Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-22
BY MARK SULLIVAN.


~ NE =: night EI,t, this 1s month , sx-sens.
tens s..o, Of thousands {. q fellow !.
Sedalia, together with q Ma
tion-wide radio audience, with the
most enlivening political grafton of old
fashioned sort, that had been heard In
the country since the prime Of william
Jennings Bryan. Reed exercised to the
full the franchise always possessed by
the party out Of power, to "denounce
and deplore." (The party in power,
naturally, having the exclusive fran
with-prides.O There has rarely been
so wholesale a denunciation as ex-
Senator Jim's. He denounced the tariff
and the radio trust, the naval treaty
and the Anti-Saloon League. OF the
latter he said, in one of those fine old
fashioned sentences that give a thrill
to the susceptible. They promised a
millennium of virtue; they have given
us q saturnalia of vice" The Missouri
and Secretary Mellon, the march of
monopoly" and the banks and trust
companies; the chain stores and, nat-
urally, the Republican party. Elk
Senator Jim even denounced without
naming them, some persons very prom
inent In his own Democratic party,
political tugglers" who are "seduced
by the hope Of temporary victory into
the approval of false doctrines and
makeshift expedients." The common
Interpretation was that this particular
dirty look" from Reed was directed at
those Democrats--they are quite ex-
allied in rank-who dictated that a
si-protective-tariff plank should be
written into the last Democratic ma
tional platform. The writer of this
article knows who that was, but If
Senator Jim would not mention any
names, obviously the present writer
should be even more cautiously reticent.
Differences In Effect.
To the writer of this article Reeds
speech had two main points of interest.
One was its seeming disproof of q re-
cent theory about the effect Of the
radio on national politics. The theory,
growing up during the eight or nine
years since the radio became common
has been that oratory-that Is, emo
tional oratory as distinguished from
plain Statement-must become an OBJ
Solete art; that an Grafton which gives
agreeable thrills to q mass of men to-
gether In hall, gives no thrill at ali
to an individual listener sitting by the
on the assumption that thousand per-
sons sitting elbow to elbow in a room
is one kind of audience, which as q
mass can be stirred by emotion; but
that a thousand persons sitting sep
arately, each in his own home, is ar
audience not subject to mass psy.
| chology, and, therefore, is a little dis.
gusted, rather than thrilled, by emo,
tional oratory. Upon this theory hai
been erected another, namely, that {
new type Of statesman would come int
vogue with the presence of the radio
as campaign mechanism; that mer
making very plain speeches, like, fol
example, Grover Cleveland, would pros.
| per, while the sky-roarink, emotiona
| type would be eclipsed.
The theory seemed not to be borne
out In the case of Senator Reeds
speech. Most of the persons within the
writer's acquaintance who listened to
it over the radio thought 1t was quite
| agreeable.
And yet 1t is hard to tell. Would
any one actually cast his vote, one way
or the Others because Of that scintil-
lating TRADE?
Importance Of Headlines.
The other outstanding and important
in a particular way-aSpect Of Reed;
| speech, was the headlines in the news.
papers the following morning. Ir
many newspapers the headlines, anc
in some text, described Reed as ar
aSpirant for the Democratic presi.
Dental nomination and his speech q.
q bid for 1t.
Both statements were grotesque
Readers-and apparently there are
many Such-who wish to be well in.
formed about the Democratic nationa
situation, can safely begin by croSsinG
Reed off the list of the possibilities
Reed himself knows he is not posi-
bility, and for that reason is, of course
not an aspirant; If he were an as.
pirant, quite possibly he would no
have made so good a speech, for as.
pirantS are cautious. "cagey." A mar
who thinks he has chance to get TIT
presidential nomination in either party
rarely ever throws all his inhibitioni
to the wind, rarely opens the throttle
and says exactly what he thinks o.
feels about practically every pertinent
question under the sun.
Reed has never been q presidentia
possibility, though it is a fact he wa,
an asptrant In 1928. That 1923 episode
was not happy enterprise for Reef
when he tried, rather desperately, tx
slip In as a compromise between thu
wet Gov. Smith and the dry (who wa!
the dry contender against Smith fol
the Democratic nomination in 1925
How many readers, offhand, can re.
member his name?) That 1928 cpl
sode alone is enough to rule Reed ou