Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-06-22
HOUSTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC EILLIAM VILE.

The elephant and the donkey inhabit
widely separated provinces OF the ami
NAL kingdom, speaking politically as
| we'll as zoologically, but they are feed
| ing on strangely similar convention fod-
der this year. Kansas City and Hous-
| ton in other words have much in COM
mon. If you will read Smith" for
Hoover" into the story of events about
to transpire in Texas. you can easily
piece together narrative made out
of the same fundamental ingredients
from which history was written IN Mis-
souri,.
At Kansas City an Overwhelmingly
towering figure. expressed In terms OF
delegate strength, faced a so-calied.
but in fact absurdly disjointed. alliance
of antagonists. At Houston an equally
predominating personality, represented
by pledged support, confronts q nope
full but In reality powerleSs. combina-
tion of rivals. Last week 1t was a field
bent upon stopping Hoover Next week
1t will be field anxious to stop Smith.
| The analogy extends to platforms, KAN
sas City had Its cmbattled farmers.
Houston has its militant drys.
81
II is useful, for clarifying purposes, 10
mathematics and the logic of the situa-
ton Both are plain as a pikestaff
Smith needs 734 votes to make the
| grade that leads to nomination, George
| r. Van Nance, chairman of the Smith
| IRE convention activities" TO give that
sage and suave politician his official
| title. breezed into town Thursday with
/ the claim that the governor will open
| the ball with $50 votes. Before the
| convention Is more than one ballot
old. Pomercnes Ohio 48 and Wooden S
! Indiana 80 are expected to drop into
| the Smith basket. They will bring the
| total to 728. BY that time HuifS
Tennessee "a votes; Hitchcock's Is from
Nebraska and Ayres 20 from Kansas
should be piling up the bandwagon tai
/ ly: and then, as the Manhattan Island
ers calculate, the party will be o~er.
| y u
! This Ia the arithmetic of Houston
| from AL Smiths rosy standpoint. There
| is a different system OF reckoning IL
the camp which thinks the convention
! can and will be- deadlocked against tins
| governor They get that way by an1asS'
| ING the votes of the 10 more or less
solid South States. counting 22s. They
| add to 1t the votes OF the four border
States of West Virginia, Tennessee. Mis-
souri, and Oklahoma, despite the known
| existence OF Smith sentiment in all oil
| them. Their 90 votes bring conceiv-
| able deadlock" total Of 324, To tie ur
the convention by leaguing a one-thiro
| total OF 367 votes, another 43 Will still
be required but If any such amaigama
ton can be brought about, deadlock
would be just over the horizon.
| y
II there IL to be O dark horse al
! Houston holder OF the key to SIT
nation soluble only by nomination OF q
compromise candidate ~~- Jim" Reee
| doubtless Is that mythical person. Al
| this writing the Senator's demonstrated
strength is negligible. II amounts te
nothing but Missouris SO favorite~son
| votes Reeds propagandists claim sec
ond-choice strength In half dozen diff
| ferent Statcs~~Illinnis, Kansas, Okla
| homa, Pennsylvania and others. Their
| boast is that 1t will begin fiocking To
! the Missourian the moment the conVen-
| ton ia convinced Smith cannot attain
| his two-thirds, Reeds whole pre~con-
vention campaign his stubborn refusal
10 quit In the face of apparently insur-
| mountable Smith odds. has been based
on the possibilities OF Houston rather
than the probabilities.
y Il II
| So much for the addition, gubtrac-
| ton, division and multiplication OF
Houston~-necessaril inexact. What
strikes convention observers as far more
reliable In the logic In the Houston sit
uation A political babe In arms knows
that the logical thing for the Democrats
to do Is to nominate Smith. but what
they actually will do is decidedly an
other thing Charley" Curtis said to
this writer not long ago-~many weeks
before he dreamed Of becoming Herbert
Hoover's running mate-~thAt the princi-
pal asset ri the Republican party Is the
Democratic party. Since recent events
a. Kansas City. be II remarked In
passing q good many Democrats have
come 10 believe that the principal la28