Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-12
The Political Mill
By G.. Could Lincoln.

National interest is focused on the
New Jersey senatorial primary. which
takes place Tuesday. And chiefly this
interest lies IN the struggle between
wet and dry forces for supremacy. Am
bassador Dwight w. Morrow, since his
opening campaign speech declaring
against national prohibition and for the
control of the liquor traffic by the
States, has become the great wet
hope" He has given the Republican
vets the country over thrill. They
see in him a possible national leader.
The Republican vets have been In the
minority, not only nationally, but, gen
orally speaking, in the individual States.
Jersey, as a matter of fact, is one OF
the few, very few, States which have
elected Republican vets to the Senate
in recent years.
But Just when the stage seemed all
set for a struggle for the Republican
senatorial nomination between two vets,
as they have been dubbed-Mr. Morrow
and former Senator Joseph S. Freling-
hllysen. at one time dry-Representa
tive Franklin Fort leaped into the fray
as a dry" The fat was in the fire, and
all South Jersey, where Republicans are
principally dry. was ablaze And now
the race is said to be between Mr.. Nor
row and Mr.. Fort, with the wet strength
split because of the candidacy of Mr..
F'relinghuysen. In Jersey the sentiment
is predominantly wet. 1t has been
proved at the polls many times, despite
the fact that President Hoover, run
ming as a supporter of the eighteenth
amendment, defeated Al Smith, the wet
Democratic candidate for President, two
years ago. A lot of things besides the
wet question were involved in that cleo
ton. One of them was the fact that
the country was running along on an
even keel, with the people generally
prosperous. The cry was, Don't upset
the apple cart!" No Democrat could
have carried Jersey under such cir
cumstances.
The question which is to be settled
next Tuesday is whether there are
enough drys among the Republicans in
Jersey to put across Mr.. Fort. deSplte
the wetness of Mr.. Morrow and OF Mr..
Frelinghuysen and the national reputa-
ton of Mr. Morrow. Incidentally, MI;
Morrows reputation is more national
than Statewide. There are plenty OF
voters in New jersey who are mucn
more familiar with a mug OF beer than
with Mr.. Morrow's record as an All
bassador to Mexico
Mr.. Morrow has the Organization"
back of him. The organization was
bent on defeating the senatorial aSpl,
rations of Mr.. Frelinghuysen and settled
on Morrow to turn the trick. 1t IS the
dry Mr.. Fort who has threatened 70
upset the organizations calculations. IL
is a fact, however, before Mr.. Morrow low
got into the race at the request OF the
organization the leaders were very mucn
afraid that MI Frelinghuysen could not
be defeated. The former Senator mad
been working for more than year 10
build up an organization OF his own.
Reports were to the effect he was en-
tirely liberal in meeting campaign ex-
penditures.
If Mr.. Morrow wins, the wet cause Will
receive a big boost, 1t will be widely
/ heralded as victory over the drys. on
the other hand, If Mr. Morrow loses, the
Ambassador will go into a political
eclipse and the vets will suffer the hui
initiation of having a foremost potential
leader of their cause defeated in State
which is supposed to be wet and when
has had wet Republican Senators in the
recent past. So both sides are working
tremendously hard. Mr. Fort has sought
to bring the Hoover administration into
the picture. He claims that Mr.. Nor
row and Mr.. Frelinghuysen have de-
serted the President in his stand for
| the eighteenth amendment. He insists
I they have drawn away from the Re
publican national platform of 1928,
which pledged the G.. o. P. to uphold
and to enforce the eighteenth amend
ment.
The wet Republicans in New York
and elsewhere have caused the drys
some uneasiness by threatening to put
up wet independent Republican candi--
dates for Congress in districts and
States where Republican drys have held
Office. If the wet Republicans follow
such a course they will simply be max
ing the drys take little of their own
medicine. The drys appeared to be-
lieve that the wet Republicans would
remain loyal to party even If the can
didates nominated continued to be bone
dry. But the dry Republicans them
selves did not, play the game that way:
For example, in New York in 1926 they
put up a dry independent Republican
to take a fail out of the wet Senator
Wadsworth They polled 100000 votes
for their dry candidate and brought
about the election of wet Democrat in
his place Now the wet Republicans are
suggesting that they might force few
wet Democrats into Congress by placing
wet Republican candidates in the field
10 OJtlJ bIlC NODCs AilSoC
vets are becoming almost as clever at
the game of politics as the drys have
been in the past. The Democrats should
worry, particularly the wet ones.
x X X
The drys are claiming that despite all
the noise about wet sentiment they have
had no reverSeS at the polls so far this
year. They point to Mrs. McCormick's
victory in the Illinois senatorial primary
But Mrs. Mccormick was running against
a dry, with a drier record than her
own. The wet and dry test in Illinois
is to come in November when Mrs. Nc
Cormick meets the wet Democratic
Senator j. Ham" Lewis. They, the
drys. are pointing with pride to the
TACT that Clifford Pinchot won the guber-
material nomination in Pennsylvania and
that he is an ardent dry. On the other
hand the wet vote in Pennsylvania was
split between Phillips. an out-and-out
wet, and the moist Mr.. Brown. HAD
Mr.. Brown in the beginning declared
himself real wet. he might have beaten
Pinchot hands down. but he straddled.
Furthermore, out in the State of Wash
ington, the State Republican convention
went wet and adopted a wet platform.
That means something, probably a good
deal more than the nomination of Pin
chot in three-cornered race in Penn
oyINdlIld' AAlNl llOW CIlc IbSplDLlCeah "OCo
are proposing to support the Democratic
nominee for Governor in Pennsylvania
because he is a wet.
X X X
Senator William j. Harris of Georgia
Is to have opposition in the Democratic
primary for the senatorial nomination
after all. Former Gov. John M. Slaton
has announced his candidacy for the
nomination, although it was expected
means a bitter fight. although Senator
Harris friends insist he will win re-
nomination. Slaton doubtless will have
the support of former Gov. Hardwick,