The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-05-19
ROUT OF C. 0. P.
IS THREATENED
BY PROHIBITION
Blow Falls After 10 Years
of Dodging; Dangerous
Breaks in Party.
SENATE RULE PERILED
Wet Democrats Expected to
Win Massachusetts and
New Jersey.
SENATE RULE PERILED

By ScrfDps-HOf5drd Newspaper Autdnce
WASHINGTON, May 19.-With
the Republicans badly split on the
prohibition question in many states,
national G. o. P. leaders today
faced the prospect that this issue
may at least prove as disastrous to
them as it has to the party of Al
Smith and Bishop Cannon.
For ten years the Republicans
have confined this controversial
question to limited area, while the
Democrats have suffered reverses in
state and national contests through
failure to compose their differences.
But now it has broken out in the
Republican camp like a political
plague. Everywhere G.. o. P. STRAIT
egistS look, they see outstanding
party spokesman squaring off for
a battle and adopting an entirely
different attitude from that ex-
pounded by President Hoover and
the national administration.
In view of the apparent growth of
anti-prohibition sentiment revealed
in magazine and newspaper polls,
and at hearings before congressional
committees, the Republicans may
suffer the loss of half a dozen SEN
ate seats and a score or more in the
house over this nonpartisan prob
lem
Party Lines Broken
Party lines are expected to be
shattered more than ever before,
and the prohibition controversy, to-
gether with discomfort over econo-
mic conditions and the proposed
tariff measure, may be the means
of giving the Democrats control of
the senate.
The battle royal, of course, will
be staged in New Jersey, where Rep
resentative Franklin w. Fort, close
personal friend of the President, is
seeking the Republican senatorial
nomination as a dry. Another
trusted Hoover conf1dant, AmbaSsa-
dor Dwight w. Morrow, is running
as a wet, while ex-senator F'reling-
huysen, whose business associate,
E. G. Jameson of New York, con-
tributed $4,000 to help elect Hoo
yer, is campaigning on a modifica-
ton platform.
With the Republican drys out
numbering the vets, and with two
men splitting the ants vote, OBJ
servers generally give Fort an ex-
cellent chance to win the nominal
ton. But they also predict the de-
feat of any dry candidate by Alex
ander Simpson, who will be the
Democratic nominee.
Democrats Will Win
Election of a Democratic senator
from Massachusetts, is virtually
conceded as a result of the Repub-
lican split in that state. William
M. Butler, former national chair
man, has announced himself dry in
his campaign for the senate nom
nation, but he will have a wet OPP
ponent.
The return to the senate of Peter
Gerry, Democrat, is looked for IN
the wet state of Rhode Island,
where Senator Metcalf is up for re-
election. Gerry usually wins in oil
years, and. like Massachusetts,
Rhode Island swung into the Smith
column two years ago.
Another titanic struggle Is set Tor
Illinois. with ex-senator J. Ham
Lewis, wet Democrat. making the
race against Representative Ruth
Mccormick, who has declared her
self a dry. Although Illinois is nor
mally Republican by 100000 votes,
the vets are believed to outnumber
the drys, and Lewis is given an out
side chance for victory.
Though hardly expecting victory,
leading Republican vets are barn
storming through Pennsylvania oil
behalf of Francis H. Bohlen, the
wet candidate for the senatorial
nomination against Senator Grundy
and Secretary Davis in the election
Tuesday.