The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-06-23
KEEPING UP
With
THE NE WIS.
BY LUDWELL DENNY

HOUSTON, June 23.-The hys-
4 L terra has begun. Those shrill
days and conspiring nights in which
nervous delegates prepare for ma
tional political convention are upon
Houston.
Smith is stopped!'
Smith is stopped" It'll be an
other Madison Square Gardenl"
1--WE won't stand for any wet cans
didate."
So the talk drones on in hotel
lobbieS and rooms, an occasional
loud threat against Smith break
ing above the babble.
But these are women's voices
mostly. Women delegates with
women dry organization leaders.
They are excited. They believe the
fight will be won by talk and tears,
by demonstrations
Some of the men from dry south
ern States also decline in the high
voice Of the crusaders, saving the
land from 'the great evil" in the
person of the New York Governor.
Around the corner, these drys are
holding a continuous revival in
which Al is Knocked and defied as
the emnissary of demon rum.
The political chiefs, the Senators
and Representatives and national
committeeman who determine the
course OF a convention, are much
more subdued. Indeed they are so
quiet that hardly a dry politician
among them is beating the tom tom.
While the Hobbies talk the LIQUOR
issue, the big State politicians talk
harmony.
THERE is such a wide differences
Il between the history of the lit
tie delegates and dry lobbyists and
the serenity of the politicians that
one begins to suspect there may be
no witch-burning in Sam Houston
Hall after all. OF course, the drys
are going to do their best.
They advertise that young Dan
Moody, Governor of Texas, will lead
the hosts of the Lord" against this
1papaist from the sidewalks of New
York"
AS local paper puts it, "the New
YORK Governor looks like the man
OF the hour and the drys are look
ing for a quick draw by the bow
orator of the San Gabriel"
] QTrf
think 1t will take more than a quick
draw by boy orator. They be-
lleve Smith will be nominated.
probably on an early ballot, and the
most the drys could do would be
70 stir up so much bitterness that
ne would withdraw rather than ac-
cept the nomination from a divided
party doomed to defeat.
What the drys are excited about
is that reported II have not" state
ment by Smith in reply to the oues-
tlon whether he had changed his
views favoring modification of pro-
hibition provisions.
Just as the Kansas CITY Repub-
1can convention turned on the
Coondge phrase, 81 do not choose"
the Houston convention is. apt to
FOCUS on Smiths II have not"
This may be to the advantage of
Snith' rather than against him. as
his opponents think.
4
E1RST, the New York Govern.
L or's attitude is so we'll known
and the drys have tried so long to
use 1t against him, that the state
ment can hardly come as a shock to
anyone. 1t does indicate, however.
what even his enemies have not de-
MED, that Al is an honest man. He
is not ashamed of his convictions
and has no intention of concealinr
them for the purpose of political
expediency.
But the drys go much further in
interpreting The significance of this
statement. To them, it means
Smith is going to try to force a wet
plank through the convention.
If such were the case, Smiths
defeat would be probable either at
/ AAO0oIOAA VI III VIC Gl6CGlOQ.
But there is no evidence that the
New Yorker rates his liquor views
as more important than all the
other Democratic issues combined.
On the contrary, Smiths man.
ayers repeat that he favors a law
enforcement plank so long as the
law is on the statute books. They
point to his probity as Governor
OF New York as proof that as Pres
ident he would obey scrupulously
his oath to enforce the law.
But the New Workers agreed with
Senator Pat Harrison of MISSISSIPPI
pi, who is not nominally Smith
adherent, that the enforcement
plank should cover all laws, Gin
Guiding the prohibition laws, laws
against graft in elections and laws
protecting our natural resources
against corruption in public office"
1T is possible that Wednesdays
Il statement by Norman Mack, ma
tional committeeman from New
York, which precipitated this con-
vention excitement, may not have
been the unconscious blunder it apr
pears on the surface.
Mack said Smith favored modif-
cation, later saying he was only
voicing his own opinion The latter
came after George Van Nance,
Smith manager here, denied Mack
was authoized to speak for the Gov
ernor. Smiths statement followed
in support of Mack
Mack is not only an experienced
politician unaccustomed to making
such mistakes" but he is, in point
Of service one of the party's oldest