Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-06-23
SM|TH|TES TO TAKE
HOUSTON BY CHARM
Convention Motto to Be
''CaIm, Consideration
and Confidence"
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
.spatch to The Star.

special DlSpatcn TO Inc star.
HOUSTON, Tex, June 23.-Al
Smiths board of strategy has decided
to carry the convention by charm in
stead of taking 1t by storm. Unlike the
Hoover steam roller at Kansas City,
the Smith chariot in Houston will be
machine of magnanimity. 1t will
neither speed nor run over anybody
1t will conciliate, not antagonize. Its
motto is to be: Calm, consideration
and confidence" 1t expects logs to be
thrown across its path, but its plans
call for relatively short journey to
the appointed destination. BY the time
it arrives there, the Smith managers
believe that everybody worth while in
the convention will be aboard and that
thenceforward 1t will be bandwagon
from which only the sweet, If unusual,
strains of Democratic harmony can be
heard.
Every Smith-authorized gesture and
action at Houston from now till the
final ballot is taken will be distinguished
by these tactics. The first official indi-
cation of them is the knightly manner
in which the national committee S
handful of contested seats is being
handled. AS compared to the 70-odd
contests settled roughshod by the
Hoover controlled committee on creden-
tials at Kansas City, there are only four
or five delegate controversies in
Houston. A couple of them are in
Pennsylvania. one originates in the
District of Columbia and a fourth con-
Germs the Panama Canal Zone A sub
committee of the national committee
has quietly settled the whole business
in advance and the bigger body will
ratify the findings as soon as possible.
Costello Group Wins.
The status quo will be maintained in
the first and fifth Pennsylvania dis
tricts, the elected Costello delegation
from the District of Columbia will be
seated and the Panama squabble will be
ironed out by compromise, A fifth
threatened contest, concerning the
charge that John O'Donnell. Demo-
cratic county chairman of Philadelphia
County, is in effect Vare-Democratic
bipartisan delegate at Houston, will be
softly smoothed over.
The Smith captains are undoubtedly
in sufficiently strong control to exercise
their will all along the line, but they
will do so with conspicuous restraint
No attempt is to be made to force mat
ters in the Smith interest at any stage
Two important appointments destined
To influence the course of the conven-
ton from the outset have been public
property for a long time-Claude G
Bowers of New York and Indiana to be
keynoter and John w Davis of New
York to be chairman OF the committee
on resolutions. Both Bowers and Davis
are pro-Smith.
The temporary chairman will. of
course. not sound the Smith tocsin,
when he turns loose the batteries of the
Bowers eloquence on June %, but his
outline of the Democratic party's op-
portunity in 1928 is sure to suggest
candidatorial clothes which will fit AL
Smith. Davis familiarity with the
Smith views on platform planks Is I'M
rivaled by that of any man in the con-
vention. The brilliant West Virginian-
New Yorker, who Is still the titular
! leader of the party. is relied upon by
the Smith camp to model the knotty
prohibition and farm relief planks on
lines that will be as weather-proof in
the urban industrial North and East as
In the agricultural West and South.
Davis is seasoned diplomat and law
yer, Smithites have complete faith in
his capacity to serve their cause har-
moniously
When the convention gets down to
its real business. that of nominating
candidates for President and Vice
President, the moderation policy of
Smiths cohorts Is designed to be par
icularly impressive. They seem to be
bent upon reversing the Hoover order
of things at Kansas City. There the
Californian decided that rushing tactics