Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-14
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

ok MANN SObA1VANs
lTHE position Of the Democrats
with respect to prohibition-and
the choice of the next Demo-
L cratic Presidential candidate
with respect to the same issue
permits fairly simple statement.
The Democratic party, nationally,
seems destined to go veto go wet in
the complete sense of coming out for
the fiat, unqualified repeal of the pro-
| hibition amendment to the Constitu-
ton. The forces working that way are
extremely powerful.
The official party managers are de-
termined that the party shall take the
wet position. Perhaps the word de
| ternined" conveys an unfair implica-
ton. 1t might be more accurate to say
that the party managers are convinced
that an overwhelming majority of
Democratic voters in the country as a
whole favor the wet position. Apart
/ from National Chairman Raskob's per-
! sonal wet attitude, or the personal wet
attitude of the other national officials
4 Of the party, the plain fact, apparent to
them, and juStifying them, is that the
State organizations of the Democratic
party have gone wet in practically every
one of the largest States, excepting
Texas. The Democratic State organi-
/ K,
jersey Pennsylvania, Massachusetts,,
Illinois, Connecticut, Wisconsin and in
some smaller States. In Ohio, while
the Democratic party organization did
not formally go wet, 1t nominated and
! succeeded in electing a wet candidate
/ for United States Senator.
! The sum of this is that 1t is fair to
estimate that Democratic State organi-
cations representing fully ten million
votes have gone wet-as against Demo-
cratic State organizations which remain
dry In States that do not aggregate
over five million votes. From that, the
fair and justified inference Is that in
the next Democratic National Conven-
ton something like two-thirds of the
delegates will be wet-wet in the sense
OF standing for fiat repeal of the
eighteenth amendment.
Strenuous Opposition Faced.
Nevertheless there is going to be
strenuous opposition from the Demo-
cratic drys, in the South and elsewhere.
The following quotation is from a man
nationally recognized as a powerful
! Democratic leader. He says:
You may be sure theNdry Democrats
are not going to be quiet and permit
any repeal plank to go in the platform
If Mr.. Raskob and his associates think
they can get in such plank without a
row resembling that Charleston con-
vention of 1860, they are much mis-
taken. This will be true of every
Southern State from Maryland all
around to California, and in addition
Kansas, Indiana and other Western
States, with help from parts of other
States"
This spokesman adds: But 1t is toe
soon yet to draw the lines and to draw
the fire."
The Charleston Is. c. convention
OF 1860, alluded to by this dry spokes-
man, was the one that literally dis
solved into two factions. The larger
faction adjourned to meet later at Bal.
timore, the other at Richmond In the
end, two separate Democratic tickets
were nominated. All this is history,
now 70 years old. In this present year,
1880, one who talks with dry Demo-
cratic leaders is surprised at the fire.
quency of illusions to the Charleston
convention" and OF hints that it may
be duplicated in 1882
In line with the utterance quoted
above from a dry Democratic leader,
several representatives of the dry wing
OF the party are now at work in an eff
within the party. They are trying,
among other lines of effort, to bring
about conference of dry Democrats to
be held probably in Atlanta some time
IN late January. They have a slogan
The Saving of the South for Prohibi-
ton" or Saving the Eighteenth
Amendment by the South" The dry
Democratic leaders engaged in bringing
about this conference get almost un-
limited encouragement from Demo-
cratic dryS in the South and elsewhere
who are not active in politics AS re-
spects dry Democrats who are in poll
tics, who are holding Office, they get
some encouragement but not a great
deal. The dry Democrats who are in
office tend to be Democrats first and
drys afterward. They think of any OPP
position to the national wet trend of
the party as being in the nature of
throwing a monkey wrench into the
machinery" They think the Demo-
cratic party is headed toward national
success, toward electing Democratic
President in 1882. Thinking that, they
hesitate to promote cleavage.
In short, any fight by the dry Demo-
Gratis to prevent the party as a whole
from going wet is deferred by what we
may speak Of as 1.-The cohesive power of
the expectation OF getting the offices"
Dry Democrats Need Leader.
To speak of opposition by the dry
Democrats to the party going wet is to
come at once to the matter of the presi-
Dental nomination. The prospect of
success for the dry Democrats is closely
tied up with, is almost wholly depend
ent upon, the prospect of their having
one outstanding leader around whom to
rally, the prospect of having a candi-
date Of their own for the presidential
nomination,
If the dry Democrats go into the next
national convention merely as a diff
fused group lacking any one man
around whom to center, they are likely
to fail. The dry Democrats had fully a
third Of the delegates in the Democratic
National Convention of 1928, but they
! did not prevent the nomination of Gov.
Smith. In every Democratic National
Convention it is technically fact that
one-third the delegates can exercise a
veto power upon the presidential nomi-
nation; because in the Democratic party.
unlike the Republican rule, it takes the
votes of two-thirds to nominate In
practice, however, the one-third of the
delegates are not effective-are unable
to exercise their veto power-unless they
have one outstanding candidate of their
around uyi7NYa than A.