Evening star., 1931-06-21
BY THEODORE C. wALLEN.

A LBERT CABELL RITCHIE, four
~ times elected Governor of Mary
"A land, Southern gentleman by
"A lineage, practical politician by
experience, will have to be taken
into account as q presidential candidate
when the Democratic national conven-
tion meets in June.
Not only because he has won the
extraordinary honor of three-re-elec-
tions for Governor in a State where
such a thing has heretofore been
deemed out of the question, but Gov.
Ritchie is entitled to distinct place
in the list of the real possibilities for
the presidential nomination of his
party.
Though referred to by some as little
more than possibility as a compro-
mise selection in case OF prolonged
deadlock, this assessment does not do
justice to the forceful. attractive and
able Maryland Governor. Almost idol
lied by his Democratic co-workerS and
hackers in his own State. with a wide
national acquaintance, Gov. Ritchie is
openly seeking the presidential nomi-
nation and for months his friends have
been bestirring themselves in num-
Der of States. True, the Governor has
not formally avowed himself candi-
date, but neither in Maryland nor else
where does any one doubt he is in quest
Of the nomination or that his name will
go into the primaries and the conven-
ton.
He Expresses His Convictions.
A winning personality, beliefs and
convictions which he is not afraid to
express, a remarkable capacity for vote
getting combined with that good for
tune which has been his all the way
alN - .~(I A1lfw o. L..
taken into account In any consideration
chances. 1t is generally conceded that
he Is a potential compromise selection.
His admirers in Maryland and else
where see nothing improbable or un-
likely in the idea that Maryland, My
Maryland" will be the favorite tune In
the White House on March 4, 1888, and
they are profoundly convinced that If
Ritchie, who looks the part. should ever
be elected President, he viii act the
President and measure up fully to the
great requirements of the ONCE.
It has not escaped national attention
at the recent Governors conference at
French Lick, Ind. that Gov. Ritchie
was not only hailed as presidential
possibility. but that he was one of the
Governors, as well as Clifford Pinchot,
who refused to be silenced and muzzled.
He insisted on discussing what he called
the "real issues" and In doing SO
stressed unemployment and also pro-
hibition. Standing by his well known
views on prohibition, he held that If
the prohibition question was returned
to the States. where it belonged, it
would help solve the tax burden by
lifting automatically a vast load from
the backs of labor, industry and agri-
culture.
OF course, Gov. Ritchie was not ad-
vancing this doctrine In the expecta-
ton that he was going to convert the
Governors Conference any more than
Gov .Pinchot hoped he would get the
Governors to dash out and make a
crusade against the private power and
utility interests. The Maryland exec
utive, perhaps inspired by the shade of
the late TON" Taggart, who must
have been listening about in his favor
ite haunts, was engaged in speaking to
the American people and doing so with
the Democratic National Convention
and the 1882 presidential campaign in
mind.
These are the days when the makers