL Smith
ticket.
Farm Vote Is Objective.
The Western third-party fashioners
are apparently giving little heed to the
religious and prohibition issue that the
Smith candidacy would perSonify. Their
argument is that Catholics and vets
in city centers will be Offset, respec-
lively, by ProtestantS and drys in the
country centers pretty much all over
the United States. The third party is
to make dead set for the farm vote
and for the votes of all whose interests
or sympathies naturally incline in the
direction of agriculture.
Copyright. 1881