Evening star., 1928-11-11
DEMOCRAT future
DEPENDS ON SELVES
Party Will Live and Try to
Win Back Southern Anti
Smith Boilers.
Continued From First Page.)

| tNUIlt FTOIH FIISb EdBc.J
politically in this country, with all tbs
prcgressives in one party and all the
conservatives In another. But wher
you find practically all of the Republic
an progressives supporting Mr.. Hoover
and supporting him strongly, in the re-
cent campaign, such talk just now
| seems bit idle.
One of the first tasks of the Demo
Gratis will be to win back If they can
the four Southern States which have
gone Republican in this election and
! these border States which hitherto have
been inclined to go Democratic. Right
there is where the attitude of the Re-
publicans toward the South becomes
important. There are Republican lead
erS Who believe that, having once
broken into the solid South, the Ee-
publtcans, by wise procedure. can hold
much CT the ground they have gained
! in the South. They see the Southern
economic problems as similar to these
Of the North and East. II the F:cpub-
!ican administrator gives the South a
square deal during the next four years,
an administration calculated to please
them just as much as Democratic ad-
1 iALlLlAoGA utAOil AlAS14b pASdoS t4lSJIl, ~ Is
felt that the Republicans may have a
chance to hold on to some of thu
ground they have gained in that
section.
The first test will come two years
hence when another Congress is elected.
The Republican sweep in this election
carried into Office two Republican cam
didates for the House in North Carolina,
/ three Republican candidates for the
House in Virginia, three Republican
candidates for the House in hitherto
Democratic Oklahoma, which had previ-
ously only one Republican member of
the House. The Republicans picked up,
| too six seats that were formerly held
| by Democrats from Kentucky and six
seats that were formerly held by Demo-
Gratis from Missouri, and one seat that
was held by a Democrat from Maryland.
In their efforts to defeat Gov Smith
these Southern Democrats threw into
the discard these Democratic members
of the House.
Suggests Sout.leTner in Cabinet.
One of the Republican leaders. who
! has travelled in the South during the
recent campaign and who believes that
the Republicans have chance to hang
on to some of their gains, at least, sug-
geStS that the Hoover cabinet should
contain member from the South, pref
erably a Hoover Democrat He sug-
gests also that in building up the Re-
publican organizations in the various
Southern StateS full recognition be
given to the Hoover Democrats and that
the places of leadership in the organi-
cations be filled by white men and not
by any colored men. Political recog-
Af INa y,rto
preferable in Illinois, Indiana and other
States outside of the South, in his
opinion.
Southern Democrats say, and with
much truth, that the revolt of their
people against the Democratic national
ticket was due to their dislike OF the
Democratic nominee for President and
their determination that no wet and
no Catholic should sit in the White
House. They say, now that the election
is over, that the wet and dry issue was
more important in the campaign in the
South than the religious issue. They
believe that the tendency will be for
the anti-Smith Democrats and the
Hoover Democrats to swing back to
their old party allegiance, now they nave
helped to accomplish the defeat OF Gov.
Smith. And this, too, undoubtedly Is
olina. the veteran leader who stood out
against Smith and used his influence
against him in the Tar Heel State, can
not be suspected of Republican lean
ings. His contention has been that ne
was fighting to preserve the Democratic
nartv. Thomas B. Love of Texas, an
other veteran Democratic leader, who
aided materially in carrying the Lone
| Star State against Smith, is another
who can be expected to fall back into
his old party now.
The Republicans admit that the older
generation of Democrats who supported
| Hoover in this campaign are not hKely
| to remain in the Republican party.
They are looking more hopefully, now
ever, to the younger Democrats ana 10
/ the business men, who see the needs OF
the South, growing tremendously In In
| dustry. ana who see also that these
needs can be cared for by Republican
! administration just as well as the needs
OF the North and East.
Simmons Seen Safe.
Here and there has been suggestion
that the Democrats in the Senate may
undertake to chastise Senator Simmons
because he would not support Gov.
Smith, but worked against him. But in
the opinion of some of the Democratic
| leaders this would be rank folly. An
attack upon Simmons, an effort to drive
him out of the party, would be inter-
preted as an attack upon the thousands
of Democrats who, like Senator SIM
mons, opposed the election Of Gov.
Smith III the South.
These Eouthern Democrats have
been off the reservation" an influential
Democrat said to me. why should we
act so as to keep them off? 1t would De
| far better to seek to bring them back
into the party. II they stay off the
reservation long enough they may never
return"
| Will the Democrats. nominate wet
candidate for President four years from
now? That will depend upon how pro-
| hibition works out under the Hoover
administration, and whether sentiment
for modification of the dry laws in
creases. The defeat of Gov. Smith and
of many wet Democratic Senators Is
hailed now as great victory for the
prohibitioniSts. Certainly the Southern
Democrats do not care to see another
wet nominated, with the recent record
| IN their minds. On the other hand,
Gov. Smith polled great vote in the
wet States If the North and East, par
| ticularly in Massachusetts, New York,
| Rhode Island and Connecticut. He failed
| to carry two of these States, it is true,
but cry Democrat probably would
have failed by an even greater adverse
vote. If possible, it is likely the Demo-
| oratS will Spek tn avoid making the wat